Conservation Commission 45 



ment of iState terminals and the primary purpose was to afford 

 additional facilities for commerce and stimulate and increase the 

 industrial and commercial activities of the people. The canal 

 referendum act of 1903, through which the people gave their 

 consent to canal enlargement, contains this provision : 



" The supply of water for the Erie Canal shall be suf- 

 ficient for the uses of the canal with at least ten million tons 

 of freight carried on it per year/' 



This figure is largely in excess of the tonnage carried on all 

 the canals of the State in their palmiest days. The new canal 

 will greatly exceed in width and depth the existing canal. The 

 major portion of it will be in canalized lakes and rivers. The 

 river portion of the Mohawk will be 200 feet in width and 12 

 feet in depth as against the old canal with a depth of 7 feet and 

 about 70 feet in width. The new locks will be three times the 

 length of the old ones. To carry the tonnage specified in the 

 statute and to permit of the lockage of boats, vastly greater 

 volumes of water will be needed. The State has provided only 

 two additional reservoirs to meet this demand in the eastern 

 division. Any one who will look at the Cohoes falls and the 

 Mohaw T k river during the dry season of the year and particularly 

 in the drought years, will be justified in entertaining very serious 

 doubts whether there will be any surplus waters in the Erie 

 canal at the time of year when the greatest demands for naviga- 

 tion will be made upon that canal. If such should prove to be 

 the case, it means that the auxiliary steam plant will be a very 

 large, if not the principal factor in creating and distributing the 

 electric current. I have yet to learn that the State can operate 

 steam plants commercially with any special advantage to itself 

 or to its citizens. The theory of the development of power at the 

 points named and its transfer to the neighboring municipalities 

 is that it will afford to the people light, heat and power at less 

 cost than they are now paying. Such popular support as the 

 proposition receives is based on this expectation. Whether this 

 would be the result under the conditions to which T have refeired, 

 is uncertain and problematical. 



