Labor's Youth Movement Progresses

...If the policy of the Federal Water Power Commission prevails, before many years practically all of the water bower rights on the public lands and navigable streams of the United States will have been given sway to private corporations for a period of fifty years...

...The ittue is being clearly drawn, an issue between private monopoly of one of the very greatest resources or ef a public monopoly...

...At I suggested before, the Nisgara Water Power Company has secured a long-term lease for the water power form the upper Niagara, and other groups are now buty trying to ' get control of similar rights on the lower Niagara, the St...

...2, in Buena Vista Hills, about 30,000, and Reserve No...

...The Democratic plat form in the recent campaign merely favors that the Government retain title to...

...The rgtsAsttlaa amas* stalely went Into swrunscsMp with tante af the cities of Ontario lis pursuance of this undertaking...

...Originally o u i lands were soli If the Government by outright sales...

...A few days ago—October 11, 1924—the New York Timet made the following report: "A plai^ to bring about a huge super-power combination through th* purchase of stock interest in a number of the largest and most prosperous public utility corporations in the country received substantiation today when the interests identified with the American SuperrPower Corporation became known...

...The reserves were secretly transferred to the Department of the Interior, and in 1922 were given to Doheny and Sinclair...

...In 1909 a considerable territory was withdrawn from private entry and kept as naval reserves...

...v.*.ci You have all read of the terrfbl* wast* of forest land under"grtvTO control...

...Lawrence and.Niagara rivers in the East, at Muscle Shoals in the South, and on tlie Colorado and Columbia rivera in the West...

...Of this 400,000,000 odd acres, 233,900,000, acres, or mora than 60 per cent, were reserved...

...The Water Power Interests In every part of the country where then are great water power resources, the big water power interests have been waging a bitter campaign for the possession of' water power rights...

...Since the „ the Weeks Law of 1911 we hav?pu?a chased several forest areas in the Appalachians, the Whiu Mountain*, ate...

...rade, in North Dakota, and H* Alaska...

...In 1823 they tupj plied soma 380 cities and towot tf{ Ontario with 800,000-hone power...

...All of these reserves were proven oil lands...

...1 (Elk Hills), In California, comprised nearly 40,000 acres,' Reserve No...

...3, the Teapot Dome reserve in Wyoming, a little oyer 9,000...

...According to the corporation's own statement to its stockholders, it was organised "to acquire interests in the various power and light companies in the, United States and to cooperate with the management of such companies to further the best* interests of the electrical industry...

...development of the Boulder Canon project on tha Colorado River...

...Once under private control, it will be difficult to get them back Into the hands of the public Henry Ford's Offer If it had not been for the fight of Senator Norris and other progressive Senators In the last session of Congress, the Government would have leased to a corporation to be organized by Henry Ford, for a period extending over 100 years, two gnat dams on the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, in.Northern Alabama, with water power possibilities' of mow than 1,000,000-horse power, while at the same time giving title to property which Has cost the Government $85,000,000 and which is now far more valuable, for tb* Insignificant sum of $6,000,000...

...They should be conaerved by the Government also be developed sciei Government, Imme World Wsr, Benton '. th* Department of Labor, .proposed...

...The workers would be located at some central site and would return to their homes each" night...

...In 1913 the country, feeling that its reserves were safe, began to build nothing bat oil-burning ships...

...How Our Water Power Is Being Given Awsy As toon as this law was passed end the Federal Power Commission, consisting of the Secretaries of War, Interior, and Agriculture, was appointed, private corporations, which before had held off, flooded the Commission with applications for licenses...

...During 18211922 preliminary permits were authorized for the construction ef plants having a capacity of 2,400,000-horse power, while licenses were granted for the operation of plants with another 2,000,000-horse power, A fifty-year license was issued, for instance, to the Niagara Falls Power Company, with a capacity of more than a half-million horse power, and this company was permitted the use for the next fifty yean of 19,500 cubic feet per second from the upper Niagara, out of a possible 20,000 cubic feet which treaty agreements with Canada permit this country to divert from the Falls...

