NATURAL WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES HARTS. 577 



land needed for levees, and by taking oA-er the work and maintain- 

 ing it after completion. The share that the locality should pay 

 toward a project of this character must depend mainly on the 

 distribution of the benefit, and is debatable ; but that the execution of 

 such work should be handled as a single unit by the Government 

 seems beyond argument. It is gratifying to note the acceptance of 

 this principle. 



Sixth, there is a recent and growing tendency to conserve the 

 energy of our navigable rivers by private enterprise in order to de- 

 velop the electric power now being wasted. This requires a cooper- 

 ation between the Government on the one hand and the private inter- 

 ests which build the necessary plant on the other. It is seldom that 

 a dam for the creation of electric power is just what the needs of 

 navigation require, so there must be some adjustment or balance 

 between the private and public requirements. Usually the company 

 builds the dam at its own expense, and sometimes the lock in 

 addition, and is often restricted as to the height of dam and location. 

 The present power dam in the Mississippi Eiver at Keokuk is com- 

 pleted ; that at Hales Bar in the Tennessee is nearly finished ; and two 

 are under construction, one on the Warrior and one on the Coosa 

 River in northern Alabama. It is too soon to say whether these ven- 

 tures will prove to be commercial successes. It is encouraging to find 

 that some reasonable basis can be found on which the power of a 

 navigable stream can be conserved whenever it has a commercial 

 value. 



Seventh, the deepening of the channel of the Providence River, 

 which has recently been made contingent on the construction by the 

 city of Providence and the Stat© of Rhode Island of public port and 

 terminal facilities at their own expense, illustrates a comparatively 

 new and very important tendency. It is more than ever expected of 

 late that the localities benefited by Government projects will share in 

 the expense of the work as well as in the benefits. Portland, Oreg., 

 has undertaken to maintain at its own expense the upper part of the 

 channel from Portland to the sea. The jetties at Siuslaw River 

 mouth, in Oregon, will be paid for largely by the locality. The Sac- 

 ramento River improvement is to be one-half paid for by the State 

 of California, and other assistance is to be rendered. A public wharf 

 was required to be donated by the town of Bumside on the upper 

 Cumberland River before Lock 21 would be completed. Many other 

 instances might be stated, so that this principle of the localities shar- 

 ing in the expense of river work is now well established. In this 

 way the earnestness of the communities urging Government work 

 can be easily tested, and the public oftentimes assured that the chan- 

 nels when completed are not to be the sources of undue profit to 

 the private owners of the only easily accessible landmgs. 



