Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/23

Rh cannot be estimated. It staggers the imagination to even contemplate it.

The value of coal as an agency for the creation of heat and power is recogiiized by everyone, and we could within certain limits measure its value to this section of countTy if it were found at convenient intervals and generally distñbuted, This, however, is not the case, but little coal being found in much of the section under review. Yet, substantially Iron’ the source of these rivers almost to their months their currents are potentially a giant dynamo, needing but ntelligent development to furnish a never-failing source of limitless power. Indeed it is hard to see any good reason why, when the government is spending millions to control these rivers for transportation uses at the site of some great power producing point Iilc Celilo or the Cascades, its adaptability, for this purpose should not be cocsiderd and utilized at the same time, and the improvement not only serve a two-fold purpose, but also create a source of enonnous income which could be used for further improvement, It has been estimated that between Celilo and Big Eddy there could be developed an average minimum of 466, horse power and at the Cascades I5oO horse power.

Much of the country through which the rivers fiow east of the Cascade Mountains is arid. This does not mean worthless or useless, for no place under heaven rewards the husbandmen to a greater extent than do these arid lands when the water which flows past them is turned upon the soil and put to another of its great uses. Thus we have allied a trinity of uses—transportation, power and irrigation—all re!ated, all easily co—ordnated, and the three combined forming the most powerful stimulus to development on the highe5t possb1e lines. Rich soil, easy irrigation, with assured crops and those of high values, low transportation charges and cheap and abundant power should in time create not only a section great n production large in poplilation, butwhat is of more importance, a people of a high degree of intclligence.