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 Public Utilities 
 and Progress 
 
 (Second Edition) 
 
 March 1, 1912 
 
 BY 
 
 H. M. BYLLESBY 
 
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 ^4 /a//: before the Commonwealth 
 Edison Company Section of the 
 National Electric Light Association 
 Handel Hall, Chicago, December 
 5 , 1911 
 
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 Henry M. Byllesby 
 
 PRESIDENT 
 
 H. M. BYLLESBY & COMPANY 
 Chicago 
 
Public Utilities and Progress 
 
 w lTH particular pleasure I respond 
 to the subject you have selected 
 for me. I entered the electrical side of 
 the public utility business over thirty 
 years ago. I entered it at about the 
 time that Mr. Edison had announced 
 to the world the inventions which his 
 unconquerable genius and industry 
 had achieved. I entered this business 
 at about the same time as your hon¬ 
 ored chief, Mr. Samuel Insull, and in 
 fact he and I were contemporaneously 
 fellow-employes of branches of the in¬ 
 dustries created by Mr. Edison. 
 
 It is a decidedly dangerous thing to 
 offer an old veteran an opportunity to 
 deal in reminiscenses. However, you 
 have taken this risk, you have invited 
 me to address you this evening, and 
 you must likewise take the conse¬ 
 quences. 
 
 I believe every new art, every new 
 industry, takes the direction of its 
 
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 Public Utilities 
 
 growth and that its subsequent fort¬ 
 unes follow along the lines which are 
 the natural results of the character of 
 its founders. 
 
 No industry has ever been more 
 fortunate in its founders than the 
 electrical part of the public utility busi¬ 
 ness. The great founders of this busi¬ 
 ness, of whom the pre-eminent chief is 
 of course Mr. Edison, working with 
 Mr. Coffin, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Insull, 
 Mr. Rice and innumerable others, all 
 established progress as their ideal. 
 
 Speaking as a veteran and with the 
 privileges that pertain to that inevit¬ 
 able class, I wish to add that all of 
 these great founders and leaders of the 
 electrical industry were actuated by a 
 conscientious, enthusiastic and loyal 
 devotion to their art supported by a 
 continuing and tireless industry, which 
 I believe has not had its parallel in the 
 history of anv other art or any other 
 industry. 
 
 These were all men, who, in the first 
 place, were endowed by nature with a 
 more than usual proportion of brains. 
 Beyond this, and without which their 
 
and Progress 
 
 / 
 
 brains would simply have resulted in 
 making them erratic geniuses, was an 
 absolute faith in the inventions and in 
 . the art, and collaterally with this was 
 
 their unremitting energy, courage and 
 industry. Any enterprise started by 
 men of this type could not fail to be 
 progressive. 
 
 The long distance from the electrical 
 generator of twenty or fifty horse 
 power, the crude apparatus, and the 
 short transmission distances of thirty 
 years ago, to the thirty thousand horse 
 power generator, the transmission 
 lines of over two hundred miles, the 
 single power house with a generating 
 capacity of approximately two hun¬ 
 dred thousand horse power, and the 
 present universality of the electrical 
 industry—the intimate extent to which 
 it enters into every detail of our mod¬ 
 ern life, of our modern civilization 
 is a road which has been marked with 
 painstaking effort, with a dogged de¬ 
 termination to overcome obstacles, and 
 with a continuing faith which has 
 rendered possible the business with 
 
 4 
 
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 Public Utilities 
 
 which you gentlemen are privileged to 
 occupy yourselves today. 
 
 I submit that this progress from the 
 laboratory experiment of thirty years 
 ago to the great commercial engine of 
 today is a progress which has not had 
 its parallel in the history of civiliza¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Public utilities are finally coming 
 into the position which, in fact, they 
 should always have occupied. Due to 
 the mistakes of the past, the newness 
 of the art, and the crudity in the early 
 stages of the apparatus and machinery 
 the public utility business was placed 
 before the public until very recently 
 in a very false position and was 
 thoroughly misunderstood. Today the 
 opinion of conservative, thoughtful, 
 fair minded men throughout the coun¬ 
 try is crystalizing into the belief which 
 is fast being put in practice by govern¬ 
 ing bodies, as well as by the thought 
 of the citizens themselves, that the 
 public utility should necessarily be a 
 regulated monopoly. 
 
