448 



CONSERVATION 



broad, deep stream, forms the boundary for 

 a considerable distance between Minnesota 

 and Canada. 



"For making paper, for milling in transit 

 the wheat which passes through, there is not 

 in the world a more favorably situated power. 

 It is available in Canada and in America, on 

 either side of the tarifif wall," says Mr. 

 Mathews. 



"Congress and the state gave away all 

 public rights in the fall. It happened that 

 the company was restricted in the time al- 

 lowed to build its dam, and when the time 

 expired had made barely a beginning. The 

 corporation owners asked and secured an 

 extension of time from Congress, and this 

 extension President Roosevelt vetoed. The 

 bill was passed over his veto, but not until 

 the company had executed a contract by 

 which its grant expires in ninety-nine years, 

 and in the meantime the Secretary of War 

 may regulate the charges which it can make 

 for power." 



Of the so-called grab bills in Congress, it 

 is asserted that "two great corporations, the 

 Westinghouse and the General Electric, and 

 other smaller corporations which are said to 

 be subsidiaries of these two great companies, 

 already control more than half of the most 

 valuable water-power in the country — that 

 which falls down from the Appalachians 

 from the Potomac River southward to the 

 Gulf. Many of the applicants for grants 

 were dummies for the corporations, and it 

 was evident that there was a "hurry-up" 

 rush on foot to grab, before the people woke 

 up, the greater part of the yet undeveloped 

 power sites. 



"Nor was the importance of this to be seen 

 at once, or to be realized until first the Presi- 

 dent and then the people could be made to 

 grasp the tremendous importance of water- 

 power. For generations we had used_ it 

 sparingly, turning with it no machinery which 

 could not be reached from the water-spun 

 turbine by a belt or shaft. Suddenly, in a 

 wonderfully short time, we have entered and 

 advanced far in a new series of inventions 

 by which we are able to develop power at 

 any fall, in the form of electricity, and carry 

 it even hundreds of miles, with but slight 

 loss, to be used for commercial purposes 

 wherever needed. In ten years we will be 

 sending power i,ooo miles, and the most re- 

 mote mountain streams will be contributing 

 to run our railways, to light our cities, to 

 take the smoke from our factories, and even 

 to do the ordinary work about our farms 

 and homes— lighting, heating, plowing, milk- 

 ing, churning, ironing, cooking, and all that 

 coal and animal power do now. 



"There is in the United States developed 

 and unharnessed in our rivers and brooks 

 more than 50,000,000 horse-power in water 

 capable of being turned into electrical energy 

 and transmitted to homes, farms, and fac- 

 tories. This can perhaps be increased fifty or 

 even 100 per cent by proper conservation. 

 Yet even in the original figure it means the 

 equivalent of 650,000,000 tons of coal every 

 year mined, transported, and consumed; or. 



as we waste half of our coal in getting it 

 from the ground, it represents the dirninu- 

 tion of 1,000,000,300 tons in our available 

 supply of coal. 



"We actually mine and ship each year 

 about 500,000,000 tons of coal. So the water- 

 power, the bulk of which we are giving oyer 

 to monopoly, represents more than the equiv- 

 alent of all our coal; represents the only 

 hope for cheap living ; represents a fuel or 

 source of power which, while controlled by 

 the people, can be used for public income 

 and for regulating costs ; but which, when 

 alienated as we are alienating it, will create 

 a trust that will make of the meat trust a 

 pigmy, and that by simply adding pennies to 

 its charges for power will reduce us to a 

 slavery which would make the Standard Oil 

 magnates gasp with envy. Such a state of 

 affairs would surely produce a revolution. 

 Only sane and radical action can avoid such 

 a contingency." — The Wichita (Kans.) Eagle, 

 May 23, 1909. 



^ ^ ^ 



Water-'power Sites 



Says a writer in the Washington Times of 

 May 31 : 



"Apparently with a view to meeting the 

 criticisms that have been bestowed on the 

 Interior Department, more especially on Sec- 

 retary Ballinger, by some of the friends of 

 the movement for the conservation of nat- 

 ural resources, a statement has been issued 

 from the United States Geological Survey 

 explaining just what is being done with re- 

 spect to the withdrawals of public lands from 

 entry for the purpose of protecting water- 

 power sites. 



"Secretary Ballinger not long ago suc- 

 ceeded in drawing a fire of bitter attacks 

 on the charge that he was hostile to con- 

 servation because he threw open to entry 

 over a million acres of land which Secretary 

 Garfield, to protect water-power sites, had 

 withdrawn from entry. 



"The statement of the Geological Survey 

 sets forth that, in fact, there has been prompt 

 action in protection of public interests. It 

 says that, 'acting upon the specific instruc- 

 tions of the Secretary of the Interior, the 

 United States Geological Survey has begun 

 the investigation of water-power sites on the 

 public lands. Since April 2^, the date of 

 the Secretary's order, the Director of the 

 Survey has recommended eleven temporary 

 withdrawals in aid of proposed legislation 

 affecting the disposal of water-power sites 

 on the public domain.' 



"The withdrawals in question aggregate 

 236,365 acres of public lands in Utah, Col- 

 orado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Ore- 

 gon, and have been approved by Secretary 

 Ballinger. It is explained that the present 

 policy is to protect the public by withdraw- 

 ing all public lands containing possible power 

 sites, and at the same time not withdrawing 

 land of no value for power purposes. It is 

 said by the Director of the Geological Survey 

 the withdrawals made and such as will be 

 made before the next regular session of Con- 



