The Battle Over Public Water Power
A political critique of proposed federal legislation warns that speculators are maneuvering to seize control of vital water power sites.
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The majority report and its accompanying substitute bill present the chief menace to public rights and welfare. The senate bill is designed to start an orgy of water power grabbing by speculators who hope later to unload their easily acquired 50-year leases on bona fide development companies. The sums realized by these speculative holders would pass into the capitalization of the developed powers and the consuming public would have to pay tribute perpetually on these easily acquired speculative fortunes. The administration bill guards the public against undue seizure of power sites for the electrification of railroads. The senate committee’s substitute bill cuts out that important safeguard. Now is the time to stand guard over these great natural resources—when title is still in the government, the people. Once title should be voted away by legislation the damage would be perpetual and irremediable.
“Now is the time to stand guard over these great natural resources—when title is still in the government, the people.”
This editorial reflects the intense national debate during the Progressive Era over whether natural resources should be held by the public or ceded to corporate interests, a struggle that persists in the ongoing debates over the future of the dams on the Columbia River.
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