HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



553 



the position of the canal department in this controversy has been 

 that if necessary the department could stop industries in favor 

 of navigation, although the money interest is much greater in 

 favor of manufacturing than in favor of navigation. On Black 

 river the principle of compensation in kind has been adopted in 

 the most explicit manner, while in the case of Skaneateles lake it 

 is assumed that the wants of a great municipality are superior 

 to the demands of navigation. 



There are many other cases throughout the State equally em- 

 phasizing the contradictory nature of the laws governing the 

 ownership of water. It is inevitable that such laws should 

 paralyze industry, with the result that only about 25 per cent of 

 the total waterpower of the State is developed. Had these laws 

 not existed, or had they been either removed, modified or made 

 consistent forty or fifty years ago, it is believed that from 60 

 to 75 per cent of the total waterpower would now be developed 

 and the population and wealth of the State would be far greater 

 than it is under present conditions. 1 



These interesting problems are presented for consideration in 

 the hope that the people in their wisdom will arrive at a solution 

 which, while protecting whatever rights the 'State may justly 

 retain, will still in no way interfere with the full development of 

 manufacturing enterprise on any stream. 



During the last ten to fifteen years the electrical trans- 

 mission of power has rendered it possible to utilize power from 

 large central stations distributed to relatively remote points. 

 It is now possible to use mountain powers for the operation of 

 single plants often many miles distant. Electrical transmis- 

 sions of from forty to sixty miles are no longer very difficult, 

 and such transmissions have been made in the west for from one 

 hundred to two hundred miles. But it should not be overlooked 

 that in the case of some of the lines there, used for mining, etc., 

 it has been a question purely of electrical transmission or no 

 power — the question- of expense has not entered specially into 

 the account. The more advantageous use of large streams, but 

 under conditions which present many difficulties without the 



'See discussion of future power development in the Adirondack region 

 on page 555. 