...Fallen Secretary Fall, of the Department of Interior, placed the total value of this "national estate" in 1921 at $12,000,000,000...

...that it had become a military factor of the first importance...

...If at the end of fifty years the Government wished to take over the plant, it could do so, providing that it paid the private corporation a sum equal to the net investment in the properties...

...It is difficult to estimate the value ef such an estate, an estate consist3X of forest land, of mineral land, th great deposits of coal, oil, potaah, phosphate, etc.—of grazing, farm, desert and swamp land...

...3 in Teapot Dome was that the Government bartered away some 20,000,000 barrels of oil, created as a protection in nstional emergency, "for the insignificant consideration of 1,500,000 barrels 'of fuel oil [Oil remaining after the gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oils had been refined away] stored in tanks at the seaboard, which, bad 'the oil been left in the ground and used as intended, it would never have needed...

...For the space of 100 years this electricity becomes tile property of the corporation, as absolute and as outright as though it were a king or a potentate who owned in fee simple all tha property and all the people of his domain...

...With the growing exhaustion of anthracite and bituminous coal, water power "bids fair to, he i the main potential sources of lighting, heating and mechanical industry in the household, the farm and the factory...

...About 70 per cent.of thit reserved aires (154,000,OM) was kept aside for national foreste...

...Still another firm haa obtained a preliminary permit to survey the water possibilities of the lower Niagara...

...Under the naw diapeneation, areas which formerly soul at lreetf 110 to | 20 were sold at f500 per am* More and more the Pte^iraaslves...

...The net effect of all of the terms of the agreement in Reserve No...

...Mr Francis 1, Illinois, who was chair committee on eoal produetion at L Council of Nations) befeaaa, •peaking at a hearing on tha i land bill before the R?nale Commit» te* on Public Lands on June 18, I t % •aid: "We have tha cheapest production of eoal In the world » . . and have used it like drunken men...

...Luckily, Mr...

...Then followed a list of officers and directors, men prominent in the General Electric Company, the Electric Bond and Share Company, the Public Service Corporation of America, the United Gas Improvement Company, the United Light and Power Company, etc...

...The underground pools were a kind of nstional tanks, which cost nothing to erect or to maintain...

...Oil Until the Withdrawal Act of 1909 the United States Government gave away its oil lands on the public domain for a small compensation...

...Today the people of Oaten*, through their provincial Gov irisai eat and their towns and cities, owe tara of the three great hydro-ateetrk/ plants on the Canadian side ef Niagara Falls and the LUiSfpe» s Queenston development beWir*' 1fm Falls, one of the greatest in tits, world...

...an elaborate plan for Federal dev*V< opment in such a way* that the himbet would he utilised to the fun, future generations would be s?f*guarded, and the lumber-jacks woplf be converted from a "hobo" to a family man...

...1. That special care be taken to protect tha boundaries of the oil reserves with a belt of adjoining land, indemnifying the owner by land of equal value...

...If tha actual value of' ;all of the products to be found in thit estate were consid trad, it would probably be worth, according to the ex-Secretary, a min ttnum...

...When the dams'are completed, then, a lease will be given to Mr...

...national forest* are i permanently...

...believe that, from the staridpetat ed the best kind of conservation, the States snd the nation must «Jevestoo their own eoal lands for the f t p of all ; for under privet* deTelopntH th* on* object has been the gtegtajt immediate profit, irrespeetbe of tM good of this or the tion...

...On June 10, 1920, during the last days of the administration of President Wilton, the Federal Water Power Act was approved mating a Federal Power Commission with power to grant licenses to private corporations for the use of water power for as long a period as fifty yean...

