OWN in the green pastures at Washington-under the guardianship of that good old Shepherd, Uncle Sam flock of sheep, with exceedingly valuable fleeces, has long been grazing.

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Often in the past few years, the lion's paw has swept away a woolly victim so swiftly and silently, that the great public, looking on, has been only a little startled.

But now the lion-already the greatest and most powerful of all trusts-has grown bolder. During the present session of Congress he is gathering himself for a leap. He sees in the present political situation an opportunity-by appealing to the ancient and outworn doctrine of State Rights-to scatter the fat sheep and lambs, which he covets, and thus make it easy to devour them one after the other, at his leisure.

The lion, on which the public is warned to fix its most eager and angry attention, is the Water Power Trust-beside which all other ravenous beasts in the PoliticalBusiness jungle become as family pets. The fleecy flock is made up of innumerable and immensely valuable water-power rights which, still undeveloped, exist in the navigable rivers of the United States. Or-forgetting, for the moment, the menagerie-picture to yourself a distraught old gentleman in red-and-white striped trousers, blue coat, and star

spangled vest, wearing brass buttons and a funny bunch of whiskers, walking down a dimly lighted by-street, carrying two or three billion dollars worth of valuables in his arms. He is dropping them along the road from time to time, and a gang of avid pursuers are picking them up. If he doesn't drop them fast enough to satisfy the cupidity of his escort, they make a grand rush at him and snatch a few of the most tempting bits out of his arms.

The old gentleman has two burglarproof safes at home, plenty big enough, either of them, to hold his treasure. But he hasn't been able to make up his mind in which safe he will lock them, and the looters are doing their best to keep him too agitated to decide until they have relieved him of his entire store.

That's Uncle Sam, taking care of his water-power wealth; nobody knows how many billions of it. It constitutes one of the biggest parts of his remaining estate. It belongs to us, his nephews and nieces; a rich part of the heritage for which he is trustee for us and our children. He is tramping through the twilight zone of uncertainty that divides State Sovereignty from Federal Authority. The two safes at home are marked State Control and Federal Control. His property would be perfectly safe in the Federal Control safe, which is modern in construction and connected by the best known burglar

alarm system with the central police station of Public Opinion. The other safe isn't so strong or modern.

The horde of water power grabbers want to get as much as possible of his treasure away from the old man before he decides where to put it for safe keeping, and then they want him to lock the rest in the State Control safe, because they know just how to blow their way in and take the stock at their leisure.

If the old chap doesn't decide pretty soon what to do about it, and doesn't decide right-that is, in favor of locking his valuables in the Federal Control safe, -and then doesn't put a strong guard over that safe, there will be nothing left of the treasure, and the rest of us will presently find ourselves working for the smart and nimble gentry who are at present meeting such success in tormenting him out of his property.

Till very recently, only a few very farsighted people realized the importance of controlling the water power of this country They knew that the real monopolies of the future would be in natural re

sources. Whoever could control the forests, coal, iron ore and water powers would control the country. They would lay tribute on everybody else.

The forests are far on the road to strong, concentrated ownership. Coal is going the same way. Iron-well, we all know something of the tremendous grip the Steel Corporation has in that quarter. As to water power, the economists now agree that its control will make the one great, dominating, overshadowing trust of the future. If the water power trust is ever perfected as thoroughly as it is now planned, as free from control in the public interest, it will be a power quite beyond any crude imaginings of today to portray.

The wonder of wonders about the water power combination is the swiftness, secrecy and effectiveness of its

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COPYRIGHT BY HARRIS & EWING.

develop ment. It is yet less than four years since President Roosevelt first told the country SENATOR WINTHROP MURRAY in warning tones that there was possibility of such a trust. He did that in his famous veto of the James River, Missouri, dam bill, in April, 1909. It wasn't a very big dam bill, but it afforded occasion for turning loose for National contemplation a detailed report which the Commissioner of Corporations had made, of water

CRANE-ONE OF THE MOST ACTIVE
WATER POWER GETTERS IN
CONGRESS,

power conditions. The country wasn't just sure how to take that report. Some people yawned at "another Roosevelt alarm;" others found something humorous in the queer notion that water power was worth trustifying, or that there was a potential trust. Still others, a few of them, got the idea and have been keeping their eyes on this combination ever since. As for the water power promoters, who thus suddenly found the white light of publicity turned on their magnificent project, they redoubled their efforts and adopted clever tactics to allay suspicion. They drove off their forces, set their strategists at work, organized a plan of campaign, and right now they are on the point of making their grand dash to capture control of the whole situation. As I

