Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-03-08

| He said: The commission have Just
! finished Il survey of the region to the
| Forth OF Moosehead, at Brasua Lake
and at Attean Pond and at numer-
Gus other places, we have found that
| water storage can be provided which
will provide Moosehcad with all the
| power that can be ever used on its
vast tributaries FOR EOW and forever,
without disturbing that water level.
| And, he said. you can 90 to Rangeley
You can so north towards Parma
, cl..l ,--. ~ .-,.. - - t,t "'tc h,t1-
| dred and tIi.t y-ln.v' !..hcs that are
| tributary to the .AndroscOggin-y
can go to over five hundred streams
| which carry down their foods to that
| rivcr-you cen go to the Maggalloway
river and you can store all the water
| that will ever be needed to double the
| AndroscogSin in its capacity and pro-
vide all the mills with power from
Rumford Falls to the tidal waters Of
the sea.
Now, gentlemen, il did not believe
| that this could be done,-if l believed
we were going TO cripple those indus
tries, there would be different prop
SO. The people on the other side will
not deny that il is possible and feas-
ible to build a dam and store water
on the Magalloway and on the north
of the Rargeley Lake system; and
when they do il, tho Union Water
Power Company need not do it-no
/ individual mill need do it, but the
twenty-five million dollars capital OF
the Androscoggin properties return
ing the richest reward as it does
to the stoc kholders, can make n levy:
ana the sum has been put as low as
one hundred and fifty to two hundred
thousand dollars. accomplish that work
and settle the question now and for
ever to the end that. when we have
similar questions to this raised, the
people interested shall contribute Of
their great means AID solve them.
have had it thrown up that with
me it is a mater of sentiment.
If it is sentiment. to be proud OF
those resources with which God has on
dowed Us, and 10 wish to preserve
them. l yield to the sentiment; and, Le-
hind tina. sentiment there is a most
profound mercCnary reason for adNo-
eating this very step and that is, that
that sentiment means q steady flow of
wealth into this State distributed from
the seacoaSt to the mountains, in Il way
in which a distribution in a more con-
centrated forR either to mills or to
camp proprietors cannot approach.
Cut out that sentiment if you will
and you reverse the step which You
have taken, and wisely taken, for years
to preserve the so-called summer in
tcrests and scenic tcauties to the people
Of our State and the United States.
Throw down, if you will, all your APP
preparations which you have made to
stock your fish as an incentive for poo
pie to come nere-notify them if you
will and you have notified them by
this very agitation-and you have in
jured the people at the lakes. Nov,
" natcvcr the end Of this discussion
may bc-you have injured them beyond
rcI,air by the proposition going out 70
the United States that the very thought
is harborcd here of drawing upon these
lakes. You can do it, II you will. You
can turn back the tide Of travel COM
ing here at the rate of 400, 000 people q
year and leaving here between mil
lion and a half and two million dol
lars. 1t is within your power to do
it; but, when you turn back that gold
en- tide you turn it back not only from
Rangeley and lMoosehead, but you turn
it back from the whole coast and the
whole State. because those people who
come here. come to not one section only
but they spend their summer at the
seashore and then go to the lakes and
that is perfectly well known.
You have power to do all this: but,
when you cut out sentiment you cut
OF all these things. you cut out all the
literature that has ever been inspired
by the love of the natural beauty Of our
State.
1 have heard Of pessimistic pictures
drawn of the future of this State of
ours. l have heard men draw the pic
ture that in our day and generation,
we will live to see our forests stripped,
our waters polluted, our fish killed, our
lakes mud banks; and then six months
of winter. In such an arid wintrv
waste what is there left to those Of us
who are established here, and whose
children and children's children expect
to live here after us? What is there,
my friends, then left?
I do not take that view. I believe
this very discussion is going to slim
ulate such wave of enthusiasm, of in
trrcst and faith in our good State that
we shall make n stand for what little
Is left for US of our great natural re-
sources. 1 prefer to take the view of
the most eloquent epitome 1 have ever
read Of our good State, which I would