...The Alaskan ftolde have been peman*nily«/eaerved, pari of the coal to be mined under « ieaaistT system, part to b* retained bp" the Government for its osa whan in the opinion of the President such mining becomes necessary by reaaoa ef a* insufficient supply of eeal at m reasonable price, for tits < railroads and other publie < the Navy and our national esete* tion, or for relief from monopoly oa oppressive conditions...

...Thay have acquired thirty hydraulic generating plants, sixty distributing stations, and twenty water powers...

...later, under the Secretaryship ef Dr» James R, Garfield, at actual approved value...

...By placing each logging unit under forestry so as to obtain, there* for a continuous lumber yield," declared the Secretary of Labor, "the lumber tamp and the 'bunk house' can be converted into a forest community...

...1. Conservation of th* natural resources of the nation, especially of water power and fuel, and their util» ization In the development of hydroelectric power...

...the water power, a thing which it it almott doing...

...Lawrence, the Hudson, and other streams with a potentiality of men than 2,000,000horse power...

...5,500,000 acres, an area slightly larger than Massachusetts, for national parks, and 71,000,000 acres for Indian reservations...

...The oil could be kept in them an age, if necessary, secure against loss by fire or evaporation or anything else...

...the comditions on which a license is granted is that the company applying has coiftnlied with the laws of the State >n which its plants are situated...

...The Water Power .The water power now owned by the public is, indeed, among the most valuable and significant of our national resources...

...They established a public Commission .— the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission— with power to buy plants, to build their own plants, to generate electricity, and to distribute it to the omeuMtr...

...Pntident Coolidge, on thit withdrawal, wrote hit friend that he would be glad to have him nnew hit offer at soma future time...

...2. That a small number of wells be drilled within the reserves to offset the flow of the Government's oil into the lands or its neighbors, 3. That suggested by Senator Fall and his associates, that the entire content of the reserves be drained off and—a rather minor fraction of it—stored in surface tanks as a means of escaping the loss of some small part of it...

...Amon...

...I, The distribution of this power to the people at cost, 3, Federal aid to State and munici pal groups for the development of local power systems...

...We kill three men in this country for every men killed on th* other side, with mora dangerous mining conditions on the other side...

...The statement continued: "Since the incorporation of the American Super-Power Corporation in November, its activities have been conducted with the utmost secrecy so far as the general public is concerned...

...The greatest reservoirs of power, are on the St...

...These results conld he attained by th...

...of $150,(100,000,000, two and a half timet the estimated income of the*entire population of tha country hi,19181 And in addition to this there it the almost incalculable wealth contained in the millions of acres of Governmental timber and mineral lands In Alaska...

...In commenting on the proposed 100year lease, Senator Norris declared: "Mr...

...The denuding of oar forests, hss been on* of th* crlmea of the century...

...development of forest working units...

...They own a property valued at $260,000,000, They charge to rest, dents of homes for electric MfktiNf in the larger cities of th* province between 1 % and 3 cent* per kilowatthour, less than one-third at muck* SS waa charged prior to public ownership...

...The Socialist pr?f?ra to look at the problem from the latter angle...

...Finally, the Progressives would proceed with the policy of irrigating our arid lands and reclaiming our swamp lands, it is hoped with more efficiency and more speed than hst been the policy in the past Our natural resources can be regarded, in short, in one of two lighter either as a great empire for exploitation for private gain, with the motto "After us the deluge," or a great trust, to be utilized in such a Way as to serve the interests ef as large a part of the population as possible for the longest possible period of time...

...Wa saw em' big, undeveloped coal field* la naftV era New Mexico, in Seatihar* Gala...

...It was soon discovered that a certain portion of the oil in these underground tanks'could be drained off by neighboring operators, Three plans were suggested for remedying this situation...

...Various other bills wan patted in later years, none of which, however, mentioned a specific time for the continuance of the permit...

...On the other hand, the Socialists take a position for the public development of hydro-electric power and its transmission to consumers at cost...

...the governments...

