HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



567 



gross horsepower being developed in this State, on which the 

 net annual profit per gross horsepower would be, roundly, $12. The 

 establishments on the Hudson river are mostly paper-mills, and 

 without doubt in miscellaneous manufacturing the profit would 

 be from three to five times as great as this, but we will assume it 

 all over the State, for the purpose of the argument, at $12 per 

 horsepower. At this rate 1,500,000 horsepower would pay an 

 annual profit of $18,000,000, and represent at 4 per cent a capi- 

 talized investment of $150,000,000. Waterpower therefore may 

 be easily made equal to agriculture, the net annual profits of these 

 two industries being very nearly the same. 



The proper remedy. There are a number of remedies which 

 may be applied, but first of all we need a comprehensive act in 

 this State which shall permit of developing water storage to its 

 full capacity without any further grant of powers from the legis- 

 lature than those granted in the general act. As to the form of 

 such an act the writer is not specially insistent, although he may 

 point out that the mill act of Massachusetts, by reason of long 

 and successful application, is an excellent model. A copy of this 

 act may be found in Angell on Watercourses. It is possible, how- 

 ever, that a mill act on the Massachusetts lines may not be in 

 accord with the trend of legislation in this State. 



There should be a permanent State commission specially 

 charged with the control of the rivers. To this commission 

 should be submitted everything relating to the rivers of the State. 

 It should be given broad poAvers as regards the carrying out of 

 projects for improvement, for preventing floods or for other pur- 

 poses. Water-storage projects should be submitted to it for de- 

 cision. The commission should have funds enough at its command 

 to enable all necessary investigations to be made. 



The act authorizing this commission may be considered as 

 applying to large water-storage projects where the interests of 

 extended communities are to be unified. For smaller manufactur- 

 ing projects there should also be a mill act permitting lands to 

 be flowed after due process of law and just compensation with- 

 out any further appeal to the legislature. The encouragement of 

 manufacturing would then become the commercial policy of the 

 State instead of as at present, by restrictive and contradictory 

 laws tending to discourage it. 



