Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-05
The Farreaching Import Of the
Water Paqver Bill.
in the glare of the oncoming
political conventions, the national

political conventions, the national
water-power bill has aroused scant
comment But it is far and away the most
notable achievement of the present Con-
gress; as David Lawrence remarks,
long after the excitement over the Presl-
Dental campaign has died away, this meas
ure will be developing new communities
and building new cities in the valleys OF
the country, more water will be available
for irrigation and arid lands will be yield
ing crops"
For ten years bills looking to the utili-
cation of the power latent in American
streams have been in controversy. That a
vast deal of wealth was going to waste
and public interests suffering in conse-
Quence, was commonly agreed. But differ
ences over the terms upon which these
resources should be unlocked to individual
initiative appeared irreconcilable. There were
conservationists who seemed to forget that
capital would never enter this field of de-
velop1hent unless given opportunity for fair
and dependable profits. There were Gov
eminent ownership theorists who objected
to turning the task over to private enter
prise There were monopolists who, ii they
could, would have left the public's rights
altogether out of account. At last, however,
common sense and common patriotism have
evolved measure which is generally &C
ceptable. It provides that a commission
composed of the Secretary of War, the Sec
Agriculture, shall decide what water-power
sites may be developed, whether the con-
struction of dams will interfere with the
rivers. navigability or otherwise react
against the common interests, and what
the companies shall pay the Federal treas
ury. After a period of fifty years the
private companies will be bound to relin-
quish their grants and developments if the
Government then wants the property;
though in that event, of course, they will
be compensated for their investment
1t is predicted that as a result Of this
encouraging and at the same time safe
guarding legislation there will be launched
within the next few years numerous enter
prises of farreaching industrial and agri-
cultural import. The earliest development
probably will come in those regions of the
West where manufacturing interests have
Jagged for want of convenient supplies of
coal and where farming has had to wait
upon irrigation. But in due time the en-
tire country will feel the stimulus. Partic-
ularly rich are the water-power resources
of the South, whose latent white coal' is
capable of driving a whole empires ma
chinery. In this section, moreover, the de-
velopment of power and of naVigation will
frequently go hand in hand, so that dou-
BILE blessing will ensue. 1t has been repeat
edly pointed out, for instance, that construc-
ton of the locks and dams and other i'm
provements necessary to utilize the Chat
tahoochees now dissipated power would vir-
tually suffice to make he river navigable
from Atlanta to Columbus or at least would
carry preparation to that end so far that it
could be completed with little expense and
delay 1t is to be expected, therefore, that
georgia and neighboring States will share
richly in the common countrys benefits
from the new conservatn bill and that new
realms of industrial and commercial pros
per1ty will be opened to them.