write, their army of lobbyists-some of them operating from the vantage points of seats in House and Senate, some serving as dummy directors, promoters, manipulators and what-not-is just starting the charge up Capitol Hill. They propose to capture and destroy the Federal Sovereignty citadel and leave only the scattered outposts of State Regulation to defend the water resources, knowing full well that if they once establish the rule that the States own the water power, they can capture the State legislatures in detail and appropriate the whole treasure. Before this article appears in print, the charge will have been made; the critical battle will be on. What a stake is involved in the outcome may be judged from the solemn warning which Senator Burton of Ohio recently delivered:

at 36,906,000; that is, the power producible at periods of lowest water, dead of winter, etc. The maximum, without construction of storage reservoirs, is placed at 66,447,000. But with storage reservoirs, which would prevent floods and aid navigation, in addition to increasing water power supply, it is estimated by the Hydrographic Bureau that 200,000,000 horsepower could be developed. These are all conservative official engineering estimates. The late Dr. W. J. McGee, one of the world's foremost authorities, said of our water power possibilities, if storage were employed:

"Besides its enormous magnitude, this industry will become fundamental to many other industries which depend upon water power for their operation and success. The possibility of the control of the business of the country through the agency of water power is more imminent than any other form of control ever attempted in the history of human endeavor."

That is the language of a senator who doesn't deal in the spectacular or the superlative, who is most commonly criticised as too conservative, and who knows more about water power than any other man now in public life.

Senator Burton did no violence to his repute for moderation when he indulged in these observations. It is difficult to summarize, in the space available here, the possibilities of the water power combination for which lines have been laid throughout the length and breadth of this continent, and for the promotion of which the greatest financial powers of the country are enlisted. However, here are some impressionistic suggestions:

Industrial United States uses about 30,000,000 horsepower-gas, steam and water-annually. The available mini

"It exceeds our mechanical power in use, would operate every mill, drive every spindle, propel every train and boat, and light every city, town and village in the country."

Whether you side with the man who calculates that water power is available to produce twice, or three times, or seven times, the entire amount of mechanical power now in use in the country, you will be forced to concede that these figures mean something.

But is it available for general commercial uses? That is the natural question at this point. Can it be harnessed to the mills, locomotives, lighting circuits of cities, and made to do the work?

One suggestion of the answer resides in the statement that though hydro-electrical development is in its infancy, there is 5,356,000 developed horsepower in water; that is, more than one-sixth of all the power we use. The use of water power from central stations increased, between 1902 and 1907, 208 per cent, while the use of steam power in like fashion increased only 90.4 per cent.

These figures suggest how increasingly important water power, turned into electricity and distributed over wide areas, is becoming. Yet the development is barely beginning. Thus far, water power is hardly used at all to operate railways. Consider, then, the possibilities of development in this field from two statements:

system expects to electrify its entire line from the Missouri river to Puget Sound just as fast as the preparations can be made for the change: as fast as dams can be built, turbines and dynamos installed, and electric locomotives constructed. It has bought power from the Great Falls Power Company of Montana for about 500 miles of this distance. It will make transportation So much cheaper by using electricity, that every other important railroad in the Mountain and Pacific West is today figuring on meeting this new competition by similarly equipping itself.

Second, consider this statement which the late Edward H. Harriman made to the writer about two years before he died. We will all concede that Harriman had real vision. He said:

"The trunk-line railroad of the near future will be of six-foot gauge, which means entire reconstruction of roadbed, bridges and tunnels. Cars built throughout of steel will handle 80 to 100 tons of freight each. West of the Missouri, practically all the mileage will be operated by electricity, which will be produced from the great water powers of the mountain country, the Missouri itself, and the Pacific slope. Besides that, there will be an industrial development in that region that we cannot yet conceive, due to the use of this same power for mining, factories, and operating the utilities of towns, cities and the farm."

That sounded visionary, even a very few years

ago. It isn't so visionary, in the light of what the Saint Paul road is actually doing and its competitors planning to do just as soon as possible.

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The economy of hydroelectric power is variously estimated. When the Puget Sound road is equipped with electricity it will haul no coal for locomotive fuel. That is one of the biggest tonnage items of other railroads. It will not need to use power, cars, tracks and terminals in this way. It is impossible. to get an agreed engineering statement of the difference in cost per yearly horsepower between steam and hydroelectricity; it is extremely conservative to say that electricity can be produced from water at $40 or $50 and that steam power will cost at least $60. Many engineers would make steam cost twice as much as electricity. Moreover, steam is bound to cost more and more as coal becomes scarcer; water will continue running down hill for some time yet at the same old price.

Again and here is a most important detail in any appraisement of water

power resourcesthere is a more uniform and general distribution of

water power throughout the country than of coal. New England and New York have no coal, but they have water power that may easily be developed, far beyond any demands that can now be imagined. The Middle Atlantic section has great supplies of coal and also of water power; yet water power is being developed very fast in the