The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-08-14
McAdoo Looks to Water
Power to Relieve COun-
try from Coal ThralldOm
ACTION PERHAPS
AS WAR NECESSITY
Says Start While the Government Has
Control of the Lines Is a Possibility
Points to Great Economies That
May Be Effected.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4.-Secretary
McAdoo said on his return to duty in
the treasury department and the office
of the director general of railroads, that
his observation. of the VAST resources of
water power during the two months he
had been absent from Washington since
the close of the last bond campaign, had
impressed him with the idea OF eleetrify-
ing the railroads of the United States If
the government We're to continue the adj
ministration Of the railroads of the coun-
Try for any prolonged period, he said, he
would be in favor of resorting to the use
OF electricity Just as far as it could be prac-
ticalIy' employed
Notwithstanding the great development
throughout the country OF water power
properties there remained, Mr. McAdoo
said, a tremendous empire of power yet
to be harncssed and turned to account in
moving the industries and the transpor-
tation of the American people This pow
or, now almost entirely the property of
the United States. could be Communicated
with IA cost slight in comparison with the
advantages to be derived from it. This,
in view of the continually troublesome
problems connected with the supply and
distribution Of the coal necessary in man.
uiactmes and to heat homes and city
apartments, was a consumption that soon
er or later would be forced on the eoun-
Try by absolute necessity
Secretary McAdoo said that for the
present nothing could be done toward
substituting water power for coal-produced
steam, but it might come as a plain mat
ter of necessity while this war was on
Ii would first be desirable to keep up the
volume Of manufacturing power and then
i would be required to relieve terminal
needs Ultimately. electricity would be
principally employed IN hrst OF all in sim
pItying terminal problems
The fact that the topography Of the
country was relieved by its many noun
tain ranges, an abounding in streams that
would provide power, was a guarantee
OF the practical distribution OF current
IN the sections that were now forging
rapidly forward IN manufacturing impor-
lance.
Some OF the virgin ground of manu-
featuring development, such as the South
along the Atlantic seaboard, especially in
vlted the consideration Of this plan to re-
licye the country from the thraildom of
coal mining and shipment according to
Mr.. McAdoo. He held that even if there
were no such great necessity to conserve
our coal supply, the fact that transports
tation limits the available power OF our
coal would Of itself justify Transforming
many of our railroads to electrical sys-
tens.
Tho secretary suggested that probably
electnheation would be actually under
taken while the government had control
Of the railroads and that the problem
would he attacked at the most favor
able points in the country where the
static value of water was most obvious
and the cost of making the changes from
steam to electricity would be comparative
" slight
The saving in cost of subsequent OPP
Grafton, he said. would be such con
vineing demonstration that identification
as "A general policy would be demanded
by public opinion The incidental econ
omy to be obtained from the use Of elec-
trieity for manufacturing and Transports
ton by use of water power would come
at first in the saving Of labor, Mr. MeAdoo
explained Then the fuel needs Of the
people could be fully met by the labor
released from producing coal for manufac-
turing plants and the railroads. This, in
itself, he said, would be a very large JUS
tifieation for embarliing in the experiment
Of identification, if it could be called an
experiment in the face of the numerous
private electric plants operated by water
power with such success and such econ
omv
The history of the work of the gov
eminent in the great system Of reclama-
ton in the arid West. Mr. MeAdoo
thought, amply supported the expectation
that the government could put through
the conservation of water power for the
needs OF manufacturing and transportation
and the welfare of the pepDfp in tbeir