...gsteat aad Vala* af Oar National Batata At one tint* or another, the GOT*r anient of tka United States has ewned 1,442.000,000 acre* of land, or M per cant of the total area of continental United States...

...In order to avoid such wastes in the future, to guarantee a good life' to th* miner, and to cona*(Y«„:?(t„ interest* of the consumer, many J B F P^ gressives favor a plan, of jajgg.naj* tionalisatlon similar to' that.whieku has been werked out by th* National...

...As a reeolt of • Presidential *pmlamatibi»V* the...

...I cannot go into the details of the transfer...

...Six yean later, legislation, passed by Congrats, permitted the Secretary of the Interior to issue permits for the generation of electrical power from streams on public lands and reservations...

...These permits, however, could be revoked at will...

...During the last hundred or more yean, most of this land wat transferred to private individuals, much of it to railroads hi the Middle West In 1621, 433,000,000 acre*, or 23 per cent of the land in continental America, natainad in the public domain...

...0, A Government power system at Muscle Shoals, to be made part of a general super-power system...

...the manufacture and distribution of nitrate and fertilisers to the farmers at cost...

...The Republican platform merely states that the natural resources should be conserved by a national Committlon, with power to regulate the use of timber, It heartily commends the Federal Power Act...

...We have had no thought of conservation of life...

...What they have done in Canada, are wa as a people too stupid or corrupt to accomplish f A Concrete Plan for Development Along the lines of the Canadian experiment, Senator Norrls, in the last session of Congress, introduced a bill for a nationwide public superpower system which had in it VU following features...

...Ford's bill provides that the Ford Corporation shall have the electricity developed at Mutcle Shoals without regulation by either Federal or State authority...

...The woods worker could then have a home as permanent, at least, as that of his fellow workers in other industries, and the so-called 'wobbly' would be in process of extinction...

...Fortunately, most of the potential water power of the nation is now in public hands...

...The bid provides that these dams shall be constructed at the cost of tiie Government of the United States...

...Ford's corporation for 100 years...

...isatlon Research Committee of tieUnited Mine Worker* of America...

...It says nothing against the lssut of licenses to private corporation, long term or otherwise, for the development of that water power...

...Viewing the situation in terms of the welfan of tha entire community for the longest possible number of years, the people of Ontario determined pome twenty years ago that they would develop their own electrical energy...

...Action on applications involving nearly hslf of these 20,000,000 horse power—nsmely, those in the St, Lawrence, the Columbia, and the Colorado rivers—has been temporarily suspended pending reports of investigating commissions, and, in the case of the St, Lawrence River, » possible treaty with Canada...

...The taxpayers of the country, through the Treasury of the United States, will contribute every dollar that will go into them...

...In California, the water power companies gave to one organisation alone over half a million dollars in 1922 to fight the water-power bill for the public development of hydroelectric power in that State...

...4. A bond Issue of 1600,000,000 by tha Federal Government as s revolving fund for the initial financing of tha system, 6. The appointment of an independent and permanent Commission, subject to recall by Congress for cause, the whole system, however, to be removed from politics...

...The Super-Power Trust Then it a definite movement on foot to connect up the transmission lines of steam-driven plants'with those of water-driven plants in a vast super-power system...

...One portion of the unit could be cut down each year...

...Xhere is also a strong movement on the part of the American Super-Power Corporation to gain control of the largest possible number of electric light companies in this country...

...As M. E. Ravage declares, the reservation of this lsnd was regarded as "an insurance policy—a thing laid up for soma unexpected, even un likely, but supreme need...

...A similar license was issued to the Southern California Edison Company...

...The earliest hydro-electric project* In thit country appear to have been built about the year 1860...

...In addition, the agreement bound the Government to purchase a variety of supplies for the Navy from Sinclair at the market price, though it had been securing an average of 10 per eant reduction os siatiiar, caasjrio«w Hies, The Socialist prof ram is that j M f oil lands i f restored to tha nattas) and he conserved for tha aeaett a* all...

