The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-11-07

RE 5OURES
BELONG TO
PEOPLE
Applications for installation of
100000 Horsepower
Machinery Filed.
By PHILLIP A. ORME.

hanging in the office of o. C.
Merrill, executive secretary for
the Federal Power Commission.
are affixed scores of tagged pins,
resembling the War Department
charts of 1918.
These little spikes, however.
trace out lines not of destructive
forces but of developments which
are linking State after State in
electrified areas. They are the
outward and visible sign of the
inward spirit of perhaps the
greatest Congressional enactment
IN the public interest during The
past decade-the Federal water
power act.
They are the pioneer pointers
20 complete ownership by the peo-
pie of hydro-dynamic resources
oil over the Union.
People Still Control.
At present, private licensees.
under the strictest Government
control are spreading the maze of
high-tension wires from vast power
stations nestled under looming
dams and at the foot of plangent
falls
But the hand of the people, rep
resented by the Federal authorities,
retains its grip in full force upon
the lands and rivers placed in
leasehold. Licenses are revocable.
and renewable or not at the option
OF the commission in whose control
the valuable sites rest.
Results OF Power Act,
Here are the tangible results of
the Federal Water Power act-thc
peoples act-since it's enactment bS
Congress June 10, 1920.
There have been filed with the
Commission 364 applications for
permits or licenses, involving an
aggregate estimated installation in
excess of 100000 horsepower of
hydroelectric generating machin
cry. This amount is more than
twice the existing water-power in
stallation of the United States, and
more than six times the aggregate
OF all applications for power sites
under Federal control in the pre.
ceding twenty years.
More than sixty preliminary per-
mits and fifty licenses have been
authorized by the Commission.
OF the permits. fifty-eight in.
volve an estimated installation of
z.4O6,0OO horsepower. Eighteen
permits are for transmission lines
Of licenses for power projects
twenty-seven out of thirty-one in.
Voive an estimated installation of
Wnen completed, Of 1,952, 900 horse.
power, and investments of more
than 5000 ZOO, 900. This ia 40 ner
cent greater construction than under
Federal authorization in the twenty
years preceding the passage of the
Water Power act.
AS a practical result Of the pres.
emf law there are more water power
projects now under construction in
this country than in any previous
period Of our history.
Offers Cheap Power.
Such is the stimulus which has
been given this vast energy pener.
ating industry under the strictest
or Government regulations regu.
latlon which safeguards the citizens
rights and at the same time en-.
courages the taking out of licenses
to serve the people of far.fllIne
areas with cheap light, heat, and
power.
Land-grabs have occurred in
every section of the country, par.
ticularly in the West. But water.
course grabs have been definitely
put out of commission by the act.
The principal response to this
means of development is seen in
the far West. There runs a nearly
completed circuit OF high-tensfon
wires through Washington, Oregon
and California, turning north
through Arizona, Utah, Wyoming
and Idaho, and west through that
State. 1t embraces an area about
as large as continental Europe.
There Is a second power belt
about to be closed which takes in
group of Southern States and
touches Ohio. There is a project
for a similar baIdric stretching
down the Atlantic coast. And In
every section where such eIectrifi
cation on a vast scale occurs, il
viii be ~the people, through Their
Government, that have authority
over the developments.
The fundamental provisions OF
the Federal Water Power Act maS
be summarized as follows:
permanent public ownership