Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-12-04
A MIGHTY FORCE.
Niagara Falls WIN Soon lie Tanned by
Electricity.
LSsecIal Corresi'ondenee.l


NEW Yd%, Nov. Ex-Governor Flower
of New York state does not pretend TO be
anything of rhetorician, nor has he ever
studied any of the rules laid down in the
books by which it is said that n person can
make of himself an interesting public
speaker. Yet during the last four or five
weeks the governor has been making n Sc
ries of speeches throughout New York state
which ought to be collected and printed
since they are of interest and importance to
every person in the United States who de-
ponds for his livelihood upon agriculture.
Governor Flower in these addresses has
insisted that the best farming, the most
businesslike cultivation of the soil, may
prove of no avail to the farmer unless there
are good roads, so that he may convey the
product of the soil to the nearest transpor-
tation place with the least cost The gov
ernor's idea is that there has been a very
great wastage and unconscious extrava-
gance all over the United States on ac-
count of poor roads, and he has sail to the
people of New York that he believes it
would be economy for the townships to
combine with the state to construct every
where throughout the state public high
ways that will be smooth unaffected by
grades, so that the cost not only of traps-
porting the product of the farms to the
nearest railway or canal stations would be
reduced, bat also the wear and tear upon
farmers vehicles, upon horses and draft
beasts would be greatly lessened, thereby
reducing expense.
These speeches, while they may have no
rhetorical interest nor those charms which
are furnished by great orators, neverthe-
j. ava n1
diate influence, which after all is the true
test of oratory. For it is quite likely that
the legislature of the state of New York
Will appropriate money that, in conjunc-
ton with proportionate appropriations by
the townships of the state, within the
next five or six years will pay the ex-
penses of furnishing New York state from
one end to the other with public highways
which are rs perfect in their construction
and appointments rs are those of the rail
ways.
Recently Governor Flower met number
of gentlemen who represented capitalists
controlling in the aggregate probably half
a billion dollars in the suburbs of the city
of Rochester, and it was the law partner of
President Cleveland, or rather the lawyer
who had such association with the presi-
dent in the four years between his first and
second term, who said that he had heard
many NuElllluS anu powerful OTillOnS, out
after all he had never heard one that was
of SO mighty consequence and suggestion
to the American people as that one which
Governor Flower delivered upon that occa-
sion.
The governor and the party were more
than 100 miles from Niagara falls. They
were standing upon IL CanalbOat. Over the
canal and about half way between either
bank there had been put up wires such rs
-hs,
in cities in operation are familiar with.
The governor, Mr.. Francis Lynde Stetson,
the recent law partner of President Cleve-
land; the president of the New York Pro
duce Exchanges; Mr.. Thomas that veteran
telegrapher, who, with General Eckert
and General Arson Stager, was the first to
send messages over the wires after Morse
had demonstrated the commercial avail
ability of his invention; Mr. Balch, DR.
Coleman Sellers, one of the greatest
mechanical engineers of the world: Nicola
Tesla, whose discoveries in the world of
electricity have almost rivaled those of
Edison; George Westinghouse, who is one
of the most marvellous and interesting de
velopers in his career of these later days of
the nineteenth century, and many other
men, representing great achievements and
great capital, stood upon this eanalboat, and
when the electric power was transmitted
of speech, said that the American business
world was on the era of a new develop
ment. For it was made plain that the trolley
system was as available for canalboats as
it is for street cars, and the farreaching
and momcntous consequences of that devel-
opment to the American people, and cspe-
cially To the farmers of the far west, can
hardly be appreciated.
Governor Flower i'll his speech, simple in
| words wit hOolt nd hox-i,,rr no
highest enthusiasm of eioquence, sincerity
and earnestness, said that with good roads
| in every state and with the demonstration
that electricity was available for the pro
| pulsion of canalboats, the American people
stand on the threshold of new era, and
one which promises greater prosperity than
any which they have experienced in the
| past. The extraordinary suggestion of
| these experiments was that by the use OF
| the force of Niagara falls, and n quantity
| of water which would decrease the flow
| over the falls less than two inches, or an
| amount not appreciable to the eye, there
can be furnished power which will carry
| the wheat and grain of the prairies of the
/ west to the markets and furnish the cheap.
/ est transportation for other products.
1t was said at that gathering that before
| the beginning of the twentieth century il
was probable that the power which has
gone to waste for the 100 years since the
| United States became nation would, now
that it had been captured, furnish light
heat, and driving force for the states oil
New York, Ohio Pennsylvania, as well as
the greater part of lower Canada.
L. ]. EDWARDS.