The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-11-24
WASTED WEALTH

portland Oregonian, Sept. 80, 1919
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary Of the
Interior, has publicly declared that
100000 water horse power is an
nually wasted in this country, the bulk
of it, of course, being in the Rocky
Mountain states.
Industrian captains, and men who
have money for promotion of legiti-
mate enterprises, protest that this
condition of waste is due almost who'll
ly to the governments policy of go
called conservation, in that laws not
long enacted are largely responsible
for the fact that no part of this vast
energy is being utilized in our period
of storm and stress.
Capital cannot be blamed, under the
laws now on the statute books Of the
United States, for not having int sr-
ested itself in the development of wa
ter power by building great dams and
reservoirs on lands of the public do
main, nor can it be expected ever to
do SO while the inly permit possible
for location of water power plants is
recoable at any time at the whim of
a single cabinet officer of an admin
istration that may change completely
in four years or less. Furthermore.
under the same laws, in the event of
the revocation of a. permit, the assur-
ance of a just and equitable compen-
sation for damages to be sustained is
lacking.
In 1906 Congress passed a general
dam act which was intended to bring
into use 100000 horse power, which
engineers say can be developed in
navigable streams in the interior
Sfafna TN af olo
serving the right of the government
to demand restoration of navigabil-
ity,' which is so uncertain and inde-
finite in it's provisions that, according
to the report Of a bond-selling house
in New York City, business men con-
slider that any project started under
this act would be unsound security.
The United States Biological Survey
has compiled a volume Of statistics,
the essence Of which is that IT per
cent. of the total potential water horse
power offs the United States is 50 To-
Gated that it cannot be used under
existing laws without Federal permit.
This IT per cent, according &c the
Biological Survey statistics, is 46,91S,-
zoo water horse power, and it is es-
| pecfa1ly significant that of this vast
potential hydro-electric power only
90 POi SOlil' 1lc1O OOClA o0VSlOpSo LII
contrast it appears that 25.2 per cent
of the 13,800,e0O horse power not con-
trolled by government has been deve1-
oped.
| The United States has much to learn
from European nations with regard
to the development Of water power
especially from Sweden, Norway and
| Germany, and also from our neighboI
to the north, Canada. The attitude
of these countries toward private en-
terprise in the development of the
vast resources of nature is far ahead
of that of this country, and may be
studied by our statesmen with profit
to themselves and to the nation.
This fact accounts in large neasura
for the amount of American capital
which one finds invested in foreign
countries.
Nitrogen, Of supreme need In wa,
and peace-the mighty weapon of the
artillerymar, and the beneficent gift
to the tiller Of the sot1-now obtained
by electricity from the air, claims the
use of million horse power from the
rivers of Europe, but the new process
| is almost unknown in the United
| States.
Power must take the place of mer
while the war lasts. Congress shoule
remove restrictions that hamper the
development of the richest sections O.
our great. country