...The Federal Water Power Act was patted under a Democratic administration, approved by a Democratic President, and it being carried out with the utmost eagerness by a Republican administration...

...About on* half of the fag western lands are owned Ityjthe^fjsraj eminent in national forests, end most of this land supporta a virgin timber growth...

...Naval Reserve No...

...You know1 the story there...

...Propertly utilize*!, this vast energy can be of untold social advantage in lightening the burden ef the common man...

...Is the Choice That Now Faces the American People—What the Socialists Propose, * By DR, HARRY W. LAlDbER, Executive Director, League for Industrial Democracy Addrtti at Mount Holyoke School of Politics, Mount Hoiyoke College, Thursday morning, October 30 Th* seats...

...Coal Lease We would have 41» coal taade.i* the public domain developed by tta people in connection with the sforji* opmcrrt of the jffojMsaeJ BasMMl super-power system...

...We have wasted our substance by taking the nearest eoal because we could produce it cheapest...

...This, however, is not now an Integral part of the present Progressiva platform 1. Their program is one of strict #servation in regard to the mining coal and of the other mlnerskr found in our domain, ; "*** *"'*' Our Forests - Finally we come to the forest lands...

...Ford's proposal was not accepted by the last Congress and Ford has now withdrawn his offer...

...Finally, there it the potential water power of the nation...

...At a result of these lea* charges, they had saved to the people of the province in reduced charges alone by th* end of 191$ ever HOC,000,000, and, without increasing taxation, they a n gradually setting aside out of revenue enough to pay pelf...

...The Federal Water Power Act In the early days of the West, before it waa known that electricity could be generated from water power, rights to the use of water on streams on public lands were freely given away for mining, agricultural, manufacturing and other purposes...

...It was estimated in 1919 that It area possible to develop in our rivers Slfd streams in the neighborhood of 60;000,000-horse power, and that this amount could be greatly increased through tha storage of flood waters...

...The 1922 report of the Commission glories in the fact that, in the two yean of the operation of the Act,-tome 321 applications were received, Involving an excess of 20,000,MO-horse power, an amount "more than, tlx timet the aggregate of all •pplitationn for water sites under Federal control in th* preceding twenty yeart...

...e*rrupt tM fikfftl _ «f MTII ell kutde »t Eikt and Taepot Bone has called rt pnrsd attasrtsaa to tha need for a MMistent and eeoatruetrve policy of atattrving oof natural raaonreat...

...On the other hand, only about 8,000,000 of this amount is at present actually available...

...The Withdrawal Act reversed the old policy, because it was rapidly bacom ing apparent that petroleum was more than an article of commerce...

...In referring .merely to the proposed grant of title to property around Muscle Shoals, Senator Norris facetiously wrote: "This conveyance would in effect be the greatest and most magnificent gift ever recorded in history, and, as I have said 'on a former occasion, it would be the greatest gift ever bestowed on mortal man since salvation was made free to the human nee...

...The last view, as you know, won out...

...Both the Republican and Democratic parties stand for th* leasing of the water power of the country to private corpontions in long-term leases...

...The oil was to be left in the ground, and for the time being forgotten, against the time when supplies should become exhausted or so high In price as to be for the Navy in effect prohibitive, It was thought to b* a perfect plan...

...Ninety per cent of this was in the Far Western States, an area over eighty times at large aa that of Massachusetts...

...The properties mentioned, with their affiliated companies, serve communities in virtually every part of the country . . . and it is believed that its objective It eventually a power arrangement of the first magnitude, embracing not only a tie-up of the properties mentioned, but additional properties in which the company is entitled under its articles of incorporation to acquire interest...

...In my own State of New York this campaign has been going on for years...

...The Ontario Experiment .The Socialists thus suggest the tame constructive program of public development on which the Province of Ontario has entered...