The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-15
GOVERNMENT OUGHT
 TOkEEPPOWERS SITES
Commissioner of Corpora
 tions Reports on Matter
MUCH COMBINATION
Ten Great Groups of Interests Con trol About Sixty Per Cent of Developed Commerciai Water
 Power of United States

i WashngtoG. March 1i.-Concentra- ton of control over water powers by | large interestes in important localities
 is increasing so rapidly that Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner of corpora tions, has reported 10 President Taft
 that the government should preserve title to the remaining power sites and | develop them 10 prevent possible
 monopolizaton of public untility com
 panies. full report of the commis- sioner's investigation of water power President today.
 | Commissioner Smith directs partieu-
 lar attention 10 the increasing affilia- | tion of water power concerns and pub | lie service agencies, such as street | railway and lighting corporations, and oftentimes banks as well. The con nection between such concerns he re-
 gards of serious public significance. The concentration of control over wa
 ter powers, the commissioner declares,
 is exercised partly by direct owner ship of stock. but mainly through in- terlockng direetorates.
 Concentration Necessary
 The rapidly increasing concentra- ton of water power control about which the commissioner sounds a
 warning may become. he says, the nucleus for monopoly of both water and steam power If the water power cannot meet the entire demand of a given locality he points out that the owners can acquire auxiliary fuel
 plants and handle water and fuel pow CT over the same distributing lines and thus complete commercial power
 monopoly might gradually be built up,
 in fact already exists in number of communities.
 Ten Groups of Interests
 Ten great groups of interests. with l the General Electric company as the
 most powerful. are declared by Com missioner Smith to control or strongly | influence about GO per cent of the de- veloped commercial water power of the | United States. These 10 groups them selves are more or less inter relater, with resultant growing community of | interests In this connection the com 1 missioners report says;
 | "In this maze of interrelationships, 1 ranging from practically joint control down to personal association in common diieotorates, Is clearing revealed the drift | Of water power and public utility corpora ltions under the control of q few very powerful interests. These connections, some stronger and some weaker suggest favorable condition for very small number of men to consolidate very large interests whenever they may decide it ! to their advantage 10 do so. This inter- locking of interests through directors, while not necessarily indicating pur-
 pose of monopoly certainly affords an ln- | centive and means to combination" 1 Mir Smith, urging the immediate form ulaton of a definite policy of developing the remaining water power sites on the | public domain, recommends, generally speaking, that the government retain ulti- mate control of these sites. They should
 be developed at once, he declares, not | only to conserve the fuel supply of the country, but because they are fast pass Int into private control. II is estimated that the water power now in use saves
 33 zoo tons of coal annually. and. MT
 smith adds the water power resource i. 1 not expended in Its using.
 Problem of Development
 i The problem of development, the com missioner contirues. cannot be solved b, fixing by law the selling price of watel power by itself. which in any event vii | be controlled by the cost of fuel power | Recognizing that the most efficient us' CONTINUED ON PAGE 0I