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have the power to appropriate them by condemnation. There is some doubt as to the State's right to take private property for this purpose. Personally, I regard the development of water-power a "public use" for which such property might properly be taken-with just compensation of course-but so long as any question remains, it would be better to have it cleared up by an explicit Constitutional declaration.

Having laid the ground-work with these three fundamentals,

namely:

1st, that the State shall not alienate its ownership of State-owned water-powers;

2nd, that the use of State-owned water-power shall not be leased without just compensation to the State; and

3rd, that the development of water-power is a public use for which the State may appropriate private property with just compensation,

we come to the complicated questions of how the State-owned and the privately owned water powers can best be developed in the public interest. A mere statement of the various methods is sufficient to indicate the number of possible and conflicting viewpoints. Shall we have (1) Private development of private property only; or

(2) Private development of both private and State property; (3) State development of State property only; or

(4) State development of both State and private property; or (5) Co-operation of both private and State enterprises in developing both?

(1) With respect to the first plan, private development of privately owned property on any comprehensive scale is difficult in this State because, leaving out of consideration the financial aspects of the question-private enterprise is always confronted with the possibility that the owner of a necessary water power may not be willing to sell it to the projectors of a development, and there is no way in this State, corresponding to the Mill Acts of New England and some other States, by which the projectors can take other private property by condemnation. Under our Constitution the right of eminent domain may be exercised by one private property owner over the land of another only in two cases, namely, to build private roads and to build private drains

for agricultural lands. I doubt if the people of this State would favorably regard a proposition to amend the Constitution so as to permit one riparian owner, for the purpose of water power development, to appropriate the property of another, even with just compensation.

(2) As to the second plan, private development of State-owned water powers might be practicable from the legal standpoint, as was proposed in the Long Sault case, provided the State did not alienate its title, derived a just compensation, and in the public interest properly regulated the sale of the power developed. But there is a natural and deep-seated feeling of the impropriety, to say the least, of allowing private interests to develop State property, with its many possibilities of abuse, actual or suspected.

The

(3) There are no legal objections to the plan of the State's developing its own water-powers as exclusively State enterprises. objection, if any, lies against the State's seeming to enter into competition with private enterprise,—a thing which is to be avoided if possible.

(4) As to the State's developing private property, there is the question, which I have mentioned before, about the constitutionality of condemning private property for this purpose; and the same question mentioned in the preceding paragraph, as to the State's seeming to enter into competition with private enterprise.

(5) We therefore come to the fifth suggestion as to whether there is not some practicable middle ground upon which the State and private interests can unite in co-operation. My idea is that the State shall help and encourage private enterprise rather than supplant it, at the same time imposing such regulations as shall prevent monopoly, secure adequate public service at reasonable rates, and provide for a return to the State for the benefit of its assistance. Those are the fundamental objects to be attained—

Adequate development of the water resources;
Economical and efficient administration;
Reasonable profits to private enterprise;
Proper regulation to prevent monoply;

Reasonable rates to the public; and

Just return to the State for the benefit of its assistance of the

use of its property.

I do not imagine that we are going to hit on exactly the right plan all at once; but I think that after more or less experimentation, we shall arrive at a plan of State and private co-operation somewhat like that which I have last outlined; and is seems to me that we are making progress in that direction.

