The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-04-23
CORNER FORMED
ON WATER POWER
HARTMAN AND ASSOCIATES VAST FUTURE MONOPOLY IN
THE MISUNDERSTANDING SOUTHERN PACIFIC PART OF
SCHEME PLANNED-GovERNMENT REALIZES DANGER OF THE
TRUSTS CONTROL NATURES RESOURCES.

Some of Harriman's principal assist
ants in the railroad business are una
ware of the change that is under way,
or at least they are oblivious to it. They
master-that is all They see the big
coal and oil burning locomotives and
cannot understand how lighter motors,
driven by electricity, can take their
place But Hartman does, and he Is
already Planning the larger features
of his scheme of evolution. The plan
will unfold rapidly enough after Harri-
man has obtained control of all the wa
all of the water power west of the
Mississippi river. He works on a, big
scale, and he needs lots of power to
make his big wheels move.
ELECTRIFYING SOUTHERN PACI-
FIG.
The e.ectrifying of the Southern Pa
ciiic will bring about smaller cars,
smaller trains and more frequent scne-
dulles. The wayside business will be
much greater than at present, and
places now given to the desert will be
inhabited. Towns will spring up along
the new electric roads and the local
business will be enormous This is the
experience of Indiana, where interur-
ban trolleys have worked up an i'm
luense freight business in square COM
petition with steam roads. With cheap
motive power the Southern Pacific will
be able to penetrate every nook of
California and bring out business.
The prediction is made by govern
ment officers who have looked into
this matter that the Southern Pacific,
if it remains under Harriman's man
agement or that of man approximate
ly as enterprising, and if it is electri-
fed as he plans, will become a mar
velous factor in increasing the popu-
lation and wealth of California and
the coast generally. They say they
are not indulging a prophecy but mere
coast, taking into consideration also
the enormous water power resources of
California. They predict that electri-
city will supplant even crude oil in
every industry in the state. Power
will be so cheap that manufacturing
enterprises of all kinds will be in
stalled and dependence upon the easi
will be reduced to a minimum.
Upon this cheap power development
also, they think the Asiatic commerce
of the coast will depend, for the Pana-
ma canal places San Francisco on
sidetrack when commerce between New
York and the Orient is concerned. II
is only by underselling New York that
San Francisco can compete with New
York in the Chinese and Japanese bust
ness after the opening of the canal
Cheap power will enable the coast tt
do this.
Some of the government people won
der whether power will be as cheap IL
such hands as Harrimans as it would
be if the government and the stat,
should safeguard such natural source
of wealth. They think California
ought to cooperate quickly with Pres
ident Roosevelt in heading off the en-
terprising spectators who are gobblin
up water power 1t is partly to throw
a little light upon the water powe
N
vited the governors of the states to tn
White House next month. He will tel
them a few things that are going OF
in their own states which they ma!
not know. He stands ready to do al
in his power to bring about govern
ment conservation of these resources
and congress, if it obeys the plain pop
ular mandate, will preserve all waite
power on navigaDle streams for tn,
use of the public. This is a Roosevelt
policy that cannot be questioned. Tit
nonnavigable streams, however, are IL
the hands of the states, and it de
ponds upon the state executives, who
are not Roosevelts, to guard these
sources of public wealth. The chances
are that the water powers of all the
western states are like those of Cali,
fornia-already in the nav of private
monopoly, to be disgorged only by mair
force,-Ira E. Burgett in S. F. Call.
9+9+S+9+3+ Ss%S+3c +o&o%3C
publication now it would scarcely ex
:, cite remark The heresy of the six
ties has become the credo of 1900. TO
day who expects to stand in a row
with other musical ghosts around
throne? Who anticipates a white rob
and palm branch, a Lyman book, ant
an eternal prayer meeting as the ac
cessories of his future lot?
Il am not afraid to say that tn
deepest longing of the individual ma
: ture, If turned in the high direction