The Washington herald., 1918-02-13
WATER POWER
LAWS COMING
Holland Notes Increasing In
terest in Development
of Resources.

About three weeks ago represents
tives Of the government visited Nj
agsra Falls for the purpose Of plac-
ing contracts for several million
pounds OF electrodes This article II
vital in the manufacture Of chlorine
gas. And this gas is to be supplied
to the American army in France.
The complete outft, after the cleo
trodes are secured, Is to be manu-
factured at Baltimore.
The government representatives
were told that on account of rsstrtc-
tons which had been placed upon the
use of electric power at Niagara Falls
Il would be impossible to manufacture
the four or five million pounds OF
electrodes which the government
needs within . few months.
There came q few days ago author
ity from the government to release an
additional amount OF hydroelectrle
power at Niagara so that there wound
be no delay in the manufacture OF
this article.
The Chamber Of Commerce Of the
United States. which represents Q 1T
tie over q half million American bust
g. ness men. has recently, and especially
! since this Niagara Falls incident.
: sought to obtain information from
business men Of q kind which would
Justify the chamber In sending repre-
sentatives to the committees Of Con-
gress that may be considering meas
ures which II adopted will develop
and conserve the water-power re-
sources OF the United States.
There were several questions
which the chamber was anxious
EwNn@ ~.
instance; would the development of
enormous quantities Of unused en-
erSy-which is also inexhaustible.
for water power flows on forever.
be industrially practicable.
Again would it be possible IN the
case Of any exploitation of water
power which is expensive to initiate
and is heavily burdened with fixed
charges. to work out any kind of
"A contract which would protect the
interests of the public while at the
same time it made water power
propositions so attractive to capital
as to secure their development.
Discussion General.
Occasionally within the past few
r. months reports have been made in
this column respecting the agitation
for tho development of the many
millions of unused water-power
cEcr~y and as result of these re-
ports many communications have
been received from various parts of
the country, chiefly from business
men. which go far to prove that
public interest in water power de-
v"lCp-Gc-t is now very great al
tHCU~h there remains considerable
dOu0t abGut the ability Of Congress
- perfect legislation which while
il would protect the public interest
would nevertheless be so formulated
at>tI tempt private capital to max"
Investment in the development of
W2'"r-yOv
80 chamber of commerce has
special committee upon water
power development. The member
: hip Of this committee was made up
CT EcH who have achieved greatly
r. engineers. and as manufacturers,
T1d the chairman OF it is l. 5.
I..l.Ct. wEO il an engineer and
EufaCturer Of Minneapolis.
d. '"Iis committee has made a care
ful study Of the water powers of
the United States, II has taken in
to special consideration the fact
that watcr-pCwCr, unlike coal, is an
ineXdGUstible resource. There may
lie an occasional drought here and
there which would to a limited eX-
tent affect the water power, but it
is inCOnCeivG BILE that all over the
country there should be such cli-
matte conditions as to reduce ap-
pTeciably water power energy.
This committees recommendation.
which undoubtedly reflects the
views OF a half a million business
men Of the United States, strongly
urges Federal legislation. not de-
layed, but Immediately enacted, for
the development of water powers
This legislation should contain a
prOvisO whereby permits should be
issued for period not less than
% nifty years for the utilization of
this water power. The government
should receive a reasonable toll on
developments which are on the
public domain or which are bene-
hted by head water improvements
maintained by the government.
Other Recon- mmendations.
There are other recommendations
which will be called to the attention
of the committees OF Congress But
80 far as the public is concerned the
interesting fact associated with this
report is that the Chamber of Com
merce OF the United States regards
the subject of vital Importance and
finds that it is supported in that view
by many thousands of the business
men Of the United States.
One of the best estimates that have
recently been made fixes the unde-
veloped water power of the United
States as considerably in excess of the
total steam power now in service. 1t
il a strange fact that while the Fed
eral government controls probably the
greater part of the water power re-
sources of the United States, never