REPORT OP THE FORESTER. 183 



Table 11. — Water-power development under permit, fiscal year 1!)17. 



Reference has already been made to the decision of the Supreme 

 Court of the United States in the case of the Utah Power & Light 

 Co. V. The United States. This company was occupying and using 

 without permission certain lands of the United States within the 

 Forest reservations for the purpose of generating and distributing 

 electric power. The company claimed that it was entitled to occupy 

 and use Government land without first securing the grant or license 

 from the Secretary of Agriculture that is required by the existing 

 legislation. It further claimed that in occupying and using Govern- 

 ment land it had acquired vested rights. It contended also that, 

 except as to land used strictly for governmental purposes, lands 

 owned by the Government within a State are subject to the laws of 

 the State in the same manner as other lands. The decision is 

 especially valuable in that it has determined the scope of the various 

 acts of Congress and their application with respect to rights of way 

 over public land for the generation and distribution of electric 

 power. It establishes that at the present time there is onlv one act 

 of Congress, namely, that of February 15, 1901 (31 Stat., 790), 

 which permits power developments on National Forest land for 

 generating and clistributing power to be used for general commercial 

 purposes. 



