The Republican journal., 1919-01-30
OUR WATER POWERS.

Much has been written and said about
the water powers of Maine and out of il
all the people of the State have gathered
very little practical information. During
the legislative sessions of the latter part
of the last century one frequently heard
some incipent statesman who had turned
himself loose in the lobby, making the
statement that rich land owners and
soulless corporations were robbng the
people of their water rights. Little by
little the public mind has been impressed
by the idea that this might be true until
within and during the last three years
there has been much discussion concern
ing the rights and wrongs of the water
situation. In 1909 the Legislature estab-
lished a State Water Storage Commits
sion and specified its duties, which were
fundamental to a complete understanding
of what and where the water powers
were, and to what extent they had been
developed, This proved to be task re-
curing much labor, time and expense.
Acting in accordance with the storage
act. the Governor appointed the com
mlssloners who secured the services of
an engineer and work was begun. Re
ports were made each ;ear up to and in
'cludlng 1913 but owing to the fact that
available funds had not been provided
sufficient to cover the whole State, much
necessary data was lacking. In 1913 the
Public Utilities Commission was created,
The Water Storage Commission was abol-
lshed and its work turned over to the
new commission.
There was still lack of funds and in
consequence the progress made was slow,
Till in 1917 it became evident that many
Of our people had become insistent, and
were determined to know more about our
water powers, the uses made Of them,
and whether they would be further de-
velOped or made more efficient, and back
Of all this was the desire to know wheth-
er it would be wise for the State to &C
luire them and use them for the benefit
Of the people at large. Funds were pro-
vided, the Public Utilities Commission
entered into the work with energy and a
report has just been made to the Cover
nor and Council in book of $50 pages.
This report is d compendium of the data
Of all former Investigators who have
made studies Of rivers and storage basins
and of electrical and hydraulic companies
who have made surveys, and the facts
ascertained during the last two years by
the commission itself This report, in
It's major part is statistical and scien-
Giho and contains many quite bewildering
tables It IS about as interesting to read
as 8 collection of PHYSICIANS prescrip-
tion5, In fact it is not worth while to
read IT, 1t is something which should
be studied for hours. Not until we had
done that did we realize that the report
was valuable addition to the informa-
tive literature Of the State.
In common with thousands of other
people We have wanted to know whether
State ownership and management of the
water powers of the State was a wise or
an unWise proposition. Personally. we
nave felt that when three questions had
been considered and answered by COM
petent authorities we would be ready tn
vote Tes or no. The first question was:
can the people Of the State through the
agency Of the commonwealth take the
water powers from the owners by legal
process? The opinion of Hon. Lucilius
A. Emery, formerly Chief Justice of our
Supreme Judicial Court, which is given
an the report of he Public Utilities Com
mission, very clearly shows that the
wa,er powers can be taken over for a
Just compensation. The next question
was: What will it cost2 The report of
The Utilities Commission says that the
developed water powers of the State
ma We cost S44, 795, 900, and to develop the
power now undeveloped will cost $751;
30 DlUbU, d IOIdl vi 80, i4J, UUU. lie next
question is: do we want the water powers
at that price? 1t has been suggested
that electricity generated by water power
can be used for heating our houses. That
is true, but it has been proved by actual
experiments that dwelling house can
De heated as cheaply with coal at $40 q
ton, as it can be heated by electricity
1t is also suggested that the steam rail-
roads be operated by electric power, The
report clearly shows that this is not feas-
ible. Until it can be shown that thu
people have a remunerative use for $40,
745, 900 worth of water powers, we de
not think the men who are talking abou
a better use of water powers will have I
large following.
C01TNN I'M CAJ JEND MIA