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corresponding figure for 1920 is made up of projects constructed under license. In addition, licenses have been issued for about 4,000,000 horsepower that have not yet been completed. The increase in the completed installations has been at an average rate of about 7 per cent per year, and this rate has been reached in spite of the fact that during the entire period the commission has been restrained from taking action upon a large number of applications involving from 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 horsepower, most of which pertained to the best power rivers of the country. It is safe to say that the rate of progress would have been much greater if artificial obstacles to the development of these rivers had not been interposed; and it may turn out that the delays so caused have kept some of these resources undeveloped beyond the time when their development is sufficiently profitable to attract the necessary capital. While in some of these cases the delay may have been warranted and may produce benefits to offset the temporary economic losses entailed, nevertheless whatever good may be derived from the suspension of the free application of the principles of the Federal water power act, waste of natural resources is a result in almost every instance, and such a result may be prolonged far beyond the period of the suspension.

As to the prospects for the future, about 5,500,000 horsepower is under investigation by preliminary permittees, and 15,000,000 horsepower, which includes the suspended cases of the kind cited above, is involved in applications not yet acted upon by the commission. There is, therefore, every prospect that the construction of new developments will continue for a long time to come. New applications have been received during the year at a rate below the average of the preceding years, the decrease amounting to about 25 per cent. The results of a single year, however, are not sufficient to indicate a general tendency, and a chart of the applications received month by month shows large and irregular departures from the average without disclosing a definite trend. There is no evidence that activity in the development and utilization of our water-power resources is declining or about to decline, and it appears that no reduction in the work of the commission relating to applications for permits and licenses can be anticipated for an indefinite time in the future.

PERSONNEL

The independent offices appropriation act for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928, contained a provision "that the annual estimates for the fiscal year 1929 shall include the salaries of all civilian employees whose service for the commission has become permanent through detail from any executive department." In accordance with this provision the commission submitted estimates for the 29 civilian em

ployees who were on detail to the commission, and the independent offices act for the fiscal year 1929 contains an appropriation to the Federal Power Commission of $87,840 for the payment of salaries of such civilian personnel. The act further provided "that the transfer of civilian employees to the rolls of the Federal Power Commission on July 1, 1928, may be made without reduction in salary." The transfers, in accordance with such authorization, were made on July 1, 1928. While no change has yet been effected in the number or character of personnel on the staff of the commission, the unsatisfactory situation from both the personnel and fiscal standpoint of operating with a force attached to three different departments and merely detailed to the commission has been corrected.

COSTS OF ADMINISTRATION AND RECEIPTS FROM LICENSEES

The costs of administration of the Federal water power act consist of: (1) Operating expenses paid from the commission's appropriations; (2) salaries of individuals assigned by the departments to the commission or employed by the commission; and (3) salary expenses of field employees of the departments engaged on work of the commission. These expenses, omitting cents, ascertained or estimated for the nine fiscal years 1921-1929, inclusive, are as follows:

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The increase in operating expenses in 1929 is due to the transfer to the commission's appropriations of the civilian salary roll theretofore paid by the departments. The amount estimated for the same year under "assigned salaries" is for military personnel.

By the provisions of the act annual charges are collected from licensees for three purposes: First, to reimburse the United States for the costs of the administration of the act; second, to recompense it for the use, occupancy, and enjoyment of its lands or other property; and third, for the expropriation of excessive profits if the States do not make provisions for preventing such profits. The charges collected for these several purposes are paid into the Treasury, subject to the disposition prescribed by the act. No charges have yet been collected for the third purpose named or are likely to

be collected except in absence of State authority to regulate rates. For the second purpose named, charges are collected for the use of public lands, national-forest lands, tribal Indian lands, and Government dams. These charges are revenues collected as compensation for the use of Government property. All charges collected for the use of Indian lands are placed to the credit of the Indians. Of the other land charges 50 per cent go to the reclamation fund, 371⁄2 per cent to the States, and 122 per cent to the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. Of the charges for Government dams 121⁄2 per cent go into miscellaneous receipts and 50 per cent are paid into a special fund in the Treasury, from which they may be drawn on order of the Secretary of War to be expended in the maintenance and operation of dams or other navigation structures or in the construction, maintenance, or operation of headwater or other improvements of navigable rivers. No specific provision is made for the disposition of the remaining 372 per cent, but in absence of such provision they also go to miscellaneous receipts.

