The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-08-30

It would be difficult to discover al
very large commercial project whica
IS SO thoroughly a product of the
masses of the people as this greatest
water-power OH earth in the Mississ-
ippi river at Keokuk.
Almost as soon as the white man
arrived at the Des Moines rapids in
the great river, he began to plan how
to utilize the immense energy there
for the advancement OF civilization
and of mankind When Robert e.
Lee as a lieutenant in the old army
commanded a post near here to keep
the Indians in check. he realized the
power in the Mississippi and made a
report to the war department about
1t. Since then there has been a con-
slant movement among the people to-
ward a realization of the achievement
that Lee forecast as possible in the
remote future OF his day. Forty-one
years ago, the press began to promote
the building Of the water-power here,
and the files show that it never ceas-
ed that work until the historic Eighth
OF January when The Gate City fairly
set the town afire with an extra an
nouncing by authority that the work
had actually commenced.
Awaiting Advancement In Arts.
The truth that the great engineer
officer. Robert e. Lee. recognized
that it would be impossible to develop
the water-power here until several OF
Z the arts had advanced greatly, and
applied science had been pushed for
ward many steps-was hard for the
people themselves 20 appreciate. They
refused to recognize the impossible
for many years and this persistence
gave them victory after the impossible
had become the possible to find them
ready to take advantage OF the new
era.
Several things had to come to the
world before the Mississippi could be
harnessed here, the unparalleled magni-
tude Of the work and the titanic
forces involved, were too much for
puny man until a few years ago, Even
today, half dozen new solutions have
to be made Of cid problems and the
impossible has to be accomplished IA
several instances, in order to make
tame work horse of the mammoth,
wild Mississippi.
kf-ka
The dam AMI waterpower works
would have cost entirely too much
for the income before cement and
concrete had its renaigsance-until
the very end Of the renaissance period
when cement can be manufactured
cheaply.
Al dam of masonry, stone laid upon
stone, here at the foot Of the rapids,
mere the Mississippi in its most pow
erful mood, could hardly be built
In such a manner as to withstand the
tremendous forces involved without
washing out in few years. The work
must be one record breaking single
chunk of concrete as large as the
greatest pyramid and without crack
or seam in 1t.
Viewed from another angle. this
project was impossible commercially
until manufacturing in the United
States had advanced to point where
competition made factory cost very
important which means necessity
for cheap power. That time arrived
really within the last decade.
Inexorable natural and economic
laws had to apply in certain advanced
ways, before IT was feasible to de-
velop Keokuk's mammoth OF water
powers.
Where ignorance Was Bliss.
But of all the things in the last
paragraph, the people here were bliss
fully ignorant. They merely jumped
TO tho great conclusion that the power
OF the Mississippi under the peculiar
conditions of fall here ought to be
made to turn turbines and move ma
chinery.
The general idea was, that it re-
mained only to persuade capital to
take advantage OF the situation, and
that capital was strangely careless OF
its own interest in not grasping the
proposition with avidity--w which CAPT
til never did, by any manner OF