Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-21
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Giving Away Power of NavieabIe
 Streams.

Mir. Editor:-I write to ask the Bull letin to help defeat most serious at tack on our public resources. Since the fight over the Alaska resources was won there has not been so pressing threat against the conservation policy as the present effort in congress to give our public water powers for noth- ing into monopolistic control.
 The Shields bill, now before the sen ate, gives to the power interests with out compensation the use of water power on navigable streams. The amount of water power these streams will supply is larger by far than all the power of every kind now in use in the United States. It pretends to, but does not, enable the people to take back their own property at the end of fifty years, for in order to do so un der the bill, the government would have to pay the unearned increment, and to take over whole lighting sys- tems Of cities and whole manufactur- ing plants Private corporations are authorized to seize upon any land, pri- vate or public, they choose to con- demn.
 Bills which gave away public water powers without due compensation were vetoed by President Roosevelt and President Taft. The Shields bill would do precisely the same thing today.
 Another water power bill, the Fer ris bill, relating to the public lands and national forests, was in the main a good bill as it passed the house. As reported to the senate, it encourages monopoly by permitting a corporation to take as many public water power sites as it may please. Under 1t the corporations could not even be kept from fastening upon the Grand Can yon, the greatest natural wonder on this continent. This bill takes the care of water powers on National Forests from the experienced and competent forest service, and gives it to the in terior department. thus entailing du- phcation and needless expense.
 In my opinion, there is undue care lessness as to the disposal of public resources at present in Washington. The water power legislation now be- fore the senate is too favorable to the men who, as Secretary Houston's ad- mirable recent report shows, control one-half of the total water power used in public service throughout the Unit ed States. The water power men charge that conservation hampers de- velopment. The Houston report shows, on the contrary, that the most rapid development is in the national forests, where conservation is best enforced. On the other hand, 120 public service corporations own and are holding un- developed and out of use an amount OA "dlSF POWcI c4udI IO 4OoL -LAllAS Ol all there is developed and in use by all the public service corporations in the whole United States.
 As I said in an open letter of Jan. 29 to the president:
 Natural resources lie at the foun- dation of all preparedness, whether for peace or for war. No plan for na- tional defense can be effective unless it provides for adequate public con- trol of all the raw materials out of which the defensive strength of a na- tion is made. Of these raw materials water power Is the most essential, be- cause without electricity generated from water power we can not manu- facture nitrates, and nitrates are the basis of gunpowder. There are no great natural deposits of nitrates in the United States as there are in Chilli It would be folly to allow the public water powers, which can sup defense, to pass out of effective public control"
 A concerted movement is on foot to break down the conservation policy Feeble resistance or none at all is be- ing made by official Washington. Un- less the press and the people come to the rescue, the power interests are likely to win. This is a public matter wholly removed from political parti- zanship. Your help is needed, and that of your paper. For nearly ten years this fight for the public water powers has gone on. We ought not | to lose it now.
 Sincerely yours,
 CLIFFORD PNCHoT. Milford Pike Co.,, Pa, Feb. 15, 1916.