East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-06-25
BANKERS SPEND
DAY AT WENAHA
CONTINUED from page ~

ernment demands a royalty of SO
cents or 50 per ton for the coal that
is mined, 1t is not the miner that is
compelled to pay this charge, II is not
the company that takes il from the
mine but It is the man who uses il to
create power to turn the wheels Of
industry,it is the man who burns it
in his cook stove or heater, who even
tually pays this so cents or 50. And
whether 90 cents or So is charged,
the manufacturing industry of the
northwest is crippled to that extent
Thus charge is placed upon the
manufacturing interests in this part
of the country that is not placed up
on those in any other part of the
union.
why was not this policy of leas-
ing our natural resources put into
effect years ago? Why can we not
have our lands and our water power
on the same plan as the older states
obtained theirs?
me magazines and papers are full
OF tommyrot about somebody trying
to steal something from the people
bureau has actually been formed
at Washington which has an equal
in no other bureau of publicity in
America. From this bureau there
are sent out broadcast. misstate-
ments, false statements and half
truths to the great detriment of the
west.
There is a total of 66,51S,OOO
horsepower available in the United
States. Twenty million of this is east
of the Mississippi river The balance
is in the west. In the rivers and
streams flowing into the Pacific ocean,
there is to be found $4,000, 900 horse
power the balance of the difference
between the 2O,OOO,OOO and the &c.
$4,000 flows from the west into the
Mississippi river.
Says Monopoly Is Impossible.
IF a dam We're built at every mile
or at every point in the Deschutes
river at which a dam could be built
until the full 100000 horsepower
We're developed. the water in the
stream would not be destroyed.
After it was used by the first mill,
little or big, at the head of the stream
it would be passed on down to the
next until the entire 100 or more
mills and factories or electric power
plants were served. There could be
no monopoly of the power possible
because it would be impossible for
any man or group of men to buy or
get control of the entire river.
More than one-third of all the
available horsepower in the United
States is to be found in the basin of
the Columbia river and the Puget
sound. There is 24,000,000 horse
power here of which only 100000 is
developed. If the undeveloped pow
er should be developed at the rate of
10000 horsepower per year it would
require 2440 years or 500 years more
than the period from the Christian
era to the present time. If it should
be developed at the rate of 100000
horsepower per year it would require
240 years or eight generations. to de-
velop the full amount available. And
yet men, men who we once consid-
cred able and reliable, nave the au-
dacity to write in magazines and to
declare from public platforms their
belief that there is danger of some
one coming here and grabbing up all
this waterpower. 1t is perfectly ridi-
culous. I wish they would come out
and grab it up. I wish they would
come out and help us develop 1t.
Help us build dams, erect factories
and construct electric roads. We
should welcome them with open
arms. But instead they have been
grabbed by the forestry service.
Water Saves Coal.
"In the city of Spokane we have
developed $4,000 horsepower and if
we had not done so it would require
annually a million tons of coal to
produce the power thus obtained.
million tons of coal taken from the
mines, leaves a million tons less than
there were before. The coal and
wood may some day be consumed but
it is impossible to consume water
power. The rivers of the west are
flowing toward the sea just the same
as they were a thousand or ten thou
sand years ago and just the same as
they will be flowing for ten thousand
years to come. 1t is impossible to
consume the water. The time is COM
ing, ana IL Is IOL ldl uiotoi'i NhN''
the railroads of the country will be
run by electricity, not steam.
No Tax on Government Owned Power
"If the government owns this wa
ter power after it is developed as
well as before it will be impossible
for the people of the states in which
the power sites are located to obtain
any returns in tie shape of taxes
Indeed. it will not only be impossible
to tax this resource, but the people OF
the west will be compelled to pay the
government a royalty for the priv
ilege of developing and using it..
"The water power and other nat
ural resources should be turned over
to US as under the old plan or IT
should be turned over to the states
and I think that President Taft should
not oppose this latter plan The |
states have the machinery to control
and regulate this thing, but the ma
tional government has not.
Government Does Not Own Water.
But in the first place the govern
nent does not own a single drop of
water in any stream in the country.
It all belongs to the states and yet the
zxf]zzaFs