The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-20
GROWING INTEREST
 IN WATER POWER
nr HOLLAND

the annual meeting of the Investment Bankers Association of America, which was held at Baltimore last week, one of the speakers emphasized the imme- diate need of utilizing the stupendous water powers in various parts of the United States. intimating that if this had already been done great saving in coal consumption would have been secured as we'll as very large economies in the production of manufactured com modities and in transportation.
 For some days reports have been cur rent in this city that in the message which President Wilson is to send to Congress when that body meets in De- cember he will recommend that Congress take such steps as will make it possible for private capital, in cooperation with the government, to make investment in hydro-electric plants, utilizing some of the great streams, especially in the west, where abundant water power has been since the days of the Indians and is now going to waste. There also is intimation that the President may sug- gest to Congress that it will be ex- pedient to enact legislation which will enable American exporters to combine, coordinate or act in full cooperation so far as foreign markets are concerned. American manufacturers, especially in the south, are beginning to utilize water power for the production of electric ergy and the results have been highly satisfactory. If Congress should per- init modification of the Sherman law fxrb ahN ,1,,fo ot,, wi bn are exporters could act in cooperation and in combination. exclusively of course for foreign business, then In view or the decreased cost of manufacturing which utilization of water power makes pos- Sible, our exporters should be in po- sition within a year two, certainly soon after the close of the war, suc- cessfully to compete with other nations in foreign markets.
 The men of science, especially those who are now occupied with the devel- opment of the electro chemical industry, are greatly interested in the movement which has for it's purpose the persuad- ing of Congress so to legislate as to make it possible to utilize these great water powers.
 GOV. ACHESON'S VIEWS
 Dr. Edward G. Acheson, who was Iamong the first to utilize electro-chem- ical methods for the production of very important commercial commodities and to establish plants at Niagara Falls for the purpose of securing the advantages
 ,ich the water power there gives, said this morning that in his opinion the conservation of our nationwide water powers was perhaps the most important step that could be taken in the direction of conservation of our national resources. The time is not far distant when coal will be exhausted, Dr. Acheson safd is Uh nh ic ay- haustible and in view of the enormous increase of industry the world over and the greatly expanded use of the dynamo larger and larger amounts of coal are needed to produce the sources of electric power. This demand upon icoal will continue after the war, for in pr. Achesons view the world will en- ter soon after peace comes upon an industrial era of which perhaps few realize the magnitude. But our water powers are inexhaustible natural re- source There is no conceivable cE- matc condition or cateclysm of nature which will seriously impair the water power of the Niagara river, nor is it reasonable to be apprehensive that any of our great water powers in the west and south can be seriously impaired by drouth or any other condition. There fore. water power is an irexhaustibe natural resource and it's conserv ation
 
 turing and transportation purposes no matter how great that may be cannot ! diminish this inexhaustibe resource. 'i RAILROADS AND ELECTRICITY
 Very likely if it were not for the war several American railroads would have already begun to initiate the example set by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. whose managers yentured upo1 what seemed to many very risky ex- pertinent, namely, the substitution Of hydroelectric power for steam power upon nearly 500 miles of their Pacific coast extension.
 Abundant water power, not conceivaby ever to fail, which is found in the mountain streams in that part of the country, through which the extension of the St. Paul railroad to the Pacific coast passes, has been so utilized as to furnish all the electric power needed for the operation of trains over or through these mountain ranges. The results have been satisfactory that the com pany is now installing electric equip ment upon it's Cascade division which is the last of the mountain stretches over or through which the railroad must pass on it's way to the Pacific.
 This additional installation of electric power created by the transforming ot water power into electricity would not have been undertaken had not the St. Paul management learned that the re- suits of the installation of electric power upon 40 miles of the extension were from every point of view satisfac- tory; in fact, so satisfactory that an executive office If the company has said that to have handled the traffic in the winter of 1916 without electricity would have entailed double tracking of that entire division.
 The Pennsylvania Railroad company is to electrify its suburban service between Philadelphia and Paoli and in that way is able to escape what otherwise would have been the necessity of a very ex- pensive enlargement of it's Philadelphia terminal.
 The Norfolk and Western railroad has been since 1916 operating with electric power nearly 90 miles of it's tracks upon which are the heaviest grades and which cross the Alleghany mountains
 George Westinghouse in 1911 told the representative business men of the south who met in convention at Atlanta that within few years not more than H in his view, almost all the railroads In the south, substantially all the highway trolley lines and many of the manu- facturing plants would be operated by electricity developed through the utiliza ton of the vast water powers in the southern states. In addition to that the cities and villages would be furnished with much cheaper light and further more this utilization of the water pow CTS of the south would serve greatly to conserve what MT. Westinghouse called the rapidly diminishing coal resources IL TT--.L ~