Conservation Commission. 9 



" In another aspect also the limit of development by com- 

 mercial interests has been accomplished. Human skill has 

 contrived no shackle which will control the giant in the full- 

 ness of his strength. There is no commercially practicable 

 mechanism that will adjust itself to the fluctuations of the 

 driving force of spring floods at the point of application. 

 Much must be wasted and much expended in the wild rush 

 that fills the valleys with ruin, and does incalculable damage 

 to the villages and towns. Then comes the summer drought 

 and the wheels are motionless for lack of that power so 

 lamentably wasted, so injuriously expended a few months 

 before. It is not at the point of transmutation into useful 

 energy, but at its head waters that the stream can be con- 

 trolled, and private owners of riparian rights cannot reach 

 the source of the streams they use. Conditions of a commer- 

 cial, a physical and political nature tie their hands. Indi- 

 viduals as such could not agree as to the details of the neces- 

 sary improvements, nor could they agree as to the proportion 

 of expense to be borne, and beyond that they lack the sover- 

 eign right of eminent domain necessary to accomplish the 

 object in view. 



" Your committee believes, therefore, that all citizens will 

 agree that the time has come when the State as such should 

 undertake these vast improvements, that the sovereign power 

 may be exercised for the common good in the execution of a 

 task beyond the strength of any power less than sovereign." 



Up to this point there is unanimity of opinion ; beyond it there 

 is divergence in several different directions. 



There is at the present time in the State of New York approxi- 

 mately 1,500,000 unutilized horse-power, going to waste every 

 year; and of this vast amount of unproductive energy, approxi- 

 mately 400,000 horse-power is absolutely owned by the State, of 

 which nearly 100,000 horse-power is created by the construction 

 of the canal system of the State. 



The Commission's Policy. 



The policy formulated and advocated by the Conservation Com- 

 mission for the conservation of the water powers of the State, 

 while recognizing that the previous State policy of the storage of 

 the flood waters of the stream for the benefit of the lower riparian 

 owners, for which benefits they should pay a revenue to the State, 



