The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-07
WATER vs. FUEL.

haust it, or materially reduce its power-producing qualities. When wood or coal is burned there's an end of 1t. More of the sana kind of fuel must be provided to keep the steam go- ing, and when the fuel is all exhausted the production of steam power must cease. SO far as can now be foreseen.
 It is, different with the power pro- duced by water. whether that power is used directly or indirectly to generate electricity. The poet tells us that "the mill can never grind with the water that has passed" or something like that. we know. and it Is true that the same mili cannot bs again driven with the water that has passed it's wheels. but where a stream has falls or shoals succeeding each other we all know that the same water can be made to do duty wherever 1t can be held in store by dam and turned loose as needed. If there should be one hun dred or one thousand falls on one stream the water could be made to do service one hundred or one thousand times. It does not wear out or lose any of its power by repetition, though a little of 1t may be lost through svAp- oration. What continues to flow is as good and as effective at the last as at the first.
 This. we repeat is where the water has such an incaleuiable advantage over fuel in the production of power. Of course no one can tell with exact certainty just how much longer the supply of wood and coal win last. but those who arc best qualified to esti- mate 1t give but comparatively short time before all will be exhausted. un- less two things are done: either the forests must be replaced or means must be found to produce power and heat without fuel. At the rate wood and coal are now being consumed there Is not much longer life for either as fuel.
 These are the reasons that we hear so much about the conservation of our forests and also about reforestation, for thsre is double meaning in this movement. It means in the first place to maintain . supply of timber as long as possible. but that is not ell nor1the most important. The natural ccnse- quence of denuding lands is the in- jury of the streams of all regions where the lands are deprived of their growth of timber. This destruction of the forests renders the streams mere and more uncertain and thus tends to iniure the water-power and to render still more uncertain the supply of heat and motive power for future use.
 Thus 1t will be seen how wids-sprsad the interest in forest preservation is and should be. On that preservation or rehabilitation depends to notice able extent the scarcity or plenty of electricity for future use. The preser-
 
 vation of the forests means fewer floods during wet seasons and fewer dried-up streams during dry seasons This again means more extensive and reliable water power, and that means greater and more constant supply of the electric fluid for all pur- poses.
 Here we see the uniyersality. if we may so express it. of the good to be de- rived from the preservation of forest and stream for the water-powers of the United States are almost beyond imagination in extent and possibili- ties. The sessrnmsnt waterways Commission has the matter in hand and is expected te produce results of importance for the future. As we learn from The Boston Globe the Com mission "has formulated very elab- crate and expensive plan to control the yaterhow of all the rivers of the United States. This plan aims to build storage reservoirs near the headwaters of streams to govern the water supply. These reservoirs are designed to sup plement the natural storage of the for ests which remain in such watershed regions as the Appalaehians and about the headwaters of the Mississippi"
 That the government will pront by thus utilizing the streams over which it has control is beyond question. The engineers estimate that at the rate of twenty dollars per horsepower per an- mum. which Is a low price. there would be enough power available in the Ohio valley alone to bring to the govern ment an income of nearly seven mill lion dollars a year. When we reflect on the numbers of places where the water is going to waste, and where it can be utilized by the plan proposed. 1t Is easy to see that there is vast good to be done by carrying out the propo- sition. There's not only vast good for the future as well as the present but plainly there's millions In It," for the government.
 HE IS A DIsCREDIT.
 Senator Tom Platt has a hard time