Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-04
WATER CONSERVATION
QUITTING before the Legislature
the water conservation program

the water conservation program
as outlined by Governor Brum-
baugh in his message read before the
lawmakers on Tuesday, the State flood
control committee, headed by DR..
Dixon, has taken momentous step
in the history of the State. AS is
usual, private capital saw the profits
to be gained from use of water supply
and water power long before the pub
lie became at all interested in the SUBJ
1ect. Indeed, there is no very great
public demand for water conservation
at this time, although the subject is
receiving the growing attention of all
thoughtful people. The Governor,
DR.. Samuel G. Dixon and others of
the flood control committee are a
little ahead of popular demand, as
wise and far-seeing public servants
should be.
Their recommendations should re-
ceive all the more earnest considera-
tion of the Legislature because they
do not propose to rush haphazard into
any pet scheme of legislation which
might or might not prove best. They
very properly ask for a comprehen-
sive survey of the whole situation
They propose to view the subject from
every possible angle and with all
available information at hand before
they venture upon recommendations
that will, If enacted, affect the lives
and prosperity of Pennsylvania people
for hundreds, perhaps thousands. of
years to come.
The water works of the ancients
were most carefully constructed. They
were the one great public asset in the
early days of civilization. Many of
those of the East and Far East were
so well built that if not in actual
operation to-day they are still OBJ
servable as we'll preserved relics and
as illustrations of those elder days
of art" when builders wrought with
greatest care" and when vast public
moneys were expended in providing
for water supply and irrigation pur-
poses. During the Middle Ages no
artificial provision was made in Europe
for water supply and the people of
in health and taxes for their neglect.
That period in European history may
be compared with the much briefer
interval in America when the use of
streams as sources of waterpower was
permitted to fall very largely into
decay, when large coal-driven mills
took the place of those which the
early settlers by force of necessity ran
by the dammed-up water of the
streams that passed their doors.
But the "inexhaustible" mines of
coal already are nearing the end of
their supply and the hope of the peo-
pie for cheap water power in the
future lies in the long neglected
streams. Big corporations have seen
this and vast sums already have been
expended in dams and plants and fair
profits are being realized from the in
vestments. 1t would be unwise. as the
Governor points out, to permit all of
the vast water resources of the Com
monwealth to fall into the hands of
private capital. Every householder in
the State is paying the penalty for
the exploitation of public coal lands
at the hands of greedy interests and
it would be criminally negligent, with
this example so disagreeably demon
strated, to permit the same thing to
happen with our water supplies and
sources of water power Properly
conserved, the streams of the State
may be made not only the servants of
the people, but a source of great
revenue for public purposes that now
must come from the individual
or from corporations in the form of
direct taxation.
The proposed survey is rich in
possibilities. The subject is one of
the most interesting that has been
presented to the Legislature in years.
There ought to be no quibbling over
the granting of appropriations suffi-
cient u carry the proposed work
along.