The part which investigation could play in this drama has been played. All phases of the problem have been exhaustively investigated. Once that stage is reached, investigation means inaction and discussion means delay. The servant who buried his talent in the ground probably appointed a joint committee to investigate and report on the best way to utilize talents. Precisely as the way to resume specie payment "was to resume," just so the way to stop wasting an energy equal to the annual consumption of 15,000,000 tons of coal is to stop wasting it.

The time has come to act, and for good or ill, for years to come if not for all time, these great questions must now be answered. Authority to control and regulate the material resources provided by nature is a necessary attribute of State sovereignty. The State should own and regulate the disposal of all additional water power it may create. It should make such utilization and disposal thereof as will promote the public health and public welfare, yield a public revenue, stimulate commerce and industry and cheapen the cost of light, heat and power.

NEW YORK'S WATER POWER RESOURCES

In the year 1907 the State Water Supply Commission was authorized and directed by the Legislature to devise a plan for the progressive development of the water powers of the State under State ownership, control and maintenance for the public use and benefit and for the increase of the public revenue. The same act directed the Commission to ascertain and report the water storage capacity of reservoirs created for the purpose of stream regulation, the record of rainfall, the average flow of the stream, and to estimate as nearly as practicable the water power capacity of proposed developments throughout the State.

Pursuant to this direction the State Water Supply Commission inaugurated an investigation of the power capacity and possibilities of the more important inland streams of the State. This work has been continued by its successor, the Conservation Cam

mission. Comprehensive hydrographic surveys have been made of practically all the inland streams of our State, and we have at the present time reliable data showing the power possibilities of every important inland river within the State.

No State in the Union possesses greater water power resources than New York. The St. Lawrence river on the north and the Niagara river on the west furnish immense power possibilities. No river surpasses these in volume of water and none has a more uniform flow. We have in addition a large number of inland rivers capable of vast power development. Our extensive canal improvements have likewise created many useful water powers. It has been established by careful hydrographic surveys that within the borders of this State it is commercially feasible to develop at least two million five hundred thousand horse power (2,500,000 h. p.). This is more than sufficient to supply all the needs of the State for light and for power for manufacturing and industrial enterprises. Approximately one million (1,000,000) h. p. has already been developed. There remains, therefore, within the State in round numbers one million five hundred thousand (1,500,000) h. p. undeveloped.

The advancement in the art of electrical transmission has made this vast amount of potential energy available to the inhabitants of every municipality within the entire State. The prime importance of this resource lies in the fact that this latent power is located within the borders of a State containing a population of nearly ten millions (10,000,000) of inhabitants, and is available for our vast and varied industrial needs. It is valuable because it is in the very heart of commercial activities, where there is a growing market therefor.

Two vital questions arise with respect to the policy which the State should adopt regarding, first, the water powers already developed aggregating approximately one million (1,000,000) h. p.; second, the water powers yet undeveloped approximating one million five hundred thousand (1,500,000) h. p.

By reason of the fact that every stream contains developed as well as undeveloped power sites, these two questions are so interrelated that a discussion of one will in a large measure embrace the other.

With regard to our developed water powers all agree that these should be utilized to the highest degree of efficiency and the present capacity increased wherever possible, and if need be, the agency of the State employed to accomplish this result upon some basis which will be just and equitable to the State, the mill owner, and the citizen. Various plans have been suggested and strenuous efforts made to formulate a practical policy, which so far have largely failed by reason of legal obstacles or conflicting interests.

STREAM REGULATION

A very considerable part of our water powers are situate upon inland streams where at certain seasons there is a superabundance of water, and at other times a great deficiency exists. It is, therefore, apparent that if efficiency is to be secured, storage reservoirs which will provide a regulation of the stream flow are essential. This is of prime importance. By these means the developed powers will be greatly increased, and those undeveloped made more valuable and commercially attractive. Stream regulation is in fact one of the fundamental requirements of proper economical hydraulic development.

The construction of a reservoir on the Sacandaga at an estimated cost of five millions of dollars ($5,000,000) will increase the total low-water power of the Hudson river at the developed sites below Hadley from twenty-nine thousand four hundred and ninety (29,490) h. p. to ninety-one thousand three hundred (91,300) h. p.; and at undeveloped sites from eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-five (8,885) h. p. to sixty-one thousand five hundred (61,500) h. p. In other words, the low-water power of the stream will be increased nearly four times its present capacity. These figures include the power between the Sacandaga dam and Hadley, which will be thirty-four thousand five hundred (34,500) h. p. at the minimum. Moreover, in considering this project we must remember that the commercial value of stored water is greater than that from the ordinary flow of the stream, for the reason that the mill owners can use the same at a time when their mills would otherwise be idle, thereby enabling them to increase the capacity of their plants. By the construction of the Sacandaga reservoir and a proper regulation of the stream it would be pos

sible for the mill owners to increase their plants about fifty per cent (50%) and still run them at full capacity for the same length of time that they do at present. The potential power possibilities at undeveloped sites would be similarly increased by the construction of this reservoir. The increase to the power-producing capacity of the Hudson by such regulation would amount to eighty-three thousand five hundred and sixty (83,500) h. p. Similar results would follow on the Genesee, Black, Raquette, Oswegatchie and Saranac rivers, as appears from the following table:

Hudson, between Hadley and 29,490
Troy (including power from
Sacandaga between dam and
Hadley).

• Provisional.

Provisional only.