The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-10
AN IMpoRrANr PROJECT.

AN IMPORTANT fNOSECT'
 Attention has heretofore been called to the formation of the Tallapoosa Wa ter Power and Electric Company, but 1t Is a project which deserves something more than a passing notice. The inn portanoe of electricity as a motive pow CT Is now too well established to re- quire argument in its support, for 1t IS one of the facts of the present era, and one which has come to stay. There are so many good points In its favor and they are so apparent to all who have given the matter any thought or at- tention that 1t would be a useless repe- tition&o speak of them.
 One of these good points. however is It's economy. When electric power has to be developed by steam the econ omy is not so apparent. The high price of wood and coal, and the con tinually increasing scarcity Of both have already made 1t plain that power produced in this way must become more expensive as time goes on, and the same objection stands good as to power pro- duced directly by steam itself. That' also. will continue to increase in cost as the natural fuel supply Is exhausted
 But with water-developed electric power the case Is entirely different. The power is all the time going to waste all through the northern and middle sections of Alabama and nothing Is needed but to harness and utilize 1t. Wherever there is a creek or river rum ming over rocks. there is power lying unused, and there an electric plant can be established and the machinery will work with ceaseless energy. driving machinery and cars. giving out light and force without the trouble and ex- pense of feeding furnaces with coal or wood and with little of the cost or un- certainty of steam power.
 The Tallapoosa Water and Electric Company proposes to establish a large plant at or near the village of Sturdi- want. on the Tallapoosa River. and on the line of the Central of Georgia Rail- way. The proposition is to expend at  there can be no doubt that the money will be we'll invested. We do not re- member to have seen a statement of the probable horsepower that can or will be developed, but 1t will undoubt- edly be immense. for there is large flow of water in the Tallapoosa, and the fall is sufficient to supply all the power that will be needed.
 The primary object of this enterprise is understood to be manufacturing, principally cotton factories, but 1t will not and should not be confined to that. There is much good pine as well as hardwoods within reach of the local ity, and it will certainly be a paying investment to erect some wood manu- featuring plants. Transportation fa- cilities, both North and South, are good. and finished wood products can be sent out to all parts of the country, as will be seen by a glance at the map, and thus both the timber owners and the man. ufacturers will be benefited.
 But there is another way in which this enterprise may prove of vast bene- fit to that section. and that is to use the power for travelling and transpor- tation purposes. Running street cars | by electricity has long ceased to be a novelty or an experiment, but 1t does | not stop there. In various sections oi the country they are experimenting with the same power for driving rail- road trains, and that has practically passed beyond the experimental stage Sturdivant is surrounded by a good agricultural and horticultural country aside from the, timber products, and the country is dotted with little towns without railroad facilities. Electric l roads connecting these towns and will lages would develop both them and the tributary country wonderfully, and dc more for the entire region than any thing else that can be done, especially when taken in connection with the manufacturing industries that are to be established. In short, from every point of view we look on this new project as an important one.
 The usually correct Washington Post speaks of a judge "who found a man [