 I think it is only justice to say to 
 you that in bringing around this better 
 
and Progress 
 
 9 
 
 feeling on the part of the public, in 
 bringing about the better relations be¬ 
 tween the public utility, its officers and 
 employes and the public and the 
 municipalities, no one in this wide field 
 has done more notable or more effect¬ 
 ive or more conscientious service than 
 the president of the companies which 
 you gentlemen serve. 
 
 Upon any thoughtful analysis a pub¬ 
 lic utility to fulfill its destiny in any 
 proper sense must necessarily be the 
 very essence, the pith and the spirit 
 of progress. In the interests which I 
 represent, and which lead me into all 
 parts of our great country, I have 
 found from an experience spreading 
 over thirty years that the entire tone 
 of a community, particularly those of 
 lesser size, from the standpoint of 
 whether or not that community is 
 to be a bright, live, progressive com¬ 
 munity, or on the contrary to be a 
 dead, stagnating, retroactive commun¬ 
 ity, will depend, and to a larger extent 
 than any of us realize, upon the man¬ 
 agement and the conduct of the util¬ 
 ities in that community. 
 
10 
 
 Public Utilities 
 
 In many notable cases I have had 
 the actual experience with the organi¬ 
 zation of which I am the head of 
 creating a renaissance, a new birth, 
 in a stagnant community by our 
 organization — actuated by industry, 
 equipped with experience, imbued with 
 high ideals—purchasing the utilities in 
 that given stagnating community, re¬ 
 organizing them, putting new life into 
 them, setting before the public correct 
 business methods, and treating the 
 public in a just and fair and responsi¬ 
 ble manner. I have seen communities 
 that appeared to be hopelessly dead 
 changed into bright, hopeful and 
 active communities simply by such a 
 reorganization in plant, and in man¬ 
 agement of the public utilities of that 
 community as I have endeavored to 
 describe to you. 
 
 Another point to which I wish to call 
 your attention is the fact, particularly 
 where the principal utilities in any 
 given community are consolidated, 
 that in nearly every case such a con¬ 
 solidated utility company becomes the 
 leading industry in that community. 
 
and Progress 
 
 11 
 
 It very frequently happens that in 
 point of gross income, in point of 
 dollars and cents flowing into its treas¬ 
 ury in any given year, it will have the 
 largest income in the given community. 
 Its influence is of a broad and far 
 reaching character. The utility enters 
 into the daily lives of the inhabitants 
 of any given community, goes into 
 their offices, into their homes, into 
 their places of amusement, into their 
 churches, and if that utility is operated 
 either as a clean, progressive, modern, 
 fair minded and just organization, or 
 if unfortunately it is conducted along 
 opposite lines, you will inevitably see 
 that community reflect which of the 
 two courses the public utility elects to 
 follow. I believe this statement cannot 
 be successfully challenged. 
 
 Ancillary to this is the fact that the 
 man who is at the head of that utility 
 in that town is ipso facto one of the 
 leading citizens of the town, if not the 
 leading citizen. Consequently upon 
 him rests the responsibilities that are 
 peculiar to this profession, which are 
 peculiar to the position which he occu- 
 
 4 
 
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12 
 
 Public Utilities 
 
 pies, and altogether serious and wholly 
 honorable. 
 
 Due to modesty, due to being im¬ 
 mersed in the perplexing and trying 
 details of this business, the manager 
 of the utility may not appreciate his 
 commanding position, but whether he 
 desires it or not he necessarily occupies 
 it in his community. He should recog¬ 
 nize it and so should all of his em¬ 
 ployes, and they should so govern 
 their conduct, first, on the part of 
 the manager because he has already 
 reached that commanding posit ion, and 
 secondly, on the part of his assistants 
 and employes, because they have rea¬ 
 son to believe that in the tremendous 
 growth and expansion of this business, 
 if they measure up to the opportun¬ 
 ities open to them, they will in a 
 greater or shorter time be occupying 
 the position which today is occupied 
 by the manager. 
 
