Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-07

ern Industry; then OIL; ana altel
these, what?
SAYS a keen observer: Goal has made
manufactures and wars, forged guns, and
driven ships and trains Oil came into It's
own and we live in an age of Oil. IN the
meantime, coal mines are being worked out,
salt water climbs in the oil wells, fields are
exhausted, and the roaring gusher dw1ndles
to trckling rivulet. Nations bristle and
racial hackles rise over such oil fields as are
known or suspected. France and Germany
Poland and Czecho-Slovakia stage little half
wars over coal fields, and far-seeing states
men argue that there must be world
agreement over fuel, else a worse thing Will
happen Mine strikes have become COM
monplace in the welter of greed, grab and
the growing scarcity of fuel"
Grave as these problems are, and critical
though they become, there is mighty
fortress of reinsurance wherever rivers go
rushing to the sea. Power and light, produc-
ton and progress human enrichment and hu-
man happiness await their bringing forth
from these treasure-stored streams. Let the
coal beds yield their last measure, and the
oil wells cease to flow; still there would go
tumbling from mountains and watersheds
more power, more heat, more industrial sinew
than ever man has drawn from the earth.
Such are the resources, but how we'll are
we utilizing them? AS for the United States
of America, engineers declare that each four
tential but undeveloped water power the
equivalent OF one million tons of coal This
wasted wealth, if made available, could drive
every train factory, mill and mine in the ma
ton, and besides light thousands of farm
steads as We as urban homes. We are
mining in this country upwards of four hum
dred million tons of soft coal annually, In ad-
dition to great quantities of anthracite, and
are consuming more than than thirty-hVe
million barrels of oil. These materials, once
uesd, are gone forever, in so far as practical
human needs are concerned. But water
power is replenished ceaselessly, from the
heavens and from the earth, remaining mans
faithful, tireless friend.
No state has better reason than Georgia
to use it's talents of this nature. yet few can
have been so neglectful. Our Industries
stand in increasing need of power, and, II
they were supplied at reasonable rates, would
multiply in numbers and thrift and in their
prospecting influence on the commonwealth.
Hundreds of villages and thousands of farms
are without those lighting facilities which are
not only convenience and comfort but also
vital factor in security, sociableness and
education Hundreds of thou ands of women
are wearing out their lives in household
drudgery which could be performed easily
and at inconsiderable expense if the States
hyro-eectric resources were developed in
the interest of the rank and file. Imagine
twenty-six million men mustered into the
foundries, men who never tired, never ate,
never complained but did their work as eff
fectually and as freely as the showers and
suns of seed time. That is what the now
embarrassed river-energy will do for the peo-
pie of Georgia, If they will but take it provi-
IDENTIFY in hand.
OF the States total of some two and half
million horsepower thus derivable, only about
three hundred and twelve thousand has been
deve1oped-and tat for private gain, rather
than public good. Upwards of two million.
one hundred and fifty thousand horsepower
flows to waste each year-and with 1t, price
less opportunities and birthrights. Why
complain of excessive rates of charge that
hamper industrial expansion and make a
luxury of light and power which ought to be
within reach of the humblest rural home,
why complain without avail when the States
obvious remedy lies in utilizing the more
than two million latent horsepower which
monopoly has not yet grasped? Other COM
monwealths and other countries are acting
with promptness and vigor to conserve these
vital interests of theirs? Shall Georgia be
10 wiser, no worthier than the Stacker who
buried his talent and whined when the day
If reckoning came? 81,