The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-08-19

to the American side of the lake
alone at five million dollars.
Costs of No Matter?
Mr.. Backus' reply to all these OBJ
| jections is: s'The~ benefits accruing
maze the question of cost of any
sort of contemplated plan of very
e.....4. consequence" which of course
is true from his point Of view so
long as he is not paying the fiddler.
He can well afford to compromise
AIS differences even with his biggesv
opponents under this arrangement,
Tor it means, of course, that -
/ public will pay their own damages
and especially the communities in
the region affected. This is wnaC
is happening now on +. Lake of the
Woods, where damaged property
owners, tired of waiting for their
compensation are finally accepting
government Intervention in the vain
nope of beneIlt.
Advantages of Government Aid
AS matter of fact, it is of SUI
prems Importance to Mr. Backus to
shoulder these entire costs, at least
originally, upon the two govern
ments. Claiming some international
emergency, it sounds plausible in
that way for the governments to con-
denim private lands. In no other
way could private and public lands
be taken for a private purpose. But
the claims Tor the damages on Rainy
Lake. which like those on the Lake
of the Woods, have never been paid
and which are mounting from year
10 year as the region becomes more
settled, must sooner or later be adj
| justed. Property. owners, have al
ready for years paid taxes on land
| continuously occupied by Mr.. Backus
| for storage purposes without any
legal authority. Only serious loss
to the power company can come out
of this legal muddle, unless the two
governments come to the rescue.
What, If Amy, Public Necessity
That, in short is the story of the
proposed developments in the Rainy
Lake watershed. Is there then g
public emergency Or necessity justi
| flying the two governments in stor
ing water in any part of this inter
national basin at their own initia
expense or in permitting it to bt
done even at the expense of an in
dlvidual, if he were willing? A
the hearing in 1925 there appeared
two hundred delegates, representing
the State of Minnesota, the PROVING,
of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg
the Town Of Fort Frances, Villag
of Rainier, the Isaac Walton League
! the Arrowhead association, and vari
Gus other societies, corporations
property owners, homesteaders, an,
small farmers-all to voice their OBJ
jections to this plan for monopol,
control. Mr.. Backus appeared a
chief, if not only, advocate. Of tn,
three others who had anything at al
10 say for control of these uppe
waters, one revealed that the inter
ests 80 represented were entirel.
anonymous, two admitted that thei
plans were largely dependent upol
and subJ,~. to Mr.. Backus, and tn,
third discussed in a general way tn,
Importance of cheap power, if an.
, could be developed for the towns O.
the iron range.
, Attitude Canadian Power Users
,, 1t might be supposed that Canadi
ans at least would favor the projec
because of the increased potentia
power in the Winnipeg river, but al
the main users of power in tina
river except Mr.. Backus registered
their protests. Said Mr.. R. E. Guy
{ representing various Winnip
power companies: ''The present stor
age on Rainy Lake and on the water
! controlled by the dam at Kettl,
Falls was undertaken solely and en-
, tirely as a private undertaking ant
to provide for utilization of powe,
for commercial purposes, and not il
any respect intended as a storag,
basin to regulate the flow of watel
in the Winnipeg river, and incident
ally if such storage for power pur
poses (Which is not admitted bu
denied) in any way contributed tt
the more uniform flow of the Win
nipeg river, none of the power com
panies on the Winnipeg river should
be asked or expected to contribute
anything to such private enterprise.
, Apparently, here Mr.. Guy ever
denies the validity of the govern
ment engineers figures.
, What, If Any, Private Necessity,
Not only was there a complete fail
ure to show any public necessity
but even %it does not appear thai
, a failure to accept Mr.. Backus
recommendations would result in any
calamity or even serious hardshi,
to him or to any of the companie.
| he represented" In view of tn,
, comparatively small total addition
7 of horsepower demonstrated to re
suit in the entire 800 mile stretcl
of country between North Lake ant
, Lake Winnipeg, it begins to look af
ter all as if power is secondary tt
; the need to escape costs-cost, by
the way, for damages already in
flicted or likely to be inflicted by
dams already in place.
Has Everything Been Said for the
Project?
Whatever the motives, 1--WE must
calmly examined the proposal on its