Mabch 13, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



419 



the states and sections of our country. 

 The cost and the benefits should be equi- 

 tably distributed, by cooperation with the 

 states and the communities, corporations, 

 and individuals beneficially affected. I 

 heartily concur in the commission's recom- 

 mendation to this end. Such cooperation 

 should result in united effort in carrying 

 out the great duty of improving our in- 

 land waterways. While we delay, our 

 rivers remain unused, our traffic is period- 

 ically congested and the material wealth 

 and natural resources of the country re- 

 lated to waterways are being steadily ab- 

 sorbed by great monopolies. 



Among these monopolies, as the report 

 of the commission points out, there is no 

 other which threatens, or has ever threat- 

 ened, such intolerable interference with the 

 daily life of the people as the consolidation 

 of companies controlling water power. I 

 call your special attention to the attempt 

 of the power corporations, through bills 

 introduced at the present session, to escape 

 from the possibility of government regula- 

 tion in the interest of the people. These 

 bills are intended to enable the corpora- 

 tions to take possession in perpetuity of 

 national forest lands for the purposes of 

 their business, where and as they please, 

 wholly without compensation to the public. 

 Yet the effect of granting such privileges, 

 taken together with rights already ac- 

 quired under state laws, would be to give 

 away properties of enormous value. 

 Through lack of foresight we have formed 

 the habit of granting without compensa- 

 tion extremely valuable rights amounting 

 to monopolies on navigable streams and on 

 the public domain. The repurchase at 

 great expense of water rights thus care- 

 lessly given away without return has al- 

 ready begun in the east, and before long 

 will be necessary in the west also. No 

 rights involving water power should be 

 granted to any corporations in perpetuity, 



but only for a length of time sufficient to 

 allow them to conduct their business 

 profitably. A reasonable charge should of 

 course be made for valuable rights and 

 privileges which they obtain from the 

 national government. The values for 

 which this charge is made will ultimately, 

 through the natural growth and orderly 

 development of our population and in- 

 dustries, reach enormous amounts. A fair 

 share of the increase should be safeguarded 

 for the benefit of the people, from whose 

 labor it springs. The proceeds thus 

 secured, after the cost of administration 

 and improvement has been met, should 

 naturally be devoted to the development 

 of our inland waterways. 



The report justly calls attention to the 

 fact that hitherto our national policy has 

 been one of almost unrestricted disposition 

 and waste of natural resources, and em- 

 phasizes the fundamental necessity for 

 conserving these resources upon which our 

 present and future success as a nation 

 primarily rests. Running water is a most 

 valuable natural asset of the people, and 

 there is urgent need for conserving it for 

 navigation, for power, for irrigation and 

 for domestic and municipal supply. 



The commission was appointed to ob- 

 tain information concerning our waterways 

 as related to the general welfare. Much 

 work was done, but more remains to be 

 done before a plan for their development 

 can be prepared in detail. "We need ad- 

 ditional information on the flow of our 

 streams, the condition of channels, the 

 amount and cost of water traffic, the re- 

 quirements for terminals, the area in each 

 watershed M'hich should be kept under 

 forest, and the means of preventing soil- 

 waste and the consequent damage to our 

 rivers. But it is neither necessary nor 

 desirable to postpone the beginning of the 

 work until all the facts are obtained. We 

 have suffered heavily in the past from the 



