The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-02-01
VINO Owns the Water.

The same Organized greed which has
already exploited the other natural re.
sources 81 the country Tor personal gain
il now doing its audaeious and crafty
best TO secure also OF the water. And
unless the public does wake up-and
wakes III wrath, sternly determined to
over. forever, as a free gift TO a little
birthright twenty five years viii ad TO
thep resent peeraqe OF Ironmasters, Coal
Hinge Land Barons, and Petroleum
Princes a vastly greater list Of Mon
archs Of Water And an aristocracy OF
wealth. based on H-O is more dangerous
than any other; coat, iron copper and
oil deposits will some day be exhausted;
properly conserved the water supply will
last forever and wealth based on its con-
troll will 90 on increasing to the end Of
time.
To the myopie and Indifferent public
the idea Of a few men getting control
Of the water supply and of drawing vast
wealth from that control win sound like
the foolish wall Of a crackAbrained sem
sationalist; it will arouse only fstu.
GUS smile Of ignorant contempt. But the
readers of this magazine have heard of
the turbine water wheel; they know
what Is meant BY the long distance
transaili saon Of electric power; they are
able to realize what it means to hand
over. forever, as free gift to ahttle
coterie OF men the absolute control of
the incalcnlable power developed by the
rivers and streams OF the United States.
And -pray God---onee they do understand
the situation, they will not smile, but
samite. The Congress Of the United
States and the legislatures of the var
ious states are the danger points which
must be constantly watched If the peo-
pie are to be saved from spoliation,
When the fret cost of atsrpower
development and distribution plant have
been met, il win put the richest gold
mine to shame In the potent matter Of
profits. In the latter case the supply
OF ore must be continually dug from
deeper and deeper levels; this ore must
be crushed and the gold extracted at
a considerable cost for the labor and
materials; and every night the mine-own-
cr goes to bed with the fear that on
the morrow his rich veins cay pinch
out into a stratum Of worthless sehist.
The owner OF water power, on the
other hand, If the watershed Of the
stream which he controls is properly
protected and this work the people will
be forced, for compelling reasons, to do
at their own expense, no matter who
gets the incidental benefit-may sit
snugly at home. knowing that at no
cost for raw materials; no cost of manu-
facture or for labor-save the trihe re-
quired fer the upkeep and management
OF his plaintiffs spinning turbines win
deliver every day and iwenty-four hours
each day two. five. ten thousand horse
power. available any where within two
hundred miles at the end Of a copper
wire the size Of a mans thumb, And
in any market such power is worth up
wards Of twenty dollars per year for
each unit. Most comfortable of all. the
happy owner Of a perpetual water-power
franchise rests secure in the certainty
that. humanity speaking. the golden
stream viii DO the end Of time pour its
forty. hundred OF two hundred thous-
and dollars a year into the distant mon
ey bags Of his most remote descendants
From The New Monopoly in Water,
by Henry N. Hyde, in the February
Technical World Magazine