CONSERXATIOX (3F POWER RESOURCES 



459 



from a "week-end" visit to his castle of rest 

 in the Virginia hills. Could he have had 

 equal pleasure in Hoboken? Mr. Carnegie's 

 enterprises built dreadful Homestead, but he 

 finds the scenery about Skibo Castle much 

 more restful ! 



Who of us. tired with the pressure of 

 twentieth century life, fails to take refuge 

 amid scenes of natural beauty, rather than 

 to endeavor to find that needed rest in a 

 coal-mining village, or in the heart of some 

 sordidly ugly timber slashing? The most 

 I)latant economist, who sneers at the thought 

 of public beauty, accessible by right to all, is 

 usually much interested in private beauty of 

 scenery, of home and of person if accessible 

 to him alone! Selfishly and inconsistently 

 he recognizes in his own use the value of the 

 natural resources he affects to despise. 



I am convinced that the vast majority of 

 my countrymen hold deep in their hearts sen- 

 timents of regard for the glorious natural 

 beautj' of .America. If to my inadequate 

 words there be any response among those 

 here present, may I but hint at some things 

 that might well result? 



First, we must hold inviolate our greater 

 scenic heritages. All the nations vis t the 

 Falls of Niagara as the wonder of the Wes- 

 tern World, yet we are even now engaged 

 in an attemnt to see how closely we can pnrc 

 its glories without complete destruction. Fm- 

 inent authorities warn us that the danger line 

 is passed, and th^t recurrence of a cycle of 

 low water in the Great Lakes mav completely 

 extinguish the American Fall. A hundred 

 other water powers in New York and On- 

 tTio wo"ld together give as much wheel- 



turning electric energy, but all the world 

 cannot furnish forth the equivalent of Niag- 

 ara in beneficent influence upon the minds of 

 men, if held as a scenic heritage. The glory 

 of Niagara to-day hangs by a hair, and m.l- 

 lions of incorporated private money seek 

 covetously to cut the hair. 



The National Parks — all too few in num- 

 ber and extent — ought to be held absolutely 

 inviolate, as intended by Congress. Intru- 

 sions for questionable water-supply needs, 

 against the unselfish protests of those whos;.; 

 love of country cannot be impugned, should 

 not be permitted. 



The scenic value of all the national do- 

 main yet remaining should be jealousy guard- 

 ed as a distinctly important natural resource, 

 and not as a mere incidental increment. In 

 giving access for wise economic purposes to 

 forest and range, to valley and stream, the 

 Federal government should not for a mom^'nt 

 overlook the safeguarding to the people of 

 all the natural beauty now existing. That 

 this may be done without in any way pre- 

 venting legit mate use of all the other nat- 

 ural resources is certain. 



The Governors of sovereign states here as- 

 sembled, the manj organizations here rep- 

 resented, possess the power and have the op- 

 portiuiity to so change and guide legisla- 

 tion and public opinion as to foster the un- 

 derlying desire for public beauty, both nat- 

 ural and urban. We have for a century stood 

 actually, if not ostens bly. for an uglier 

 America ; let us here and now resolve, for 

 every patriotic and economic reason, to 

 stand openly and solidly for a more beautiful, 

 and. therefore, a more prosperous America! 



CONSERVATION OF POWER RESOURCES 



By H, ST, CLAIR PUTNAM, LL.B., E.E., Member A, L E. E, 

 Consulting Electricdi Engineer (New York) 



Address Delivered at the Wnite House Conference, May 14, 1908 



WITHOUT disparaging other aspects of 

 our progress, it is not too much 

 to say that our time is preeminently 

 the Age of Power. This applies to the world 

 at large, but especially to the United States. 

 Our population is increasing with unprece- 

 dented rapidity, but our mineral production 

 is increasing so much more rapidly that this 

 is not inaptly styled "the Age of Metal." 

 Steel, copper, and wood are combined in me- 

 chanical devices at a rate increasing so much 

 more rapidly than ore production that we may 

 be said to live in the Age of the Machine; 

 yet that aspect of modern life which most 

 impresses the student of development is the 

 increasing use of mechanical power through 



the development of prime motors and the 

 utilization of new power sources. Rap.dly as 

 our population advances, it is outrun by 

 metal production, and that in turn by ma- 

 chine building; yet our most rapid progress 

 — the feature in which our advancement ex- 

 ceeds all others — is in the development and 

 use of Power. 



Historically considered, the utilization of 

 our .power resources has undergone three 

 characteristic phases of development. 



In the first, power was produced directly 

 by natural resources such as falling water 

 and wind, and its use necessarily was lim- 

 ited to those places where these natural 

 forces were found. This led to the carlv 



