The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-07
A VAST COMBINATION
CONTROLLING WATER POWER, STREET RAIL
 WAY, GAS AND ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANIES
Address of U s. Corporation Commissioner Smith Before Conservation Congress Marked Progress Toward Mutuality of Interests Among Public Service Corpor ations-What Preventives Are Possible

St. Paul, Sept. This country is | confronted with the danger of a vast combination controlling not the water power only but the street railway, gas | and electric light companies, according to an address delivered by Herbert l Knox Smith, United States Commis- sioner of Corporations. at the session of the National Conservation Congress today.
 Control over the neceSSarieS of life, he said, was, essentially governTn ental. He spoke in part as follows: "fFTor us,
 mechanical power is a basic necessary.
 Our chief present resources of power
 supply,-coal, petroleum and natural
 gas,-although at present ample, are absolutely fixed in quantity and cannot
 be replaced. Water-power is the one important source of mechanical power now practically available which is self renewing. Effective restraint imposed by competition is becoming more and
 more improbable. There has been a marked concentration of water-power control in private hands and this pro cess is advancing rapidly. Public reg ulatfon of water-poweF is the only a1- formative.
 '"The investigation of developed wat
 CT powers now being made by the Bureau of Corporations shows that up to date IS concerns or closely allied interests control over 1.So0, 900 horse power of the water power developed or in the process of construction, and aQQ1C1On over 1;4UO,UUU horse power of undeveloped water power. The total water power in use in the United States in 1908, as estimated by the Census and Geological Survey, was mercially capable of development is variously estimated at from 30 to 60 million horse power, the smaller figure bulk of both developed and undeve1op- ed water-power lies on the Pacific Coast, the Northwest. Northeast and the South Atlantic States Our power demand as measured by the total un- duplicated capacity of all prime nov ers-stean1, water, and gas-is now at least 30 million horsepower
 -ttIn California, for example, four principal hydro-electric companies do- rninate the water-power industry and they have a very strong hold on the most important power markets. And between these four concerns there is also evidence of considerable harmony.
 "Conditions somewhat like this exist in the Puget Sound territory, in the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, in Colorado in Montana and in the Caro- 1inas. Tn each of these sections at least one, or at most concerns are predominant in their control of water powers, public service companies and power markets.
 s'The horsepower figures, however, do not fully represent the extent of powers have, of course. been developed first. These will always hold a dis dominant position over later developed and less favored pow CTS, because of their lower operating cost and prior hold on the important power markets.
 There is a marked progress toward a rnutuality of interests among pub lie service companies generally, electric light, power, gas. and street railway concerns. The significant identity of officers and directors in a large number 0f such companies throughout the United States in very remarkable.
 Men who are officers or directors of the General Electric Companies, or of it's three wholly controlled compan-