The charges collected for the first purpose named were not intended as revenues but as reimbursement of costs incurred in administration. It was the intent in drafting the act that its administration should be self-supporting; that the cost, and only the cost, should be collected; and that the moneys received should be used for that purpose. As section 17 of the act has been interpreted by the Comptroller General, 50 per cent of the charges collected for defraying administration costs go to the headwater-improvement fund of the War Department, 122 per cent go to "miscellaneous receipts," and, as in the case of the second group of charges, the remaining 371⁄2 per cent, for which no specific disposition is made, are also credited to miscellaneous receipts.

Charges are collected by calendar years, and therefore appear as receipts of succeeding fiscal years. The ascertained and estimated receipts, omitting cents, for the nine fiscal years 1922-1930 are as follows:

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The following tabulations compare year by year and cumulatively the expenses of administration, direct and indirect, with total receipts and with receipts collected for the purpose of reimbursing costs. In these comparisons receipts for a calendar year as, for example, 1921, which are collected in the fiscal year 1922, are set opposite expenses for the preceding fiscal year 1921.

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The above tables show that total receipts have exceeded total expenditures ever since 1924; that accumulated total receipts overtook accumulated expenditures in 1927; that receipts collected specifically for reimbursing costs of administration have exceeded such costs each year since 1926; and that the accumulation of these special receipts will probably overtake accumulated expenditures by the fiscal year 1931. The table also shows that the total of all charges made against licensees for the first eight calendar years exceeds the total expenditures, direct and indirect, of the first eight fiscal years by $245,000. The work of the commission is, therefore, on a self-supporting basis.

SUMMARY OF THE YEAR'S WORK

ENGINEERING DIVISION

At the end of the fiscal year the force in the engineering division comprised 9 engineers, 2 draftsmen, an examiner of land titles, and 4 clerk-stenographers. During the year Mr. R. W. Davenport, hydraulic engineer, assigned from the Geological Survey, was recalled for service in that bureau, and Mr. Fred F. Henshaw, hydraulic engineer, formerly the survey's district engineer at Port

land, Oreg., on May 1, 1928 was assigned to duty with the commission. Field investigations were conducted and administrative duties performed for the commission by about 50 engineers belonging to the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army, the United States Geological Survey, the United States Forest Service, and the United States Bureau of Reclamation. These field agents investigated projects, prepared reports, supervised operations under permits and licenses, collected data, and conducted special investigations, as requested by the commission. The approximate cost of the field, administration, as reported by the four agencies concerned, amounted to $57,784. Of this amount $5,193 for travel and other nonpersonal expenses was reimbursed from the commission's appropriations. The balance, $52,591, represents salaries of employees prorated in proportion to the time devoted to the work of the commission, for which the law does not authorize reimbursement from the commission's funds.

Applications Filed.

The total of 910 applications had been received at the close of the fiscal year. Of the 87 new applications filed during the year, 38 were for preliminary permit and 49 were for license. The 38 applications for preliminary permit represent a total installation capacity estimated at 1,925,180 horsepower. One application for preliminary permit resubmitted after the rejection of an earlier application is not recorded as a new application; its proposed installation capacity is 600,000 horsepower. Of the 49 applications for license, 44 were for minor projects (not more than 100 horsepower) or minor parts of complete projects and 5 were for major projects. In addition to the new cases, applications for major licenses were received from 7 permittees in active standing, from 1 permittee whose permit had expired, from 1 applicant whose application for preliminary permit to include the same project was in active standing, and from 1 applicant whose application for a preliminary permit had been rejected. The 15 applications for license for major projects represent proposed installations aggregating 927,570 horsepower. One application for minor license was received for a project for which the original minor license had expired.

Several noteworthy applications were received during the year The Public Service Co. of Colorado applied for a preliminary permit for a power project of 33,000-horsepower installation capacity that would divert water from the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River. Western Washington Electric Light & Power Co. made application for preliminary permit for a power project with an estimated installation capacity of 30,000 horsepower in the North River, Wash. An application for preliminary permit for a 50,000-horsepower project in the Deschutes River, Oreg., was submitted by Des Chutes

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