The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-23


 Canadian side is imported to the American side to the extent of lS0,- GOO horse power.
 The BuFton Act gives the United States Government charge of the util- ization of the Niagara Falls water power. Congress. Tn exercising ls right to regulate interstate commerce.. may control the navigable streams of the country with out regard to who owns the bed. On this authority, it assumed charge of Niagara, much to the disgust of the users of the water power generated there. The opposi- tion argued that the rule didn't apply fin this case, that the falls and the whirlpool of Niagara were not nayt- gable. But reply to this came that these deficiencies in the commercial eye were of greater importance. anyway, being natural boundary of the coun- try and most important defense. If Niagara River were abolished the de- fense of the nation would be affected, and in event of international strife, Buffalo with its millions of dollars. Of shipping trade, would fall quickly into the hands Of the enemy, and great percentage of the G5,000,000 tons of produce that pass annually through the Great Lakes, suffer confiscation or amin ilation
 Manufacturers. still sore over their limited allowance of water, have point ed to the Governments own diversion Of water at the Shoshone Falls In the big Irrigation projects there, and argue that manufacturing a commodity into food or clothing or furniture Is quite as important as making homesteads and farms where the raw material from which these things are made can be raised. But the Government pur- sues the even tenor of it's way in the matter and doles out so many cubic feet of water per minute to the water power companies and preserves the na- tural beauties of the place. for the nature-lover and the perennial tour ist. . fsef
 For the use of electricity. per seven ty-five horse power, the average cost in Boston Is $s37 month, in New York or Brooklyn 69s, in Niagara Falls SI44. This, coupled with the exceptional transportation facilities, has made Ni- agara paradise for manufacturers, and has increased the village of 4,0e0 or 5.000 people. supported by tourist trade, to & city of 30,000 stable popu- lation, sustained by growing manu- featuring and commercial industries. In its process of industrial development, Niagara has oh eapened factory work, so that aluminium, for example, Is half its former price. As 1t is used in mak- HE RtdtGs tiC SoFAu in that one commodity is appreciable.
 The 400 or more factories at Niagara have. with few exceptions, doubled their capacities since they were built, and the 2,000 horsepower output of the earlier power houses has been in- creased accordingly By rail, Niagara manufacturers reach a wide stretch of territory. having access to seven branchas of the New York Central lines. and thirteen other roads. By water they have four canal and river outlets, and by trolley two intefna- tional lines. Within a radius of 500 miles of Niagara live 50.00o,o0o peo- pie.
 The labor expended in erecting the power houses and in excavating for the tunnel races at Niagara was enor- nous. With incredible skill and en- ergy the solid rock was cut to a depth of 200 feet for the erection of a build ing ten stories or more deep. The Wa ter Is diverted from a point above the falls and Is brought by a canal into the building, the flow carefully regu- lated, and, falling 1S0 feet to the tur- pines In the lowest basement, 1t sets in motion the giant dynamos on the ground floor, and brings Into being one of the finest systems of electric power in the world. After having served it's use, the water slips into a deep tunnel, suggestive in It's dark ness and In the sinuous flow of its waters, of Old World sub terannean passages and oubliettes of the days of the French Revolution. But this tunnel is devoted to the reign of peace and industry, and Is a useful and unwarlike tail race 1000 feet long that finds fits way under tue city, and discharges into the river below the falls.
 Millions of dollars have been ex- pended in harnessing the falls to the more menial tasks of turning the wheels of modern industry. The perfection of the power houses has called for superior engineering skill and the highest examples of mechan- ism ohtainable The architecture. in conformity with the demands of mod ern civic pride. is of such an excel- lence that the buildings, especially those on the Canadian side--the gen. erating and distributing stations for a00, 900 horse power force--have been taken for universities, or art pail aces. The power Is distributed to cities miles away, furnishing motive powe- for cars, for factories and in one particular instance, the heat for baking in a cFaker factory.
 If good old Father Hennepin could come back he would find vast change Jne SuTIOuuulIlkb LnS Ah1lS CAhCC he first saw them that momentous day over two centuries ago. The falls themselves have not changed percep- tibly, as can be seen from the little sketch he made tn en and had publish ed in 1898, for on the American side the recession of the falls by erosion is only two-tenths- of a foot per year, but the surroundings are vastly differ ent. Where he saw only nature in ha,- rHyfl6 ha uynHfld And today that civilization had taken things in hand and had beautifed little and marred more. Factories have come and have elbowed one another along the river side In an attempt to get good place near the power giving flow; hotels have set themselves on heights and points overlooking the falls so that the beauty lover and the globe trotter may sit and look on the wonder at will, and find physical com fort in doing 1t. More huwble dwell- ings have crept to the banks below the falls, and trolleys whirr on threads of steel along the sh ort-line far be- low the whirlpool, and loop back again.
 The Indians told the good explorer- priest the legend of the maid of the falls. Every year the best fruits of the harvest field and of the chase were tlaced In a canoe as a propitia ton to the gods. A beautiful maiden was placed in the bow, and as the canoe was sent over the Falls she chanted a. song. Could Father Hennepin look over the shoulder of the Secretary of the State Reservation when he is working on his annual report he would see that, the spirit of the Falls has captured others than the Indian maid en. for the last fiscal year shows that