9 



in the State called and kept calling upon the citizens to defeat the} 

 proposed constitutional amendment. The threatened danger pro- 

 duced the most universal popular rising and protest which the Em,- 

 pire State ever witnessed. 



There must be some reason for this. Such things do not comef 

 about by chance. It would be almost impossible to have produced 

 such an overwhelming sentiment by any party machinery. 



The fact is that the cause of alarm sounded in New Hampshire 

 by the Hon. T. Jefferson Coolidge, was already working in New York. 

 It is worth dwelling upon. 



I have been at the pains of verifying the following abstract which 

 is taken from the "Manufacturer," Philadelphia, October 31st, 1896. 

 As I can neither condense nor improve upon the presentation, I sub- 

 mit it for vour consideration: 



FORESTS AND FACTORIES. 



"In his annual report to the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, 

 whose great mills are located at Manchester, New Hampshire, util- 

 izing, as those below at Nashua and Lowell do, the splendid water} 

 power of the Merrimack river, the treasurer of the company, Hon. 

 T. Jefferson Coolidge, of Boston, stated some important facts con- 

 cerning the usefulness of the river for manufacturing purposes. He 

 describes first, the great freshet in the Merrimack, on April 16, 1895, 

 when the water rose to the highest point that until then had ever? 

 been known, injuring the Amoskeag dam, and compelling extensive? 

 and costly repairs. He then describes the terrific freshet of March 

 i!, 1896, which rose 1| feet higher than even that of the preceding 

 year, and which compelled the stoppage of the mills, with their? 

 6,000 operatives, for some time, and would have done immense dam- 

 age to the mills, had it not been for the strong repair construction) 

 of the previous year. 



" 'I need not say/ proceeds Mr. Coolidge, 'what a terrible loss to! 

 the city of Manchester such accidents are, and how desirable it is 

 to take any measures which may diminish the probability of future 

 and higher freshets. When you consider that the Merrimack has for 

 the past few summers been lower than in previous years, it is evi- 

 dent that some cause is at work turning the stream into a torrent 

 with long droughts and fearful discharges of water.' 



"There is but one explanation, he further says of this phenomenon. 



It is simply, 'the cutting down of the forests around the headwaters 



of the Merrimack, the Pemigewasset and other affluents. The woods 



hold back the water and allow it to trickle slowly into the streams; 



1* 