The State is now trying a plan which is an improvement on anything before attempted and the operation of which will be followed with great interest. It is the plan embodied in the bill introduced in the Legislature of 1915 by Senator Wood and Assemblyman Machold and enacted in chapter 662 of the laws of 1915, amending the Conservation Law. It provides for the creation of river regulating districts which are to be public corporations. Any person or corporation may petition to the River Regulation Commission-consisting of the Conservation Commissioner, the Attorney General and the State Engineer, or their deputies,-for the creation of such a district. If, after public hearing, the Commission establishes such a district, the Governor appoints three persons to be known as the Board of that River Regulating District. The Board prepares the plan of the reservoir site or sites, and has power to acquire land by condemnation, build the reservoirs, regulate the stream-flow, etc. Before constructing the works, however, it must hold public hearings, and its final determination may be reviewed by certiorari at the suit of any person or corporation. If the State is to bear any share of the expense of the reservoir, the Legislature must first make an appropriation. The total cost of the reservoir, including compensation for real estate and damages, is assessed upon the beneficiaries. Every ten years, the cost of operation and maintenance, together with the amount of a reasonable return to the State upon the value of its rights and property used and services rendered, is calculated and is annually charged upon the beneficiaries. For the cost of such improvement, the Board may issue 5% fifty-year bonds, secured by the assessments before mentioned. The bonds are sold by the Comptroller.

Developments under this plan involving State lands in the Forest Preserve are made possible by the amendment of section 7 of article VII of the Constitution, adopted in 1913, which permits the use of 3%

of the Forest Preserve land for water storage, and the River Regulation Commission has recently had under consideration two large projects for storage reservoirs in the Adirondacks under this act, one in the Schroon river basin and the other in the Sacandaga river basin. The Schroon river project,—which, I understand, has been given up, for the present at least,—would have submerged the present Schroon, Brandt and Paradox lakes, and flooded the villages of Chesterton, Horicon, South Horicon and Pottersville. Sixteen billions of gallons of water would have been stored. The Sacandaga project is still alive, and the River Regulation Commission is still holding hearings in regard to it. The Sacandaga plan provides for the erection of a dam of Conklingville, which would impound 29,000,000,000 gallons of water in a lake covering forty-two square miles, about the size of Lake George. Dozens of towns would be flooded. It has been stated in the public prints that it is estimated that the Sacandaga reservoir can be built for $6,000,000 and that it would cost approximately $6,700,000 more to install a power plant. It will thus be seen that this project is an elaborate one and will serve as a good test of what can be done under the Constitution and statutes as they now stand.

There is one other aspect of water conservation in the Adirondacks which should not be lost from sight. Some day, in all probability, New York City will have to go to the Adirondacks for a municipal water supply. New York City contains over half the population of the State, and an adequate municipal water supply is essential to its very life. In 75 years it has exhausted the resources in the Croton water-shed and this year has put into operation its new aqueduct drawing water from the Catskills, 120 miles away, and over half-way to the Adirondacks. During the ten years in which this aqueduct has been building, the City has grown so rapidly that to provide for the immediate future, it has been necessary to supplement the supply from the Esopus water-shed by a new supply from the Schoharie water-shed. The waters of the Schoharie are naturally tributary to the Mohawk; but work is already in progress to impound them and divert them into the Catskill aqueduct. Within the possible life-time of those present at this meeting, the Schoharie supplement will have been outgrown and the City of New York will be compelled to go to the Adirondacks for more water.

Finally, the increase of our industrial efficiency is demanded to a larger extent than ever before.

The world is suffiering great losses through the war, and our country must bear its share of those losses. Debts are piling up, and the question is how those debts will be paid.

We may learn useful lessons from the past.

Francis Jeffrey, writing of England in the Edinburgh Review, in 1819, said:

"It is our improved steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same great power which enables us now to pay the interest on our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged, with the skill and enterprise of other countries."

The steam engine which helped England bear the burdens of the Napoleonic Wars was a poor affair compared with the engine of today. Yet ours may have its efficiency increased and supplemented by the power of the waterfall,-that power which exists to such an abounding possibility in our State.

Great though those powers be, they must be organized and developed by the intelligence of our people, based upon a better under

standing of common interests. We must look largely to this power for gains in production, which will enable us to make up the losses of the war, and repeat, by the fullest conservation and development, the progress accomplished by the application of the steam engine to industry.

[graphic]

These are the days when the foresight of the
company who planted a windbreak along a rail-
road cut in New York State is evident. Engines
never stall here. More windbreaks mean more
winter travel on state highways and a warmer
looking landscape.

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