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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cent, of the average discharge and 33 

 per cent, of the low water discharge of 

 the entire river. It recommends as propo- 

 sitions for legislation by congress that 

 the secretary of war be authorized to 

 grant permits for the diversion ( from the 

 American side, of course) of a total not 

 to exceed 28,000 cubic feet per second, 

 this to include not only the power com- 

 panies but the Erie, Welland and Chi- 

 cago Drainage Canals. This prohibi- 

 tion is to remain permanent if after 

 two years the Canadian government 

 shall have enacted legislation prohibit- 

 ing diversion of water pertaining and 

 tributary to the Niagara River in ex- 

 cess of 30,000 cubic feet per second. 

 Press reports indicate that the Cana- 

 dian section of this commission, in ma- 

 king return to their government, dis- 

 sent from the attitude of the American 

 section, insisting that the most ap- 

 parent damage to the falls must neces- 

 sarily result from American diversion 

 which affects the American side only. 

 This attitude is undoubtedly just, and 

 it is to be seriously questioned if the 

 American section of this commission 

 has given full weight to the fact that 

 diversion of 28,000 cubic feet per sec- 

 ond will much more seriously damage 

 the flow of water through the American 

 channel than the abstraction of 36,000 

 from the other side will affect the 

 Canadian channel. 



In the New York legislature action 

 was begun by the introduction of a bill 

 repealing four of the eight outstanding 

 charters for power companies. As 

 these four charters were already dead, 

 the bill passed the senate. This was 

 followed by another senate bill, intro- 

 duced by the disinterested author of 

 the former, restricting the consumption 

 of water by the four remaining Ameri- 

 can companies to a maximum of 17,200 

 cubic feet per second each, or a total 

 of 6S,800 cubic feet per second, an 

 amount more than the entire volume 

 of water flowing through the American 

 channel. The public is now too well 

 informed to welcome just this brand 



of salvation for the falls, and the au- 

 thor of this bill deliberately killed it, 

 saying that he was ' tired of trying to 

 save the falls and could find no senti- 

 ment in favor of saving them.' 



In the assembly Mr. Cox has intro- 

 duced a concurrent resolution looking 

 to a referendum for a constitutional 

 amendment to prevent abstraction be- 

 yond that already chartered, and Mr. 

 Foelker a bill so worded as to prohibit 

 all American companies and all foreign 

 companies doing business in this state 

 to take more water than is actually be- 

 ing taken at the time of the passage of 

 the act and instituting heavy penalties 

 for violations of these provisions. This 

 is the most radical measure that has 

 anywhere appeared on behalf of the 

 conservation of the falls and is prob- 

 ably the only measure that could ac- 

 tually effect a cure of the present 

 menace to the American cataract. It 

 is demonstrable and already demon- 

 strated, that the full chartered con- 

 sumption of waters by the American 

 companies will dismantle the American 

 falls, but the influence of these com- 

 panies is far reaching, and in a public 

 hearing on the two assembly bills men- 

 tioned it was decided to amend the 

 Foelker bill so as to leave the com- 

 panies their charter rights with pen- 

 alties for transgression of these, and in 

 this form, with the real vital clause 

 extracted, this bill and also the Cox 

 resolution have been reported and ad- 

 vanced. There never has been the 

 slightest probability that any of the 

 power companies would exceed their 

 chartered rights of diversion. Indeed 

 the entire contention has been that it 

 is this chartered right which endangers 

 the falls, and it is the recognition of 

 this fact that constitutes the very 

 meat of the recommendation by the in- 

 ternational waterways commission. It 

 does not seem, therefore, that the 

 Foelker bill, should it become a law, 

 will help the situation. Of more prac- 

 tical merit are the six bills, also intro- 

 duced by Mr. Foelker, repealing the six 



