fact that certain express companies and other private interests are always lobbying at Washington to prevent the passage of such measures as a parcel post for the convenience of the people. And the public may just as well be informed of the fact that these same interests have been busily at work for some years trying to secure an advance in the postal rates on periodicals and newspapers. It only needs statement to make it clear that if magazines and newspapers were thrown out of the mails by prohibitive postal rates certain news companies and express companies might hope to play a larger part in the distribution of such periodicals. The subject is one that Mr. Taft has not taken up as yet at first hand, and in the multiplicity of great topics that have been crowding upon his attention in the opening weeks of his term, it is, perhaps, not strange that he should have been misled in a few matters.

other part of the world. Their merit is due to their patronage by a great and intelligent nation spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A hostile postal policy such as Mr. Taft proposes would have made impossible the development of such valuable and beautiful expressions of our life as are typified, for example, by the Century Magazine. Let the Post-Office Department set its own house in order, give us a balance-sheet of its real transactions as the other departments of the Government do, rid itself of its harmful and extravagant relations to politics and party spoils, and bring a permanent business head to the conduct of its large affairs. Then, if necessary to deal with such delicate questions as radical changes in rates, there will be time enough to discuss them on their merits.

The recommendations made by Mr. Ballinger on Control of Secretary Ballinger in his first Water Power annual report are of exceptional interest. We are giving prominence to what the Secretary has said on the subject of water-power control and development upon the national domain. At our request he has stated anew for our readers (see page 47) the features of his water-power policy, and the reasons that lie behind his recommendations. He believes that the use of waterpower should be encouraged, but that the Government should retain ultimate ownership and control. His program is even more explicit and complete as regards Government control than that which has been advocated by the leaders in the admirable movement designated by the general word conservation," that every one should support.

There is more need in the PostReform the Post-Office Office Department of a careful Itself reorganization than in any other branch of the Government. Mr. Taft's idea of driving a wedge between the news papers and the periodicals of more general circulation seems wrong in principle and is based upon a misunderstanding of the facts. Free delivery within the county is already a great discrimination in favor of newspapers. Furthermore, the cost of handling each individual piece is a more important item than the cost of transportation by the pound. Thus it costs the Government a great deal more to handle a pound of newspapers, consisting of a number of separate papers to be distributed to different people, than to carry a single magazine weighing a pound to one The other articles in this number subscriber. Yet Mr. Taft, through misof the REVIEW on water-power apprehension, states the matter in exactly and its development are also the opposite way. The magazines are chief of unusual importance. Mr. Pressey producers of the lucrative business of the writes with great knowledge concernpost-office. Even without revision of the ing the water-power progress of the Southern very favorable contracts with the railroads States, where the streams falling from for carrying the mail, and without the other the Appalachian uplands toward the sea economies that could be brought about by a afford opportunities for a vast industrial better business organization of the postal progress. It happens that Mr. Pressey service, there is so large a profit collected by is also at the present time connected, as an the Government upon all the business that accomplished expert, with the work of the the post-office does for private patrons, in- New York State Commission that is preparcluding the newspapers and periodicals, that ing a plan for the comprehensive storage and this surplus practically pays the Govern- use of waters in the mountain areas, in order ment's own great bill for carrying and dis- to maintain a summer flow and double the tributing its own mail matter. The utility of all the developed or available wamagazines and periodicals of this country ter powers. Our article on this New York confessedly surpass in merit those of any program ought to attract wide attention and

Power in the East and South

terprise could be carried on without a proper name, a business office, or even a post-office address. When some of those who speak of water-power trusts are asked to be specific, they do not seem to know the names of any power companies, nor the geographical location of any water powers, unless it be Niagara Falls. Those more exactly informed point to the General Electric Company and the Westinghouse Company,-both of which manufacture electrical machinery and appliances on a vast scale,-as the chief culprits in this "octopus" game of gathering in all the water-powers.

