The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1911-02-18
Millions IN COLD
LOST EVERY YEAR
so SAYS LYMAN E. COOLEY HY-
DRAULlC ENGINEER OF
CHICAGO.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER DAMS
Proposed Waterway Dams Would
Yield 100000 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 a
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 R|umboldt's n%ewly-uni-
formed minious, not to mention Gov
ernor Hadley's @colouels, would be set
a-watching until each and every yell
low dollar had been found, officially
| pinchod, and sealed with the thumb
nail mark of the piuching officials.
Yet that there are just that many dol
lars slipping by the state is said to
be true, and no less A parsonage than
the Hon. Lyman p. 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-Gulf
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
7 posed dams on a large sheet Of paper
Y in one hand. and a blue pencil in the
other, the Missouri Waterway Com.
mission, which for the past year has
r been digging and wading-mostly
wading-into the water resources O
the state, began figuring what all O
u this water which was to 90 over The
o jumps would do If properly harnessed
The figures arrived at eclipse eyel
the automobile advertisements an.
S the Missouri egg permutations.
It takes a lot to hold down a chun
of water a mile wide, more sr les.
~ and twenty feet thick, when 1t fall
J. eight feet straight down. The resu.
in electric horse power is the tridin
=, sum of two hundred thousand &c
each dam, making four hundred tho
1T sand for tWo-addiug being our stron
~ point-which figure brings with it tn
realization that there are Thousand
of manufacturers painfully aching fC
1T a chance to pay $4,000 per year fC
each n of these electric horse poy
ers. or horses power. The poore.
multiplier in the third reader ella.
C. can easily ascertain that four hu
bred thousand horse power multiple
by twenty dollars equals eight m
us lion dollars, not eight million hor
power,
X Here is where the state of Nilsson
comes in-that is, It has not yet, b
q could. All of this much %yearned +
nd eight million dollars belongs to UnC
Sam, who owns the ~navigable waite
in the earth beneath and all that
them is. But the state Of Illinois b
voted twenty million dollars to Unt
cd Sam to help build the fourteenth
channel through their state In
change for the water power on t
DIV Illinois river. Begin to catch the ide
lur Uncle Sam does not much want wa
.Lo power, being some powerful alreaI
but might care for a few millions
LEX held build a waterway which N
ex- souri, and other states concern
seem determined to get.
Mr.. Cooley has suggested that
two dams could be built and equipI
per with power plants for ten million {
the lars, hence the Missouri Waterv
Commission is busily engaged gett
ell the facts and figures ready
yer. show the LEGISLATORS what can be d,
II they are disposed to build
= dams and present them to the Uni
States, taking in return a quit eli
w. deed to two power houses, VIII
power houses will yield the trif
sum Of eight million dollars per y
an in revenue-all Of which probe
means no state deficits, maybe
school taxes, and maybe a chea
ton cost Of living in the dim but GER
inn future.