Lincoln County record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1900-1905, 1905-04-21
Vandalism a Niagara Falls.

The spirit of brutal utilitarianism
which tries everything by the test of
athe money there is in it," grows
holder with every success. We have
scarcely cooled down from the bitter
indignation that was aroused by the
Disagreement OF our Subway by the
bill-poster, before be are confronted
with an attempt to sacrahce the
heat;ful American Falls of niagara
10 tbe ambitions Of few men, who
ses visions of great profit in the en-
eroy Of the falling waters.
We have made no protest against
tbe previous use of Niagara Falls
for commercial purposes, because it
has not as yet been attempted on a
large scale that would seriously in
terfere with the scenic beauties of
the Falls; but the present attempt
to secure legislative authority for
developing something like half a
million hydraulic horsepower, at
the expense of the volume of water
flowing over the American Falls, is
40 serious as to call for a halt in
what is becoming case OF ugly van
dalism. The New York State Geol-
ogist has stated that when $4,000
cubic feet of water per second has
been taken away from the Niagara
River above the Falls, the American
Falls will cease to exist. The
American Falls will run dry before
the Canadian Falls, because the
ledge over which they pass is at a
hipher elevation than the larger falls
on the Canadian side. The bills
now before the Legislature, should
they be passed, will give to the vari-
ous com panies that are behind them
the power to take away an amount
of water that will go far toward
wiping out the greatest object OF
natural beauty east of the Rocky
Mountains.
The Niagara Falls are the pride of
America and the wonder of the
world. They are the proper object
of delight to millions Of people, and
they will naturally, unless they are
destroyed, form, for all time to
come, one of the most popular
points of scenic interest in the world
On the other hand, "there is
money" in these Falls-lots of it
for the people. 1t is argued that
much useful energy going to waste
at the Falls, that could be turned to
a great commercial advantage; but
it is not necessary that this energy
should be developed, i'll as much as
equal energy can be developed in
other ways, such as utilizing less
important water falls, or by burning
bituminous coal under steam boil
ers. But If this energy were pro
duced from coal, it would be done
with less profit to few individuals
than if it was developed at the Nj
agara Falls. In other words, there
there is more money in using up the
Falls than using up the equivalent
amount of bituminuus coal. Now,
the object of the bills at Albany Is
to enable those few individuals to
make that extra amount of money,
represented by the difference in
cost between generating a certain
amount of energy from the Falls
end generating the same amount of
energy from anthracite coal.
That is the long and short of it.
And the spirit which is back of
this attempted vandalism is the same
spirit that is becoming rampant
throughout the whole of our COM
mercial life-a spirit of cold, hard,
ugly utilitariaDism which, if not
curbed in this and many other siui-
lar cases that confront us at every
turn, will work irreparable injury to
the ideals and the character of this,
the youngest, and as many OF us be-
lieve, the greatest among the nations
of the earth. Scientific American.
Unucky Thirteen.