Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/496

492 necessarily aroused by a kind of pantophobia which may work a real injustice to industrial progress.

Except for that slender radical element of the community which proudly avows its willingness to see the Falls wholly developed into power all will agree that if danger is impending to the cataract it is time now that the danger be measured and fully apprehended.

The conservation of Niagara Falls is a question of public morals. Every industrial enterprise of wide scope has as its foundation a moral problem; it can not be simply the producer of great wealth regardless of the rights of others and of the higher claims of community life; nor can it ignore the claims of spiritual excellence and of the higher life which seeks something beyond the minted ideal. This claim of the higher life, the demands of the finer emotions, the love for the beautiful in nature, express themselves in part in the government protection of natural wonders from defacement and destruction; in organizations created to keep alive this sentiment and extend the aegis of the state over natural glories which belong to mankind rather than to men. No wise man confesses himself devoid of such emotions.

The violation of this moral principle in present practise offends the best sentiments of the race. It is said that the classic Falls of Lodore have been done to death by conversion into power. The far-famed Falls of Montmorency at Quebec show only a tremulous and weakened front to the traveler on the St. Lawrence, shorn of their glories in order to light the City of Quebec. The City of Rochester, seat of learning, refinement and industrial achievement, has exchanged the beautiful cascades of the Genesee for a slimy canyon. These attacks on natural phenomena have benefited the few, contributed to their comfort and convenience; they have injured the many, robbed them of a natural and proper heritage.

Under the guidance of this principle the claim of the individual, personal or corporate, must give way to the broadly founded rights of the community and the race. Under whatever political control such a majestic demonstration of nature's power may be, this control must be looked upon as a trust rather than the possession of a merchantable commodity or a commercial asset. States have not the moral right to do as they please with such phenomena. In a final analysis the individual or corporate claim to advantage from such a source is wholly extinguished, howsoever expediency may qualify and adjust the conflicting claims.

Wherein does the danger to Niagara Falls from industrial development lie? Simply in the drawing off of its waters from the river above the cataract, carrying them around the cliff by some other way or discharging them by tunnel into the face of the falls near the base.