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The hearings developed a wide range of utility of the water by different companies in generating horsepower. The Niagara Falls Power Company and the Hydraulic Power Company both take water at about the same point above the Falls and both discharge at about the same point below the Falls. The Niagara Falls Power Company generates eleven horsepower per cubic foot of water. The Hydraulic Power Company generates eighteen horsepower per cubic foot of water. Both have the opportunity to use the same. head. The difference in the generation arises in the failure of the Niagara Falls Power Company to use all of the head between the intake and the discharge of the water into the river again. suming (but not admitting) that the Hydraulic Power Company utilizes the water to its full or proper standard of efficiency, the Niagara Falls Power Company on that basis, loses 42 per cent. of available power. The Niagara Falls Power Company takes 8,600 cubic feet of water per second and develops 94,600 horsepower per second. It should develop, if it used all the available head, according to the assumption under which we are proceeding, 163,400 horsepower per second. In other words, about 42 per cent. of the 8,600 cubic feet of water per second that is 3,612 cubic feetis an absolute loss of every second. This means a loss of 216,720 cubic feet per minute; it means 13,003,200 cubic feet per hour going to waste, or 312,076,800 cubic feet of water per day flowing through the flumes of the Niagara Falls Power Company that produces no results, and yet this company is insisting that Congress give it more water.

The Committee does not believe that any company ought to be permitted to take this immense volume of water out of the Niagara River above the Falls of Niagara every twenty-four hours, that is worse than wasted, in the light of present methods of development, and continue to do so year after year, especially when a power famine exists at Niagara and if other parties are ready to install plants that would nearly treble the power now obtained from the water by the Niagara Falls Power Company. The Committee therefore included in the bill the mandatory provision requiring the Secretary of War to see to it that companies diverting water, use it to its full or proper standard of efficiency, and section 4 further provides" that if the public interests are not being properly conserved and protected in the generation, transmission, distribu

tion, use, or sale of power generated from the waters diverted," that the Secretary of War shall serve the necessary notice upon the defaulting parties and fix a time limit in which to make necessary changes to comply with the conditions of the permit. The Committee recognizes that the public interests are superior to those of any corporation, vested or otherwise, acting in a quasi public capacity, and especially so where communities aggregating hundreds of thousands of people come to be dependent upon said companies. It is against public policy to permit a public corporation to enjoy special privileges and franchises of great commercial value, unless they respond in their use, in the utmost good faith. The great distance to which electricity may be transmitted now very largely enhances the value of power sites in the Niagara River above the Falls of Niagara. These great natural resources belong to the whole people and it is the duty of Congress to conserve a proper and efficient use of these privileges for the people and neither permit these resources to be wasted or exploited. Probably no other science has made such rapid advancement and development in the last few years as electricity. The Committee understands the magnitude of undertaking to reconstruct power plants, built at great expense ten or fifteen years ago, to conform to present day methods in the generation and use of electricity and has provided sufficient time to make any necessary changes without hardship to the companies when the change in construction is necessary.

Section 3 of the bill provides for the importation of power from the Dominion of Canada under permits issued by the Secretary of War. The amount of importation is limited to 250,000 horsepower, and the Secretary of War designates to whom the permit, both to import and to distribute, may be issued. The prerequisite of requiring the applicant for a permit, either to import or distribute, to waive in writing any question of jurisdiction in the Public Utilities Commission of any State into which the power may be transmitted, to tax, control, or fix rates is also required. Your committee asserts that the right either to permit a diversion of water or to authorize importation of power carries with it the coordinate right to fix the terms and conditions under which water may be diverted or power imported. On that ground alone the Federal Government undertakes to restrict the permits authorized

in this bill with certain limitations not burdensome to corporate bodies availing themselves of such permits, and at the same time protecting the public interests.

The Committee was confronted with protests from the civic societies of the country against the importation of power on the theory that, if permits to import were given, the Canadian power companies would go the limit of their diversional rights and take the full 36,000 cubic feet per second, and as a result make us indirectly responsible for disastrous effects upon the scenic beauty of the Falls; and, conversely, if we did not permit increased importation there would be no market for it in Canada, it would not be generated, and as a result the scenic beauty of the Falls would be secure. On the other hand, the power companies and the manufacturing plants clamoring for more power asserted that the Canadian companies were rapidly increasing their sales and would very soon take the full amount of water they were entitled to and the United States ought to get what power it was able to now. Evidence before the Committee developed the fact that the Canadian power companies had increased their output last year 40 per cent. That the Dominion companies are now reported to be taking 28,000 cubic feet per second, and are increasing their output as rapidly as a market can be obtained. If the advancement in the development of power on the Canadian side increases for another year or so and it is not apparent to the Committee that it will not then the Committee concluded it was proper to take as large an amount as it could get for consumption in the villages, cities, factories and homes along our border.

The wide divergence of opinion, affected largely by self-interests, has marked the inquiry into the Niagara Falls problem of water diversions. The corporations that want more water and more power lose sight of two propositions the preservation of a constant and, as nearly as possible, fixed level of Lake Erie for navigation and commerce and the preservation of that marvelous natural wonder, the Falls of Niagara. As singular as it may appear, there are men who would drain the Niagara River for more power and let the commerce of the Great Lakes take the conse quences. The examination made by the engineers of the Army who spent years upon the subject of lake levels as affected by the