The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04

of the power, while tho actual cost of physically generating the power represents but 20 per cent of the total.
 Therefore, If it costs cent per kilowatt hour to generate power. s mills represent fixed charges and mills represent oper ating expenses. This explains why the government, with it's ability to finance project more cheaply than private capital can possibly do 1t, is able to generate power more cheaply than any private con cern or individual. Conservative estimates place the cost Of power to the government, using dam No. alone, at less than S6.50 per horsepower per year. This is from onefourth to one-ffth of the cost of power when generated in steam plant of large capacity, and is from one-half to third of the cost of the cheapest hydro electric power available in the United States.
 More Horsepower Than
 Developed at Niagara.
 Six hundred and sixty thousand horse power is 5000 horsepower more than the present development at Niagara Falls on both sides of the river together, but glance at the situation there will show Shoals is needed.
 agara-"Thundering water"-Nature's masterpiece! Who can stand on the brink mighty flood plunge into the whirlpools of the gorge amid clouds of flying spray and not be impressed with the grandeur Of Niagara Yet, in great degree, the very majesty Of the cataract has become the undoing of It's industrial usefulness for seventeen years ego treaty was made be- tween the United States and Great Britain may be used for power purposes on each side of Niagara river, in order to preserve It's scenic beauty. This amount of water is sufficient to develop about 215 GOO horse. power on the American side and 38o 900 horsepower on the Canadian side the un- equal division being due to the large vol ume of water which flows on the Canadian side or the international boundary line.
 uncle Sams domain Is not country of cheap water powers, and when Niagara power was made available at from st5 to one-half the cost of steam power in a large plantl 1t was not long before American industries grew up on the American side which required ull of the power that con were importing i75,0o0 horsepower from Canada.
 Cheap Power Brings
 Rapid Developments
 Cheap power brought a rapid develop ment of the electro chemical and electro metallurgical industries and the demand for power grew rapidly-the supply how ever. did not. Congress declined to permit the full amount of the water available un- der the treaty to be diverted and some S0,- 0CO horsepower was withheld until the present emergency of the world war com pelled the lawmakers to grant temporary permit for the utilization of the full 215 oo0 horsepower which constitutes Americas share under the treaty.
 The power required by nearly all cleo tro-chemical industries must be contin- uous: that Is, available without interrup- tion from years end to years end Amer lean streams furnishing large quantities Of such power within range of American markets are in general navigable. Relief. then. could have been had by the develop ment of some of our navigable streams for power, but the laws under which de- velopments can be made make the invest exception it has been impossible to finance such a development
 As result, our industries requiring cheap power in large amounts have been Cyanamid Co. located in Canada the only commercial plant on this continent for taking from the air the nitrogen which is so indispensable to the fertility of the fertilizer. Not long afterward the Nor ton company extended their great electric furnace and the new furnaces went into Canada. The following year the large new plant of the Carhorundum company, built to supply American trade, was located in France. The Union Carbide company
 manufacturing calcium carbide. invented 1 by an American. in North Carolina, wished to add some 10000 horsepower to the ca paeity of it's plant principally to supply American trade and to do this company iHstaHeu an SU,uW horsepower plant Tn l Norway and 300o0 horsepower plant In Canada.
 group of these exiled industries is shown fin the photog raphs of the develop menta at Shaweuegan Falls on the St Maurice river in the province of Quebeck Power Situation
 Becomes Acute.
 The situation became acute when early in the war, the Canadian government. act ing under provisions of the treaty. with drew nearly 40 per cent of its exported power from the Industries on the Amerl
 can side If Niagara Falls depriving them of some 65 GOO horsepower. The result was an extreme power famine, and conditions were not improved by the notice served by the dominion government to the effect that the power transmitted from Canada to the United States will be reduced an nually until In less than seven years no power will be exported Into the United States at all.
 How amazingly blind to our national in terests are we of America when we drive to other lands these great electro chemi- cal and electro -metallurgical industries,
 with their wide variety of indispensable productsi
 Take the simple item of artificial abrasives made. with cheap power from coke. sand, salt and sawdust. These abras!ves have 90 completely supplanted the grinding material which was former l ly Imported from Greece and Turkey that ] although thtA foreign suuply has been nhut