 I think this thought is one which is 
 worthy of very serius consideration. 
 It is the thought which when believed 
 and appreciated will necessarily add to 
 
and Progress 
 
 13 
 
 the dignity and the responsibility of 
 the public utility manager and the 
 public utility servant. Each of you, 
 taking your inspiration from the head 
 of your organization and from your 
 various superior officers, should feel 
 that upon you rests responsibilities of 
 no ordinary nature. Whether you will 
 or no, you are necessarily in the public 
 eye, and judged by the entire experi¬ 
 ence of this industry, and provided 
 you are equal to your opportunities, 
 you will surely advance to greater 
 responsibilities and to greater promi¬ 
 nence as the older men from whom 
 you have taken your education and 
 your inspiration are called to move 
 further onto the firing line and to face 
 the common destiny of humanity. 
 
 Thus the moving forward step by 
 step of the entire organization to take 
 the places of those whose work is 
 finished, whose energies are no longer 
 called for, is forcing upon you younger 
 men the responsibilities of the solution 
 of the difficult problems of which you 
 will have but little conception until 
 
14 
 
 Public Utilities 
 
 you reach the responsibilities which 
 are before you, and which you will 
 reach if you are true to yourselves and 
 to the opportunities offered to you. 
 
 While pursuing this thought may 
 I call your attention, believing that 
 you agree substantially with what I 
 have stated, to the present condition 
 throughout our country of dissatisfac¬ 
 tion, of misunderstandings and un¬ 
 rest—a condition which if it is not 
 checked will go to greater lengths and 
 produce disaster. 
 
 This condition arises from many 
 causes. Perhaps the principal cause is 
 that in the rapid development of this 
 country and all of its industries, 
 notably and perhaps pre-eminently the 
 rapid development of all branches of 
 the public service business, we have 
 outgrown the former methods; we 
 have outgrown the governmental ma¬ 
 chinery. Along with this is the painful 
 fact that most of us, in the exacting- 
 duties as we apprehend them in our 
 various callings, have not felt that we 
 had the time to bring to bear upon 
 
and Progress 
 
 15 
 
 matters of public welfare, to bring to 
 bear upon governmental matters, any 
 of that thought and industry and 
 energy which has made us successful 
 in our regular callings. 
 
 The natural result has followed. 
 Legislation and governmental admin¬ 
 istration have been yielded up to the 
 politicians, to those who quite largely 
 are devoid of any trade, any calling, 
 any profession; I regret to say to men 
 who as a rule have accomplished 
 nothing in any walk of life excepting 
 in the realm of politics, and we have 
 the natural result. 
 
 Questions which, irrespective of any 
 political lines of cleavage—irrespective 
 of geographical locations—should be 
 settled upon a fair and just basis by 
 men of experience, of responsibility 
 and fairness meeting together, are 
 made political issues, and we have had 
 for the past few years and still have 
 the reign of the demagogue, the muck- 
 racker, and the anarchist. 
 
 Today there is an enormous chasm 
 between the selfishness and arrogance 
 
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 Public Utilities 
 
 of great wealth on one side, and the 
 equal selfishness and arrogance of pro¬ 
 fessional -agitators and labor leaders on 
 the other side. Unless this chasm can 
 be bridged, unless better relations can 
 be established between capital and 
 labor, the conditions in our country 
 will surely be worse for a long while 
 before they are better. 
 
 1 have been a corporation man all 
 my life. In a general and broad sense 
 I started at the foot of the ladder. I 
 have toiled in the machine shop, in the 
 foundry, in the manual labor part of 
 the business, and I have toiled and 
 labored on the far more exasperating 
 and difficult problems and exacting 
 duties which come to those who are 
 at the head of organizations. 
 
 Mv experience in middle age,looking 
 back over a reasonably long and active 
 career, is that the great bulkof men 
 in all walks of life are fundamentally 
 honest and fair-minded, but due to the 
 selfishness which exists in conspicuous 
 cases—due to the presence of the 
 trouble maker—these wrongs and op- 
 
and Progress 
 
 17 
 
 pressions which could be quickly 
 righted by fair-minded people are al¬ 
 lowed to rankle and fester and produce 
 the unrest and disasters with which we 
 are confronted today.