The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-03-29
MAGAZINE Publisher Who is Here Mar
wells at Accuracy Of Workman
ship and BIeness of
Project.
MASTER MIND PRAISED
Problems Of Operating Company Are
Seen by This Energetic
Man Who Is In
City.

Accuracy Of workmanship and the
bigness of the Keokuk dam project,
or perhaps the combination OF the
two, greatly impressed s. S. Mcclure.
magazine editor and publisher who IS
in Keokuk to lecture today and who
saw the water power project here for
the first time, yesterday afternoon.
The size OF the turbines, the small
number of men needed IN operating
the immense plant, and the problems
which confront the operating company
as we'll as an appreciation OF the
genius whose mind conceived this
wonderful project-all thses things
the man who has made a success OF
magazine publishing saw and sensed
in the short time he spent on the
works yesterday. '
When you see s. S. Mcclure, you
see the reason why so many lines OF
thought were grasped, picked up and
telegraphed to the mind in SO short
a time For you see Quisk, alert,
keen eyed observing man, who is cap
able Of doing more than one thing at
once. For instance he was opening
some letters when the interviewer
found him at the Y. M. c. "A. building.
A hand was stretched out over the
desk! and there was a keen, apprais-
ing glance. :
what shall we talk about?' comes
the question Snip, snip, open goes
another envelope. An official COM
munication from the postoffi depart
ment about some mail being held for
postage.
Talks About Dam. !
"About the DAM" the interview er
suggested 1--WE always like to hear
what people say about our DAM" was
added
Com bination Of accuracy of work
manship and bigness impressed me
this afternoon was the quick re-
Spouse, decisively stated, with that
Mcclure mannerism of stopping sud
denly at the end Of sentences, almost
brusquely, it seems.
"Why on earth doesn't the post
office department send this on, what
ever it is, and collect on this end. It
would save a lot Of writing" This
referred to the mail he was opening,
not the dam. Then he sat down and
wrote to the postofflce department,
enclosing the required postage, anu
between periods spoke further Of thu
dam. You must rem ember Mr.. Nc
Clures energies are not limited.
Bio Turbines Surprise Him.
"The only other big turbines that
remember to have seen were those at
Niagara Falls" Mr.. Mcclure said, "and
the sizs of those I was shown this
afternoon impressed me. They were
the biggest of this sort of machinery
1 can remember having seen. And
the small number Of men needed to
operate the plant, in comparison with
the size Of the plant was another in
teresting thing to me-
Mr. Mcclure paid tribute to the
genius whose mind conceived tho
massive monolith across the river. It
was a master mind which conceived
this power plant, he suggested. And
not only that, but 1t was going to
take much work by the operating COM
pany to make that work Of master
engineer a success. J
ut would seem to me that big
problem is that Of making this project
pay" Mr.. Mcclure remarked. Right
in the heart of the soft coal belt, the
competition between steam and cleo
tricity must be keen. and the Stone
& Webst ar people, it seems to me,
have quite as big job in operating
the plant as there was in building it.
How About Railroads.. }
"And by the way, how about rail
road facilities. If Keokuk is the logi-
cal place for factories and If they ere
established here, have you railroad
facilities? I had an experience get
ting in here today from Davenport
had to change cars three times. Are
all the roads running in here that