The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-27
rHs 1owxn or rK1 YuTu1z.

THD 1oWx1 or TH1 xuTu1L.
 The atiusiou xnAds ty 6snAxne xorean in his speech ct the cavltol to Alabauna's water-power vas timsly and appropraata and along tho same line the following from Thh Raleigh CN. C.) Post is sus- gestfve:
 Tn switseriand every little. village, and every humble cot therein, is lighted by tors being furnishsd by the little streams wniGh sDouns MSw %sny strs; ,r: ..a sssn can furnish one or ten or twenty-horse power? And how many small industries. or labor-saving devices about the home eu es re not s sSPP ws power running wild in the larger streams of this State to turn all the splindies now in operation in the world, These larger nas bnt snrey TSe smaller however. are also capable of, great use- fulness, and should be brought into the active support of the homes an larms within reach of them.
 What is true of North Caroina is equal ly true of Alabama. Expensive. cumber- some and dirty coal as a wasteful power producer has had its day. It was a king Ay III hhC ZCAhth VI ite ACA6h beS that reign is over. There are times, places and occasions where nothing yet tried can take the place of coal and there it must hold its supremacy for the pres ent, at least, but its sphere of action is narrowing and 1t can never regain what 1t has lost. Electric energy developed by water is the motive power of the future.
 The idea held by some that large stream and a high fall is necessary to operate an electric plant is a mistake. In the olden times we have seen huge water-wheels driven by mere brooks, driving machinery for grinding corn and wheat. saving lumber and other pur- poses and they did their work well. The same water and falls would operate an electric plant ten times as powerful as was the cumbrous machinery of the old mills. What Montgomery is getting from Taiiassee is but a pairing. so to speak. of the great fruit concealed in the immense energy stored up by the Tallapoosa river.
 But because we are getting power fin Montgomery from a source which can furnish an almost unlimited supply is no evidence that large streams and high falls are absolute necessities. As The Post says of Switzerland and of North Caro- lima we may say of Alabama. In more than one-half of our State every stream has falls capable of operating an electric plant. If it only develops few horse- power it will light town or village and drive the machinery of small mill, a cot ton gin or shop. It is silent tireless and easily managed. It does its work while men rest and sleep and never strikes for higher wages or shorter hours. When Franklin brought down lightning from the clouds he touched spring whose possibilities no man can compute.
 Tn the far-away time whose antiquity the geologists vainly endeavor to com- pute Nature stored away in the dark cav erns of earth vast stores of coal for tha good of the future inhabitants of our planet. So far as we can see that stor- age process ended ages ago and there is no prospect that the work is to be re- peated. New coal fields are discovered but no new coal is forming, so far as can be seen. In time the stores will be ex- hausted and there will be an end.
 With electricity the case Is entirely different. So far as human intelligence can foresee the supply is inexhaustible | and practically boundless. It is every
 where, ready and waiting to be harnessed
 and put to work. Every mountain stream
 is a store-house of energy. Every water
 fall Is a magazine of power from which
 man can draw at will. King Coal must
 resign his sceptre for the lightning has disarmed and uncrowned him.