Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-17
WATER POWER SAFE
Monopoly Impossible, Says
General Electric Official.
NO ATTEMPT TO CONTROL
Concern Has Interest in Only Six
Plants. Says ]. r. Mckee.
SMALL PROFIT IS SHOWN
No Dividends Declared by Niagara
Falls Congratulations
Over America.
NO ATTEMPT TO CONTROL
SMALL PROFIT IS SHOWN
BY WILLIAM r.. CURTIS.

Herald.
J. r. Mckee. in charge of the water
power installations OF the General Elec-
trio Company. says:
The question of that company or any
body else getting up water power mo-
nopoly is so ridiculous that il is difficult
to understand how any sane man can put
any faith in the suggestion.
So far as the General Electric Com
pany proper is concerned" continued Mr..
Mckee, the only water power plants in
winch We have an interest are six in num-
Der. They are located in Missouri, North
Carolina. Connecticut, New York. Colorado
and California. The largest amount we
nave In any one company is $4,000. and
in every case the interest was acquired
In the settlement of indebtedness
For perfectly apparent reasons / do
not think it would be judicious to publish
the names OF the companies. 1t might be
| considered violation of business ethics
IF you will look over Bulletin No 1870.
| which was issued by the General Electric
Company nine years ago. in August, 1900,
you will see a list of 244 water-power
| transmission plants scattered all over the
country, and. in fact, all over the world,
and will note that they all antedate the
| forestry service and everything of that
character. This list does not include any
of the thousands of plants which have
been Set up since 1900. but IL will give you
an idea OF the enormous number and the
| amount of capital which was invested in
them before the forestry policy was
adopted.
which brings the list down to later date
| and shows when each company was es-
tablfshed, the capital invested in il and
| the character OF the plant.
First Water Company.
Probably the first electrical transmits
sion OF water power was that Of the Tel
| luride Power Company in San Miguel
county, Col. l.. l.. Num-, an eastern
| lawyer, was asked to take charge of an
Improbable mining investment of a
Cleveland company who wanted him to
work something out of IL. Ii was situated
at high elevation. where fuel was very
costly, so that he could not use steam.
and after several unsuccessful attempts,
he succeeded in rigging a single phase
transmission with a motor which proved
to be economical.
1T has grown from that small begin
ming until the company now operates
eight separate stations with q combined
| capacity of more than 10000 horsepower.
That was the beginning of the Num- in
terests, which are very large in Utah,
Colorado and Idaho. His largest plant is
lighting and general purposes.
Ine company has in operation thirty
hve miles OF hues and pipe lines, and
approximately six hundred miles of trans
mission lines, and four hundred miles of
telephone lines. This is more indicative
of the increased use of power in that
section OF the country than it is of the
growth OF water powers, because the
plants owned by the Telluride Power
Company are every one Of them on land
| owned by the companies themselves, and
none Of them is on forest reserves.
Public Would Not Invest.
I'm regard to the General Electric Com
pany," continued Mr.. Mckee, THE his
tory of the electrical business as
whole. would just as we'll tell what in
terests it has in water powers. Going
back to 1890, and even a little earlier.
the question of electric lighting plants
was largely one OF confidence on the part
of the manufacturer who was making
electrical machinery.
The suggestion that the public should
raise a large sum of money and the cleo
trio company simply stand ready to sup
ply apparatus and make profit out Of it
! was good proposition possibly, but the
public did not recognize it as such. In
their minds it was entirely too expert
mental with the result that to build up
the lighting business the manufacturers
OF machinery mao 10 ma the people VINO
would put up the money. organize the
company and make the investment
Hence you will find that most Of the
large cities have what is called the Edison
Electric Lighting Company In Chicago you
will find the Chicago Edison Company and
so on all over the country, the reason I'm
| those cases being that in early days the
Edison company, as such, induced capital
lists and among them their own directors
and stockholders, to subscribe to the funds
necessary to install these plants.
1T is hardly necessary to say that the
enterprises were successful. The Edison
! company prospered therefrom, as well as
did the individuals who made the invest
ments.
Electrification of Railroads.
1.-The same process was followed by the
Edison and Thomson Houston companies
in connection with the electrifying OF
railroads. The first electrification OF
street railroads had to be done at the ex-
-pense of the companies that furnished
the plants. The people who were In
those companies. in rendering such as
sistance. not only found the money TO ex-
plot the enterprises, but the manu-
facturers themselves. a rule. accepted
stock or bonds Of the new enterprises as
partial payment for apparatus to be fur
nished by them.
'The result of this. for instance, at the
and Thomson Houston companies. was
that the combined treasures of those two
companies had more than SIS 10000 worth
of securities of this character.
1T was recognized at that time that
| the business had become so we'll estab-
lished that it would hardly be necessary
for the parent companies to continue this
policy and, therefore, subordinate COM
panies were organized and the above
mentioned securities were turned over to
| them. The plan which was carried out
was that these subordinate companies
would sell and realize on them and also
be prepared to handle additional securities
of any new companies that might come
up and require assistance. and i'm this
way relieve the parent companies of re-
sponsibilty.
Several companies were the result of
this, such as the United Electric Securi-
ties Company, the Electric Bond and
Share Company. ETC. These companies
have operated as entirely separate con-
Germs, but friendly to the interests of
the parent companies, when by render
ing financial aid they could assist In
building up the electrical business.
Referred to Subordinate Concerns.
Incidental to this, the next develop
ment was in connection with water pow
err. and when assistance was wanted by
different people to organize or exploit
a water power company they were al
ways referred to these subordinate COM
panies. / do not believe there is single
one of these water propositions in the