Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-11-07
KEyvTBEC HEADWA7FRS.

|
Penobscot anything by indirection, If we are
not entitled to the West Branch we do not
want it.
Our title rests upon two grounds: First I:
| In Nature, as seen in the position of the West
| Branch-in the fact that 10 times Of freshet 1t
| now flows into Moosehead Lake and becomes
| the yeritable head waters of the kennebec.
/ Neither Of the above papers attempts refu-
tation of this fact
| Secondly: Our title also rests upon pres
| ent demand for those waters, for actual man
ufacturing uses. dam and factories have
already been built at Augusta. Dams are be-
| ing built and factories erected at Waterville
and Skowhegan. At Norridgewock Falls we
| have another dam, and parties are now nego-
| tiating to erect factories. The Somerset
| railroad has reached and passed this place. 1t
| is rapidly progressing to Madison Falls, to
| Carratuok Falls in Arson, to Scion and
Bingham, from water power to water power
until the steam whistle shall awaken the
echoes of the Great Lake itself. The people
help the railroad and the railroad men help
the people by joining hands with them to de.
| velope, as they advance, the water power for
manufacturing purposes.
Whether we shall have the West Branch is
| not with us a matter of absolute local want as
represented by the Wing and Courier. That
| might be regarded as selfish but it Is Ques-
ton of great enterprise, In which the whole
State Is greatly interested. 1t is manifest
destiny. Oar river shall flow to the ocean in
shall, like Manchester and Lowell, hum with
manufacturing industry.
1t is well understood that the numbering
business on the Penobscot.is, through exhans-
ton of supply, rapidly declining, and whether
the third growth which now remains, shall be
worth cutting depends almost wholly upon
the foreign market and whether, or not, we
have Reciprocity Treaty with Canada.
For this numbering business there will be
water enough. The Penobscot r.ver, as we
learn from a book on the water power of
Maine, Cd edition, page Ill, compiled by
Walter Wells, derives its water from ACT lake
reservoirs and from 1904 tributary streams.
Should there, at any time, be failure of
water supply these lumbermen may readily
improve the lake reservoirs as storage basins.
| They NAV even reconstruct the dam across
the Allaguash and again bring the water OF
that tributary of the St, John river through
Heron and Chamberlain lakes into the Pc
nobscot. This was done thirty. five years
ago, by lumbermen of the old school. If those
men have not all left Bangor they may in
struct the present generation.
Were it necessary to look for a precedent
for taking the West Branch one has thus
been furnished. We have at hand, however,
| another precedent which is even now being
furnished by the very men who are complain
ing of our West Branch remove. The Ban
gor Water Company has procured from the
Bangor water from Hatcase Pond in Ded-
ham. The city of Bangor. in 1869, EN-.
ployed Hiram F. Mills, civil engineer to
survey that pond and the route to the same
and to report a basis for contract between
the city and the water company. In his re-
port Mr.. Mills says: "Hatcase pond, at
| present. flows to the south east into Union
| river"
A protest against diverting this water from
Union river to Bangor appeared Sept. 10Th
1878 in the Ellsworth American. That pro.
test was, on the 18th of the same month, re-
published in the Bangor Daily Commercial.
| No notice Of course was taken Of this and the
water company 10 proceeding with the works.
| They have good reason for their action. We
are informed by the Wing and Courier of the
10th and 18th of August last that there is
really no water power at Treats Falls in
Bangor. The reasons given In that paper
are conclusive that the combined waters Of
dozen West Branches would not give Bangor
a water power. We learn from the Bangor
Northern Border of the 25th ut. that "these
Hatcase pipes will furnish surplus water
enough, and of course power enough, for a
multitude of small factories"
If Hatcase will furnish her with manufac.
turing advantages, and she wants them, no
lawyer will say that the Legislature has not
| the power to give her that pond. She cannot
even on the theory that the West Branch is
| hers, take the headwa;ers of the Union river
and at the sane time complain of us for TAX
ing the head waters of the Penobscot The
principle is the same in both cases. 1t will
not do for her to say, "ours is a little and
yours is big violation" Such higgling over
virtue is not permitted among men.
Bangor, therefore, does not require the
West Branch for manufacturing purposes
There is no movement anywhere in the Pc
nobscot basin to build dams, nor to erect fac
tories. Our neighbor will not act the part OF
the dog in the manger much less will he,
supinely Indifferent to the bounties of nature
which are running to waste, repeat the impi-
Gus language of the monster in the apocry-
pha, my river is my own and have made
it for myself" As her interests are not in
any way injuriously affected she can have no