Some
Pertinent
Facts

There are certain facts, easily ascertained, that the fair-minded reader ought to understand. In the first place, the development of a large water-power is a very expensive undertaking, usually costing much more than the sum originally estimated, and requiring a long period of waiting before the investment makes return in dividends. Such enterprises cannot properly engage the savings of small investors, nor can they look to the resources of people of wealth who prefer safe and stable opportunities for the use of their capital. The reason why the same names appear in the directorates of a number of different water-power and electric companies is because certain men of large resources have specialized in that kind of business, and have initiated or financed different power enterprises in various parts of the country. To assert that these gentlemen are doing harm rather than good, would seem to us a highly fanciful and quite topsy-turvy way of dealing with the facts. There is hardly any other respect in which capitalists can so much help a particular region directly, and our country itself indirectly, as in finding a great water-power running to waste and harnessing it for the purpose of supplying electric light, electric transportation, and the power that operates factories and mills. To do this work is beneficent because it saves the waste of fuel from our coal beds, which are A great deal of discussion has being too rapidly exhausted; of wood from been current in newspapers and our forests, which are being too rapidly Trust'' ? periodicals regarding the so- swept away; of petroleum from those hidcalled "power trust" that is said to be buy- den reservoirs that are all too soon pumped ing up all the principal opportunities in the country for water-power development. Some writers are so mysterious and vague in their allusions to this "trust" that the reader who is familiar with practical business affairs might naturally wonder how so large an en

stimulate action by the authorities of other States both East and West. In this respect New York has certainly been an example to the entire Union.

Is There a "Power

out,-besides lessening the toil of thousands of men, women, and children, and relieving other thousands of patient horses from the drudgery that was theirs before the electric age. Indeed, it is a work of saving all around.

Who Owns

the Power Plants?

If the General

Electric Com

pany and the

Westinghouse Company have become interested in the development of power and electric plants where water can be made to operate dynamos they would seem to us to have been showing commendable enterprise. It would. be easy, however, to show that in a good many cases this connection has been reluctant rather than eager. These great companies have had to protect their sales of machinery and supplies by taking part payment in bonds or stocks

localities they have entered by their useful-
ness in financing and engineering projects
that have been of great benefit to the com-
munities within reach of the electric trans-
mission of power. No one can object to in-
quiries, conducted by the Bureau of Cor-
porations, into the ramifications of water-
power control by affiliated corporations or
associated groups of capitalists.
But we
cught in this country to rid ourselves of a
very petty and antiquated sort of prejudice
against the large way of doing business.

or by subsequent acquisitions of title due to or community, have earned the thanks of the the inability of local companies to go on with unfinished projects. The Westinghouse Company itself could not escape a receivership in October, 1907,-although perfectly solvent and doing the largest business in its history, because so many of its customers had paid in stocks and bonds. That these properties were justified by a real public need was later demonstrated, and the receiver was discharged on December 5, 1908. But in the interval the banks had been unwilling to carry the load. When such instances are looked into it will appear that these great companies, and certain bankers and financiers in our large cities, far from having insidiously grabbed the water-powers of a given State

Where to Find Remedies

Ours is a large country, with a vast development of wealth. This wealth is so massed and specialized that it can bring to pass great and beneficent results. The remedies against the dangers of monopolistic tendency do not lie in the disintegration of capital, or in attacks upon large associated enterprises. The remedy lies rather in direct regulation and control in the public interest. Let those who have the capital and the ability develop our water-powers. The rivers will continue to flow in their natural channels, and the cataracts cannot be removed bodily to Wall Street,

PRESIDENT TAFT ADDRESSING THE OPENING SESSION OF THE SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF THE NATIONAL RIVERS AND HARBORS CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, LAST MONTH
(Sitting. left to right-Mr. Brown, Official Stenographer; Capt. Jas. F. Ellison, Secy. and Treas.;
Albert Bettinger, Board of Directors. Standing, left to right-Capt. Butt, Pres. Staff; W. B. Jones,
M. F. Bryan, Board of Directors, Memphis, Tenn.; Sen. Francis G. Newlands, Nev.; Edw. H. Butler,
Board of Directors, Buffalo, N. Y.; Thos. Wilkinson, Burlington, Iowa; President Taft, Thos. P. Eagan,
Cincinnati, O.; Hon. Jos. E. Ransdell, Pres.; John A Fox, Special Director; Rev. Geo. Alexander,
LL.D., New York City; Col. John I. Martin, Sergeant-at-Arms)

