The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-20
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Water Powers in AIabama

| 10 the Eullof OF Inc ASe-t1efalu.
| Now that the democratic administration
is in full harness at Washington, with
pledges and many campaign promises to
guard the rights of a confiding people,
to allow this government of the people to
be of and by the people through their
several governmental heads, to conserve
the rights of the Individual just the same
as those of the corporation with impair
| tial justice, 1 feel that it is not amiss at
this time to lay some facts before our
senators and congressman and the legis-
lative body of Alabama, and even the
President and our. governor, that the
water powers of this nation and especially
those of Alabama, are at the point of be-
ing forever confiscated from the people
who should of right be allowed to re-
| tain their ownership and benefits for
present and future generations.
| 1t is needless for me to dwell upon the
countless millions of wealth which, of
| right, belong to the people of this state
lin its water powers, developed and unde-
veloped, in the streams of Alabama. 1
| concede to no man broader views and
a more liberal public spirit for the de-
velopment of latent resources than l
| hold, and / could not consent to any legis-
lation, either state or national, which
! seeks to abate any rightful privilege
1
or corporation in the development of
water power, when that legislative grant
/ does not infict a hardship upon present
or future generations.
| In my research of the charters granted
| by Alabama to certain water power COM
| panies by legislative sanction, and in
| their proposed exploitation of these rights,
| | find, however, that the powers and priv
ileges granted them are practically with
out limitation, and these rights when
ever enforced are bound to entail de-
! structive burdens, not only upon every
| farming and other industry adjacent, but
to the people of the entire state at large
| in the following way, VIZ:
| First there is no limitation in their
! privilege granted as to the height of their
dam or dams. At Cherokee bluff on the
Tallapoosa river a stream capable of be-
| ing made navigable. the Interstate
Power company has made its sur
veys and proposes to erect a dam across
! this river 140 feet high, and by actual
surveys from the level of this proposed
| dam their surveyors have gone out and
have marked for inundation $1,000 acres of
| the most fertile lands of this Tallapoosa
county. BY this method, the people with
in this section marked for inundation, per-
manent settlers for many generations,
have become stampeded, and because the
average citizen or individual has become
|
from the courts in trying their rights OF
property and establishing values under
such state of forced sales, thousands of
the most fertile lands are being bought in
| by this power company at options far
below the normal value, the farmer ac-
cepting the option price named by the
company because he is skeptical of en-
tering the courts in the face of a corpora
tion of such magnitude to establish the
values and the rights of his property.
Thus you see by this adroit play these
| people have been forced to render up
their first tribute, or an approximate net
:. less of 100000, in the option sale of these
lands. This is the first tribute. forced
| in the name of public developnlent of
water powers" for the good of the peo-
ple.''
| Second, the second reason why the priv
! lege of these water power companies
should be abated Is this: I notice that
the Interstate Power company Is allowed
by charter to rent, lease or sell every unit
of their power produced to one individual
or one firm or corporation in each section.
Thus you see this company can dispose of
all its energy to either the Montgomery
Light and Power company or the Bir-
mingham Railway, Light and Power
company, or to both, In Alabama, and
when the consumer needs to use this
power he will have to pay not only a
Boouly prOnt 10 tne interstate company,
known in this state as the Alabama Power
company. but also any profit which
either one of these other companies may
I wish to take.
! Remember that some day the coal fields
of Alabama and Pennsylvania may fail
to yield up the millions of tons of energy
now demanded. The business men and
manufacturers must have energy to. drive
their factory wheels. and where can 1t be
| gotten? We must rely upon the water
power of the nation. This English syndi-
cate, known here in America as the In
terstate Power company, will sell it to
you, and unless we act quickly in our ma
ticnal and state legislatures this syndicate
will soon own every ounce of water en-
ergy in America, and then talk Of the
| Standard Oil trust. the Harvester trust
the meat TRUST, these will all dwindle into
utter insignihcance by the side Of the
Interstate Power trust. now about to be.
Had you thought of this before?
Third, third reason why our water
power laws should be amended is this:
There is no provision to tax them under
1e years. and then there is not one single
privilege retained by the state to ever
require a power company to pay a priv
1iege tax. into the treasury upon the unit
Of horse power developed. and It is esti-