It is just as wrong as it is foolish,
and just as needless as it is wrong, to mortgage the welfare of our
children in such a way as this. Water powers must and should be
developed mainly by private capital and they must be developed under
conditions which make investment in them profitable and safe. But
neither profit nor safety requires perpetual rights, as many of the best
water-power men now freely acknowledge.
Second, the men to whom the people grant the right to use water-power
should pay for what they get. The water-power sites now in the public
hands are enormously valuable. There is no reason whatever why special
interests should be allowed to use them for profit without making some
direct payment to the people for the valuable rights derived from the
people. This is important not only for the revenue the Nation will get.
It is at least equally important as a recognition that the public
controls its own property and has a right to share in the benefits
arising from its development. There are other ways in which public
control of water power must be exercised, but these two are the most
important.
Water power on non-navigable streams usually results from dropping a
little water a long way.
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