CONSERVATION OF POWER RESOURCES 



45'' 



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

 in the Virginia liills. Could In- have had 

 equal pleasure in Hohoken? Mr. Carnegie's 

 enterprises huill dreadful Homestead, lint he 

 liiuls the scenery aliout Skibo Castle much 

 more re-stfnl ! 



Who of us, tired with the pressure of 

 twentieth century life, fails to take refuge 

 ::inid Belies of natural lirauty, rather than 

 to endeavor lo t'ind th.it needed re-t in a 

 coal mining \illage 1 . Of in the heart of some 

 sordidly ugly tiniher slash. ng? The most 

 blatant economist, who siu-ers at the thought 

 of publ : c he.mtv. access iM, liy right to all. is 

 usualK much interested in private heanty of 

 scencrv. of home and of person if accessible 

 to him alone! Selfishly and inconsistently 

 he recogni/cs in his <r,\n use the value of the 

 natural resources he affects to dcsp.se. 



I am convinced that the vast majority of 

 my countrymen hold dicn in their hearts sen- 

 timents <f regard for the glorious natural 

 beauty of America. If to my inadequate 

 words tin. re he any response among those 

 here present, may I hut hint at some things 

 that might well result? 



First, ue mu-t 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 pnre 

 its glories without complete destruction. F.m- 

 inent authorities warn us that the danger line 

 is passed, and that recurrence of a cycle of 

 low water in the Great Lakes niav completely 

 extinguish the American Fall. A hundred 

 other water powers in New York and On- 

 tario wov.ld together give as much wheel- 



turning electric energy, hut all . -rid 

 cannot furnish forth the equivalent of Ni.ig 

 ara in beneficent influence cpon the mind 

 men, if held as a scenic heritage I h glorv 

 of Niagara to-dav hangs by a hair, and ml 

 lions of incorporated pnvat 

 co\ etoiisly to cut the hair 



The National all too f,-\v in u.un- 



ber and extent ought to be held absol 

 inviolate, as intended by Cong re--. h 

 sions for questionable water-suppl> need-, 

 against the unselfish protests of those \\ho- 

 lo\ e of countrv cannot be im: should 



noi he permitted. 



The scenic value of all the nation..! 

 main yet remaining should be jca'' ; rd- 



ed as a distinctly important natural r 

 and not zs a mere incidental increment In 

 giving access for wise economic pnrj. 

 forest and range, to valley and -in- mi. th.- 

 Federal go\ eminent sho.:ld not for a mo; 

 overlook the safeguarding to th. pe ipl 

 all the natural beauty now exist! That 



this may he done without in any w.iy ; 

 venting legit mate use of all the oth 

 ural resources is certain. 



The Governors of sovereign -t LtCS h>Te as- 

 sembled, the mam organi/.atioiis here rep- 

 resented, possess the power and iia\e th: 

 portunity to s,, cliange and guide leg! 

 tion and public ojiinion as to foster the un- 

 derlying de-sire for public beauty, both nat- 

 ural and urban. We have for a centur> stood 

 actually, if not ostais hly. for an 

 America: let us here and now : for 



every patriotic and economic reason, 

 stand op-, nly and sohdK for a mop- b 

 and. therefore, a more prosperous Vmer 



CONSERVATION OF POWER RESOURCES 



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

 Consulting Electrical Engineer (New York 



Address Delivered al the While House Conference. MJV H. IW 



WITHOUT disparaging other aspects ,,f 

 our progress, it is not too much 

 to say thai our time is preeminently 

 the Age of Power. This applies to the world 

 at large, but especially to the United States. 

 ( hir population is increasing w th imp) 

 dented rapidity, but our mineral production 

 is increasing so much more rapidly that this 

 is not inaptly styled "the Age of Metd" 

 Steel, copper, and wood are combined in me- 

 chanical devices at a rate :iicreasing so much 

 more rr'pidly than ore production that we may 

 he 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 n .'.< \ the 



utilization of new pouer source- K p.dl 

 our population advances, it is oitrnn by 

 metal production, and that in turn '>> ma 

 chine building; \<t OUT uio-t rapid \' 

 the feature in which our ad\ .:' 

 r. ( ds all others is m the development and 



use- of Power. 



Historically consjdi red. the ntili/ation of 

 our power resources has undergone three 

 characteristic pha-es of developm 



In the first, pou < r \\as product d direct!} 

 ly natural re-. I -uch 3S 



and wind, and ' fAS lim- 



ited to those places where ill.-,. nifiral 

 forces \\ere found Mils Kd to tlu- early 



