THE MENACE TO NIAGARA. 501 



tion or about to operate, when producing to their charter limits will 

 abstract 48,000 cubic feet per second. That amount will bring the 

 water-level to the bottom of the river at the American shore. 



So much then is in immediate prospect. The turning of the waters 

 a few days ago into the largest turbines the world has ever seen, thus 

 inaugurating the actual production of Canadian power, sounded the 

 death knell of the American Falls, leaving to those whose hearts sink 

 and whose spirits shrivel at the thought of this destruction only a 

 slender hope that it may be mechanically impracticable or com- 

 mercially unprofitable to produce to the maximum amounts. 



We are not permitted to stop with this forecast. One of the com- 

 panies chartered by the legislature of New York and the last so 

 chartered to abstract water from above the Falls, is the Niagara, Lock- 

 port & Ontario Power Co. It received in 1894 a franchise without 

 restriction upon the amount of water it might use, but work was to 

 begin in good faith within ten years. It was a modest organization 

 with a slender capital, too slender, as it proved, to begin operations. 

 It did nothing, but in 1904 came to the legislature of New York 

 asking an improved charter enlarging its powers and extending its 

 time. This company proposed to take its water from far above 

 the cataract, as far back as La Salle, and not to return it to the 

 river channel at all, but to carry it off overland by canal to Lock- 

 port, emptying it thence into Lake Ontario. The bill passed the 

 legislature, not without commotion, but encountered trouble in the 

 Executive Chamber. We have referred to the veto of this bill by 

 Governor Odell as a fine act. Perhaps it is not necessary to say more, 

 but the act was done in the face of most turbulent and insistent op- 

 position, and it was clearly actuated by a relentless conviction of the 

 higher rights of the citizens of the state. Ex cathedra statements by 

 special attorneys and the company's engineers that no damage to the 

 scenic features of the Falls could result, were supplemented by an offer 

 of a tremendous sum to the state treasury for the governor's approval. 

 The veto met with almost universal applause throughout the state. 

 This veto was signed May 15, 1904. The company's old charter 

 was signed May 21, 1894. There remained six days in which the 

 company could get to work under its old charter. There is said to 

 be to-day a slender ditch up south of Lockport, the work of a few men 

 and a few carts, which represents the work done in good faith in the 

 six days between May 15 and May 21, 1904. It has become a matter 

 of' common knowledge that this company has reorganized since these 

 dates, increasing its capital enormously, and it is also stated that the 

 stock has largely passed from the original organization into the con- 

 trol of one of the great corporations. It now looks as though this 

 company means to do business if the courts have no objection, either 



