White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1923-11-30

Power Leasing board 1or per-
manent license for the building Of
the Priest Rapids dam, the Seattle
Times last Sunday published more
complete article on what this de-
velopment will mean, that will be
interesting to readers of the Spokes-
man. The article follows:
What will development of the
Priest Rapids power project as
planned by interests represented by
the General Electric Company of
Schenectady, N. Y, do to solve the
problem of bringing population and
payrolls to the State of Washing
ton? To the entire Pacific Northwest
in fact
What will be the effect of the est
ablishment on the mighty Columbia
river in the heart of what is now a
sagebrush desert in the center of the
State OF Washington of modern city
of forty or fifty thousand population
surrounding the largest hydro-electric
power plant in the United States
west of Niagara Falls and sustained
by many electro chemical industrial
plants and factories?
The answer of some of the most
farseeing economists and industrial
engineers of Seattle is that when the
Priest Rapids development is COM
pleted, which will be within the next
three years under present plans, the
progress of this state and of its sis
ter states of the Pacific. Northwest
will be advanced quarter of cen
tury.
AS was told in The Times last
week, the General Electric company
interests have solved the last of the
problems connected with the huge
Priest Rapids project and are now
ready to begin actual construction
that viii involve all ultimate total
expenditure of least $100,000,000.
Preliminary work such as surveys
and boring for dam foundations, com
menced several years ago on a tenn
porary permit from the government,
have been completed at cost Of
nearly $o,000,000, and now the an
nouncement from Washington, d. c.,
is that the Washington Irrigation &
Development Company, holding
company of the General Electric in
terests, has applied for license to
begin the real work as soon as the
permit can be obtained from the fed
eral power commission, probably by
March next, by starting construc-
ton of the largest power dam in the
world.
Dam to Cast 2s,o00,ooo.
+ The dam alone will cost $28,000,000
Machinery for the power plant apd
Cd1 000 J,,
building factories and industrial
works $20,O00,0O0 will be spent, and
$12,0OO0oO will be expended in build
ing the city for the $4,000 workers
the factories will employ.
The electro-chenlical industries of
the United States are now centered
at Niagara Falls, and the General
Electric interests plan, to make a
long story short, to make Priest
Rapids second Niagara Falls where
hundreds of basic products will be
manufactured by electro-che1nical
processes that have been brought to
highest perfection in recent years in
Germany, Norway and Sweden.
Electrical engineers and chemists
long have predicted that quarter of
a century from now the North Pacific
Coast region, because it has large
part of the nations undeveloped wa
ter power, would become the scene of
the greatest development of the cleo
tro- chemical industries the New
World have ever known.
Prediction to Be Fulfilled
In their opinion the building of the
Priest Rapids power plant and indus
trial city will mark the practical full |
fillment of their prediction. The
present great need of the Pacific
Northwest is population and payrolls.
Their prediction has been that both
these needs would be met when cleo
tro-chemical industries were estab
lished here following development OF
the idle water powers.
Hence the vital Importance of the
Priest Rapids project to the State OF
Washington and the Pacific North
west as whole.
The State of Washington alone has
at least 100000 acres OF arid land
that is irrigablc 1t has an even
larger area of stump land that should
be cleared and cultivated. 1t has
hundreds OF thousands of acres that
could be reclaimed by ditching or
dil<ing.
But whenever the government or
private capital has been asked to do
the reclamation work the answer has
been: Where is market to be
found for the products of these lands?
Build up your industries and create
consuming population and we will
reclaim your lands"
On the other hand, when the cities
seeking factories and urging their ad
vantages for manufacturing asked
capital to invest, the answer has been:
"Whcre are you going to sell your
factory products2 Build up larger
consuming market i'll your hinter-
land, then we will give you money"
1t has been over and over the old
nonsense tale of the buttcrscotch that
could not run till it got warm and
could not get warm till it ran.
Perhaps the Priest Rapids develop
ment will answer all questions. Who
knows?
One thing certain is that the Cen
eral Electric Company interests have
faith in the success Of their venture
and that they have the money to make
their visions come true.
Market Found for Power
Their biggest task was to find
market for the 100000 horsepower the
Priest Rapids plant will develop at
all stages of the Columbia River
every day in the year. When the
river is high III the spring and sum
mcr months the plant will develop
L.