Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/336

330 anticipated by some in such an attempt on the part of the general government, because of the sovereign control of the state over the water power in its natural condition, and the mere proprietorship of the government in the riparian lands.

It is contended that through its mere proprietary right in the site, the central government has no power to attempt to exercise police jurisdiction with reference to how the water power in a river owned and controlled by the state shall be used, and that it is a violation of the state's rights. I question the validity of this objection. The government may impose any conditions that it chooses in its lease of its own property, even though it may have the same purpose, and in effect accomplish just what the state would accomplish by the exercise of its sovereignty. There are those (and the director of the geological survey, Mr. Smith, who has given a great deal of attention to this matter, is one of them) who insist that that this matter of transmuting water power into electricity, which can be conveyed all over the country and across state lines, is a matter that ought to be retained by the general government, and that it should avail itself of the ownership of these power sites for the very purpose of coordinating in one general plan the power generated from these government-owned sites.

On the other hand, it is contended that it would relieve a complicated situation if the control of the water-power site and the control of the water were vested in the same sovereignty and ownership, viz., the states, and then were disposed of for development to private lessees under the restrictions needed to preserve the interests of the public from the extortions and abuses of monopoly. Therefore, bills have been introduced in congress providing that whenever the state authorities deem a water power useful they may apply to the government of the United States for a grant to the state of the adjacent land for a water-power site, and that this grant from the federal government to the state, shall contain a condition that the state shall never part with the title to the water-power site, or the water power, but shall lease it only for a term of years not exceeding fifty, with provisions in the lease by which the rental and the rates for which the power is furnished to the public shall be readjusted at periods less than the term of the lease, say, every ten years.

The argument is urged against this disposition of power sites that legislators and state authorities are more subject to corporate influence and control than would be the central government; in reply it is claimed that a readjustment of the terms of leasehold every ten years would secure to the public and the state just and equitable terms. Then it is said that the state authorities are better able to understand the local need and what is a fair adjustment in the particular locality than would be the authorities at Washington. It has been argued that after the