The water-power company will always capital necessary for development and by be dependent upon the patronage of the large outlays for machinery and plants. Any region tributary to the particular water- future "unearned increment" appertaining power in question, even more than the com- to the monopolized control of water-power munity will ever be dependent upon the is always within grasp of the community company that develops and sells the power. itself through the principle of taxation. If, If Mr. Ballinger's principles of regulation in addition to the principle of taxation, the and control are accepted by Congress, as national or State government uses the printhey ought to be in the present session, we ciple of the lease with periodic revaluing, should have an end of the talk about a there can be no possible danger to the genpower trust" invading the public domain. eral interest. The conservation of so many If the principles that the New York State other things depends upon our utilizing waCommission proposes to practice, with the ter-power that the burden of proof should be sanction of the Legislature, should go into wholly upon those who would do anything effect, a fine example would be set that other to check or retard the building of dams and States could follow. Every State for itself the electrical transmission of power. would have it in its power from time to time in the future to protect its people from any possible encroachment by a trust or combination exploiting the power of streams as a commercial resource.

Navigable

Rivers and

Power Control

There is an interesting question under discussion touching the right of the federal government to control for purposes of water power those streams which it clearly controls for purposes of navigation. We have in our hands a very suggestive and interesting brief by Mr. Edward B. Burling, of Chicago, upon the legal and constitutional

right of Congress to control water-power developed in navigable waters of the United States. The brief is addressed to Dr. Charles W. Eliot, who is president of the National Conservation Association. While recent opinions by Attorney-General Wickersham seem not to have gone so far as Mr. Burling's argument carries him, it does not follow that if Mr. Wickersham were addressing himself to the same exact question he would arrive at a different result. It is not merely an academic matter. We are about to enter upon very large policies in the way of improving our navigable streams at an immense cost to the country. It is well worth while for Congress to understand the full limit of its authority over every phase of waterway development. Last month's Waterways Conference in Washington, attended by thousands of delegates, helped in its measure to complete the outlines of the great policy that is to begin with regulating the Mississippi River and its chief tributaries. Mr. Saunders has written an article for us on this movement, which will be found on another page of this number of the REVIEW.

Mr. Meyer

One of the most interesting of and Naval the annual reports is that of the Reform Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Root, while Secretary of War, brought about 2 reform of army organization which will remain to his credit as a lasting achievement in statesmanship. What Mr. Meyer as Secretary of the Navy is now bringing to pass in the matter of a reform of method in the direction of the Department's work bids fair to rank as importantly as Mr. Root's army reforms. Mr. Meyer has an admirable head for business, and a trained habit of proceeding directly to the securing of essential things. Thus he is gaining a place among the very ablest public administrators we have known for many years. He found in the Copyright, 1909, by Clinedinst Navy Department a series of bureaus dealing with different branches of work, such as construction, equipment, personnel, navy yards, and fleet operation, that were so detached from each other, and so discordant withal, as to make life miserable for the head of the department, while also hampering partments,-namely, material, personnel, greatly the efficiency of the one thing for which the Navy Department is supposed to exist, namely, the power of military defense and offense. Mr. Meyer is not so much getting rid of the bureaus and their officials as he is finding a way to subordinate them to the main object in hand.

The

New
System

Under general direction of the Secretary, our navy business is henceforth to be run by naval men. The work falls into four logical de

fleet operation, and inspection. The Secretary of the Navy is to have four advisers, each of them a Rear-Admiral, and each representing one of the four departments. The bureaus will be grouped and arranged under these headings, everything important will have to be cleared through the Secretary's