Evening star., 1928-09-23


respect to the development of water
power.
In the past have stated that there
is a lack of understanding of the whole
subject by the people generally which
makes 1t easy for public officials who
do not hold very strong views on the
necessity of conservation of natural re-
sources to turn them over to private in
dividuals for private profit and private
gain.
Electrical energy is developed two
ways either through steam generated
by coal or from falling water. Through
out the United States today there is
sufficient water running to waste to
generate without the use of a single
pound of coal electrical energy Suffi-
cient to meet the needs of large Sec
tions of thi country. Falling water
has often been referred to as white coal.
1t is possible to exhaust the resources
of coal mine. but it is reasonable to
suppose that water will flow on forever.
Possibilities of Water Power.
Let me give you some facts and fig
| ures that will bring strongly to your
attention the possibilities of water-power
development At Niagara Falls in the
State of New York the Niagara Power
Co. in a three-story building covering
little more than an ordinary city
j block, with a minimum of expense for
operation, generates TOO, 900 horsepower.
/ In order to get an idea of what
! 100000 horsepower of electrical energy
means, let us take the city of New
York, with its many industries using
electrical energy. its large number of
department stores residences and the
aters In fact, all of the electrical
energy used on Manhattan Island south
Of Fifty-ninth street and from the
North to the East Rivers is supplied
| by the New York Edison Co.'S water
side station at the foot of East Thirty
sixth street 1t is estimated by electrl-
! cal engineers that on the 2lst of De-
| cember the peak load of electrical en-
ergy is carried, This generating sta
| ton is an eight-Story building. covering
two full city blocks, and on that day
produces 375.000 horsepower. Bear in
mind that the energy so produced re-
| quireS the hauling of coal from the
mines of Pennsylvania to tidewater
and presents quite some problem in cost
of maintenance and operation by con-
| traSt with the small plant where the
wheels are turned by falling water and
| requires but the necessary number of
men to oil the machinery 1t must,
therefore, be apparent that electrical
energy generated from falling water
should be sold to the ultimate con-
sumner at much cheaper rate than
the same amount of energy generated
from steam.
Many Possible Power Sites.
Throughout the United States there
are great possible power sites. view
them as God-given resources of the
country. I make the claim that the
benefit of their development should ac-
crue to the people themselves and that
we should not permit them to fall into
private hands for private development,
| which means private gain at the eX-
pense of all the users of the energy.
That private monopoly has its eyes
upon these possible developments there
can be no question. My own State of
New York offers an example and 1 am
reasonably certain the same condition
prevails throughout the country at
every possible source of power develop
ment
Private power companies drained
Niagara Falls until the scenic beauty of
that wonder of the world was threaten
| ed, and as far back as 1905 the Federal
| Government entered into a treaty with
| the Dominion of Canada to limit the
! diversion of water from the Niagara
River above the Falls in order to pre-
vent it from being despoiled by the
private water-power corporations of
New York State.
Horace Mcfarland president of the
National Civic Federation, speaking of
New Yorks record with regard to her
water power before my administrations,
! said that 1.-The State itself had jobbed
out all the sacred glories of Niagara
for no return or recompense what
ever to the people"
Combines Sought Control
The great power combines. baked by
the Burton act in 1907, sought control of
the possible power developments of the
st. Lawrence River by the incorpora-
ton of a development company under
special act of the legislature. After
practically giving away the great power
resources at the ST. Lawrence, the State
in the same year adopted a policy OF
public development under public con-
troll and public ownership. The story
of the desire of privates to gain con-
troll of the States water resources Is
too long and too detailed for me to recite
to you tonight. 1t suffices for me to
say that today these power resources
are the property of the State OF New
York, because of my insiStent demand
over a period of 10 years that develop
ment be by the State itself under State
ownership and State control. Develop
ment has been halted because of the
! insistent demand of the Republican
party in New York State that the
water-power resources of the State be
| leased to private individuals under long
! term leases. ...
In my speech Of acceptance set up
what. in my opinion, should be def
mite policy for the future with regard to
! these water-power resources. l claim
! that where they are owned by the Gov
ernment they should remain under Fed
eral control Where they are owned by
an individual State they should be un-
| der the control of that State, and where
| they are owned by States jointly they
! should be under the control OF those
| States. BY control I mean absolute re-
| tention by the ownership of the power
| itself. by owning and controlling the
site and the plant az .he place OF gen.
Grafton. Only in this way can the Gov
ernment agency, State or Federal. as
| the case may be, find itself in position
! to provide fair and reasonable rates to
| the ultimate consumer, and insist upon
fair and equal distribution OF the
power through contractual agreements
with the distributing companies.
Favors Public Development.
The cost of electrical energy gener-
ated from water power is largely de-
termined by the cost of the money used
| for the development. Private develop
ment involves larger rate OF interest
on the underlying securities than does
public development And it is fair to
assume that private companies will fol-
low their practice of the past and give
to the bondholders of prospective de-
velopments a stock bonus. That means
an obligation on the ultimate consumer
to pay rate for electrical energy that
will meet the cost not only of operation
and maintenance Of plant, with depre-
citation, but also the higher cost of the
borrowed money.
For the State of New York, and 1t