The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16

Washington, Dec, 1918. HE water powers of the United
 States are to be mobilized as a
 war asset They are to be har-
 messed and used for the saving the nitrogen from the air in order that 1t may be used for explosives and fer tilizers, and also to run the factories which are making the thousand and one things needed in this time of war. This subject is now before Congress, and laws Tor damming the rivers and leasing the power sites will probably have been en- acted by the time this letter is pub- hshed. The great streams on our pub nc lands are to be thrown open to pri- Nate capital and an enormous increase of national energy will be the result.
 Few peuple realize how large a place our water powers are likely to have in the life of the nation. They are among the greatest of our undeveloped re- sources and upon them our position as a world power may depend. According to estimates made by George Otis Smith, director of the geological survey, we have, outside Alaska, more than 55, 900, 900 horse- power easily available, and Uncle Sam's export Photographer, M. O. Leighton, has figured that 230,0O0,0OO hydroelectric pow CT could be brought into use. The latter amount is more than five times as much as the available water powers of all Eu- rope, and more than 30 times the possi- bilities of Germany and Austria-Hun- gary. According to Dr. Smith, we have more than S,000,OO0 hydroelectric horse- power already developed, which is con siderably more than nine times the de- veloped horsepower of Germany and ia-I1 "a enol olraous water power, and, she is our big partner in the use of Niagara falls and in tfe force that comes from the dropping of the waters of Lake Su- peror into Lake Huron through the Sault Ste. Marie canals. She is known to have something like 1S,00O000 horse power which can easily be developed, and she is already producing more hydro- electric energy than our allies in Eu- rope.
 The water powers of the world have not been accurately measured; but we know that the North American conti- nent has several times as much as all Europe, and that the potential energy from harnessing the waters of the United States and Canada will make them the chief industrial centers of the world for all time to come. There are vast water powers in the streams that flow down the east side of the Mexican mountains, and the same IS true or some or the countries in Central America.
 South America has a few scattering water powers along the west coast. That region for more than 2000 miles is a desert, but the melting snows of the Andes now run the street cars of Peru and there are large electric plants in Chile. The eastern side of the continent is sus ceptible of enormous hydroelectric devel- opment. The falls of the Iguazu, the Niagara of South America, on the east ern borders of Paraguay, have drop of 5S feet more than Niagara and they pour over the arc of circle which at high water is about two miles in widt> is estimated that they can
 -- ~-s ,.op something like 4,000.0Oo IT, uroAectrlc horsepower. There are great waterfalls in eastern Brazil, which run the street cars and the electric lights Of Sac Paula and Rio de Janeiro; and there ara vast water powers along the Madeira and other tributaries of the Amazon.
 Africa has some mighty waterfalls. The Niagara of the Zambezi river is mile wide and 400 feet deep, and it has been estimated that it could produce s5 OoO. 900 horsepower, or six or seven times the amount of Niagara. This may be so at flood times, but it is not so during the greater part of the year. Neverthe- less the power is enormous, and they are now planning to send it from there to the gold fields Of Johannesburg. There are water powers on the Kongo enough to run an industrial empire, and where thes Nile flows out of Victoria Nyanza are the Ripon falls, which will some day