OUR INLAND WATERWAYS 301 



value. Now, the vast inherent value of our forests is but a bagatelle 

 in comparison with the inherent value of our living waters; the time 

 is ripe for taking stock of this immeasurable resource; and it behooves 

 the people through the representatives in whom they repose confidence 

 to claim this greater heritage on which the lives of the generations 

 must depend. 



The Utilization of Power 



An ill-recognized value of running water resides in its power, a 

 quantity doubtless sufficient to drive mills and trains and boats, and 

 furnish light and heat and domestic motors for a century or two after 

 our coal is gone. Hitherto this resource has been neglected, partly 

 because the concept of inherent or potential value remained inchoate, 

 and power was not felt to exist until actually developed by dams and 

 races and penstocks; yet the realization that 40,000,000,000,000 cubic 

 feet of river water descending an average of 2,500 feet is a rich 

 possession can not long be delayed, for it exceeds 300,000,000 horse- 

 power, or thrice the pulling power of all the horses now living in 

 the world — even if the sum be tithed for safety it will still 

 reach 30,000,000 horse-power, which at $20 per year would be 

 worth $600,000,000 annually (or more each year than the estimated 

 cost of improving all the rivers of the country), equal — at 3 per cent. — 

 to a capital of $20,000,000,000. And the availability of water-power 

 entered on a new era with the perfecting of electrical transmission in 

 the last decade ! 



Though the time is not ripe for discussing utilization, a case may 

 be instanced: The boldest water-supply project in our history was 

 undertaken when Los Angeles, a city of only 150,000, bonded itself 

 for $23,000,000 to purchase a riverlet 250 miles away; it seemed an 

 appalling price for continued civic life, yet the people were ready to 

 pay ; and it was not until the plans for piping were nearly done that 

 the incidental value of the power was realized — and negotiated at 

 rates yielding ten per cent, on the bonds ! Suffice it to add that even 

 if the improvement of our waterways for navigation were to cost five 

 or ten times the amount estimated, the water-power developed inci- 

 dentally in connection with the works, if judiciously administered, 

 would alone pay the entire cost in from five to twenty years. Pic- 

 turesque streams and cataracts should be saved as scenic features, for 

 natural beauty is a national asset beyond material measure; but the 

 ignoble wild should be harnessed to the plow of progress. 



Fortunately, while the founders failed to define the proprietary 

 interests in the running waters, they recognized their interstate char- 

 acter and granted the nation certain authority over them; and this 

 has been repeatedly confirmed by the courts and crystallized by statutes 



