12 CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING. 



take from the coal mine and the railroad a part of their present 

 burden and insure the operation of street lights, street cars, elevators, 

 and essential industries in the face of railroad delinquencies this 

 is the dream of our engineers, and a very possible dream it has 

 seemed to me; of such value, indeed, that we might well spend a 

 few thousand dollars in studying it, not with the thought that the 

 Government would construct or operate even the trunk line, but 

 that it might so attract the attention of the engineering and financial 

 world as to make it a reality. 



To tie together the separated power plants of 10 States so that 

 one can give aid to the other, so that one can take the place of the 

 other, so that all may join their power for good in any great drive 

 that may be projected this would be the prime purpose of the plan ; 

 and from this would, evolve the development of the most practicable 

 method of supplying this vast interdependent system with more 

 power perhaps from the conversion of coal, as it drops from the 

 very tipple, using the mine as one might use a waterfall, or by the 

 development of great hydroelectric plants on the many streams from 

 the Androscoggin to the James. 



WHITE COAL AND BLACK. 



This would be a plan for the wedding of the stream and the mine, 

 the white coal with the black. " White coal " they call it in imagina- 

 tive France, this tumbling water which is converted into so many 

 forms ; and a much cleaner, handier kind of coal it is than its black 

 brother. And cheaper, for the water goes on to return again and 

 fall once more and forever into the pockets of the turbine which 

 whirls the dynamo and so gathers or releases that mystery which 

 we name but never define. Farsighted, purposeful Germany fought 

 four and a half years upon the strength of great power plants run 

 by the snows of the Alps. She did not rely on these alone for power, 

 nor were they her main reliance, but they gave her a lasting power 

 which otherwise she would not have had. And we may expect her to 

 improve on that war-time experience for the conduct of the hard 

 fight she is to make in the industrial field. France saved enough 

 territory from the invader to permit her to make new adventures 

 into this field and so to some degree offset the coaj loss of Lens. 

 Italy found that she had still left unused opportunities for hydro- 

 electric development sufficient with the coal she could secure from 

 England and America to see her through the war. And with coal 

 conditions as they are in Europe we may expect a still greater push 

 to make use of water power to turn the industrial wheels of peace. 

 It must be so likewise here. 



And it is likely that the long-pending power bill which will make 

 available the dam and reservoir sites on withdrawn public lands 



