Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-03-02
MILLIONS IN GOLD
LOST EVERY YEAR
so SAYS LYMAN E. COOLEY, HY-
DRAULlC ENGINEER OF
CHICAGO.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER DAMS
Proposed Waterway Dams Would
Yield $e,o0o,ooo Annually to
State Revenue If Utilized
for Power.

If the present watchdogs Of our
state treasury should suddenly be
slipped up on and told that eight
millions of yellow dollars were each
year dripping through their out
stretched fingers there would be q
howl raised which would ~reverberate
from the stone bluffs at Jefferson
City to the uttermost confines of Cal
laway county. Likewise there would
be many wild-eyed state employees
running amuck with handfuls of ochre
to plug up the aforesaid leaks, and all
of General Rumboldt's newly-uni
formed minions, not to mention Gov
ernor Hadley's colonies, would be sci
a.Watching until each and every yell
low dollar had been found, officially
pinched, and sealed with the thumb
nail mark of the pinching officials
Yet that there are just that many dol
lars slipping by the state is said to
be true, and no less a parsonage thar
the Hon. Lyman E. Cooley of Chicago
engineer extraordinary, has the honor
of so informing us.
Mr.. Cooley was engaged by the
state of Illinois, the Lakes-to-the-Guli
Deep Waterway Association, and 9th
er organizations to report upon
the method, cost, etc, of building the
proposed fourteen-foot waterway from
Chicago to the Gulf. In his report
now a matter of newspaper history
and engineering discussion, Mr.. Cooley
briefly mentioned that dams would
have to be built at two places along
the Missouri border-one at Jefferson
Barracks, and one at Commerce.
Taking the dimensions of these pro
posed dams on a large sheet Of paper
in one hand. and a blue pencil in the
other, the Missouri Waterway Com
mission, which for the past year has
been digging and wading-mostly
wading-into the water resources OF
the state, began figuring what all OF
this water which was to go over the
jumps would do if properly harnessed.
The figures arrived at eclipse even
IuS duIOlllUDIlS duNSl LIpGnlGul6 anu
the Missouri egg permutations.
1t takes a lot to hold down a chunk
Of water a mile wide, more or less,
and twenty feet thick, when it falls
eight feet straight down. The result
in electric horse power is the trifling
sum of two hundred thousand for
each dam, making four hundred thou
sand for two-adding being our strong
point-which figure brings with it the
realization that there are thousands
Of manufacturers painfully aching fol
a chance to pay $4,000 per year fol
each one of these electric horse pow
m%ultiplier in the third reader class
can easily ascertain that four hun
dred thousand horse power multiplied
by twenty dollars equals eight mil
lion dollars, not eight million horse
power.
Here is where the state of Missouri
comes in-that is, it has not yet, bu
GOULD. All of this much yearned fol
eight million dollars belongs to Uncl'
Sam, who owns the n~avigable water
, in the earth beneath and all that il
them is. But the state Of Illinois ha
voted twenty million dollars to Uncl
Sam to help build the fourteen-foo
channel through their state in e1
change for the water power on tn
, Illinois river. Begin to catch the idea
Uncle Sam does not much want waite
:. power, being some powerful already
! but might care for a few millions t
l held build a waterway which Mis-
souri, and other states concerto
seem determined to get.
Mr.. Cooley has esuggested that th
two dams could be built and equippe
with power plants for ten million do
s lars, hence the Missouri Waterwa
Commission is busily engaged gettin
e ell the facts and figures ready t
a show the Legislators what can be dor
il they are disposed to build tw
= dams and present them to the Unite
Q States, taking in return a quit clail
Q deed to two power houses, whic
& power houses will yield the trilir
se sum of eight million dollars per We;
in revenue-all Of which probab
means no state deficits, maybe I
school taxes. and mAybe a cheap,