The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1913-08-07
lNOTHERLINK In CHAIN
Grinnell May be on Des Moines-
0skaloosa Interurban.

Grinnell Register: The sale OF the
Grinnell Electric Light Company, for,
take ii from US, ii was sold,-opens
up an interesting field for specula-
ton
The only thing that can be learned
about the identity of the purchaser is
la vigorous denial that what is usually
known as the Mckinley syndicate has
anything to do with it; but that is
saying nothing as to where the prop
erty will finally land.
There are now a number of syndi-
Gates operating in the west which are
picking up trolley lines and electrical
plants. The best known of them all
is the Mckinley syndicate which al
ready owns a vast network of trolley
lines in Illinois and is rapidly extend
ing to other states. Then there is
the Stone and Webster Engineering
Co, of Boston, which financed and
controls the Keokuk dam. Another
big company is S. G. White and Com
pany. of New York City; still another
the Iowa Railway & Light Company,
of Cedar Rapids; and the entries are
not yet closed.
We had the pleasure, a few days
ago, of talking with a gentleman who
is fairly on the inside. and his idea
is that these different companies,
now controlling such a vast amount
of properties using electrical power,
will, in time be practically under one
control. That means that the Keo-
kuk dam, with probably other dams
across the Mississippi and other
streams, will be in vast combina.
ton controlling the trolley systems
and electric plants of Iowa, Illinois
and neighboring states, which will
make use of the water power that
they own as far as it will go.
This paragraph is a side remark ON
miracles. Did you ever hear of any
thing more wonderful? A copper
wire, the size of mans finger, will
carry the whole power generated in
the power house of the Keokuk dam
from one city to another. The much
Wanted stories in the Arabian Nights
Entertainment are very prosaic be-
side the fairy tales of modern times.
But if this immense syndicate is
formed, owning its own water power,
the local power plants will probably
be closed and the Juice" brought in
to Grinnell. and the other stations,
over a copper wire. But such a COM
bination requires auxiliary steam
power almost equivalent to its water
power. Extreme low water and, u.s.
ually extreme high water, cut the ca.
pacity of water power plant down
to small percentage of normal. But
the company must be ready at all
times to furnish the full amount of
power and light required When the
water can't do it, steam must.
What We are interested in is how
will that be furnished? Will the local
plants be kept in service to take up
the burden when the river is too weak
to carry it? Hardly. That would be
too wasteful plan for so great a
combination. II would be much more
economical to have the great power
lplants at the mines consuming the
slack which is now sold at the pit
mouth for almost nothing. What
would be the sense of loading steam
coal on the cars, carrying it a hun
Idred miles by rail, unloading it al
the steam plant and shoveling it into
the fireboxes, when, by automatic
process, the slack could be dumped
in the tireboX at the mine, and the
product of the coal in power, heat and
light, conveyed over a copper wire
at loss of something like four per
cent in transit.
Grinnell is very much interested in
the sale from another standpoint. The
Mckinley syndicate own the plants al
Oskaloosa and Montezuma. The title
of the Grinnell plant has been mailed
to an unknown address. There is a
trolley line running from Des Moines
to ColfaX which is to be extended to
Newton. 1t looks like the handwrit'
ing on the wall. Oskaloosa, Monte.
yuma, Grinnell, Newton, Colfax, Des
Moines.
In the light os these facts, and 9th.
ers, The Register confidently pre-.
diets that:
Within ten years Grinnell will have
a trolley line to Des Moines and Os-
kaloosa which will be a part of a
great system. The power for that
trolley line; the power for the small
manufacturing plants Of the city,
possibly all the manufacturing
plants; the city light, perhaps the
city heat; will come over wire from
the Mississippi river reinforced by a
copper wire from a plant beside a
coal mine.
BY that time is Is even possible
that the government will own the
whole works.