EDITORIAL 



631 



controversy with the Government. 

 These thoughts have found ex- 

 pression in our editorial columns. 

 The questions involved may jeopar- 

 dize or affect millions of dollars of 

 invested capital. The investment 

 of further millions in western en- 

 terprise may be postponed or aban- 

 doned entirely, depending upon the 

 wisdom of the policies outlined. 

 Locked up in the proper solution of 

 the hydro-electric controversy are 

 more matters of vital interest to 

 the West than are involved in any 

 one other problem that confronts 

 us — not excepting irrigation, for it 

 includes irrigation. 



Ignore for the moment the invested 

 capital, and the contemplated in- 

 vestments for the future in this line 

 of endeavor. Consideration of this 

 view alone is selfish and personal. 

 It appeals to the intelligence and it 

 appeals to the pocketbook. But 

 these things do not touch the inter- 

 est of the public man or the private 

 citizen nor does it affect the at- 

 titude of the general press or the 

 public officer. 



To predicate a request for na- 

 tional legislation upon the desire of 

 some man, or some set of men, to 

 invest large capital in a power or 

 lighting plant is not enough. Our 

 stand must be made on firmer 

 ground ; our foundation must be 

 laid broader and deeper than mere 

 personal interest. 



The question involved is PUB- 

 LIC in its nature. The entire 

 West is affected harmfully or bene- 

 ficially by its solution. And we 

 must appeal to the people — to the 

 farmer, to the miner, to the vine- 

 yardist. to the manufacturer — to 

 the tens of thousands of citizens 

 whom we all know are to be served 

 and are to be benefited by the in- 

 stalling of the vast power plants 

 already under way or in immediate 

 contemplation as soon as this vexed 

 question be settled. 



Is not the West Interested in 

 having the arid lands made fruit- 

 ful? Would not the work of the 



power companies be of untold 

 value to the prosperity of not only 

 sections immediately served by 

 them, but of the whole state itself ? 

 Would it not be of immense state 

 value to have lifted to the surface 

 the great streams of water that 

 course their way deep below soil 

 that is parched and dry, but rich, 

 and needing only water to render 

 it a priceless asset to the state? 



Is not the owner of that land, 

 who knows that beneath the sur- 

 face lies the deliverance of his soil, 

 interested and benefited, nay, saved, 

 by the facilities the power com- 

 panies propose to furnish him in 

 the way of power to raise that 

 water to the surface? 



Run over in your minds, you 

 gentlemen of the hydro-electric in- 

 terests, the long list of industries 

 and the large populations you ex- 

 pect to serve. Catalogue them — no 

 one can do so better than you — and 

 then say whether your undertak- 

 ings are to be a benefit or a curse 

 to these citizens and to the state. 

 That is the test! Are your great 

 enterprises to benefit any one other 

 than yourselves ? If not, then per- 

 haps they are better dismantled, 

 better closed down, better never 

 begun. 



You are going to sell the thing 

 you have for sale cheaper or on 

 more advantageous terms than the 

 customer can at present secure an 

 equal services at other hands. You 

 are going to do this, or the oil man, 

 or the coal man, or the other power- 

 providing man is going to keep 

 the business at the old rates. 



It is a business proposition. You 

 ARE proposing to do better by 

 your customers than it is possible 

 for them to do to-day. You pro- 

 pose to erect these plants to secure 

 business, to serve the public, to 

 cheapen cost of production, to make 

 it an advantage for a power or 

 light consuming public to pur- 

 chase your wares. Then you are 

 to be a benefit to them, not a curse. 



