Show GENERAL DAM BILL The adm n strat on measure known as the general dam b 11 has been passed by the house and sent to the senate where an effort will be made to put it through before congress ad lourns The b 11 authorizes the leas ing of water power s tes at a nominal rental The leases are to extend for a period of fifty years the government having the privilege of taking over the plants at the end of that t me upon payment of actual cost of nonpar sh able property and fair value of per ishable propertj Eepresentat ve Ferr s of Oklahoma the author of the measure declared on the floor of the house that its passage would mean a greater anl richer west that t wonld afford means of u n ng water for rr gat on at a m n nun cost and be a great factor n the expans on of our agr cultural pos s b 1 t es and the reclamat on of the ar d ands Generall speaking the svstem of leas ng water power s tes to pr vate nterests s not nearlv so attract ve to capital as some plan under which abso lute ownersh p conld be acquired but ust now it seems to be the purpose of the government to hold on to all the natural resources as far as poss ble De elopment of the west practically topped when the conservat on cranks succeeded n having m 11 ons of acres of publ c lands withdrawn from all forms of entrv Some of these lands so hat ly withdrawn have been re stored but vast areas st U remain t ed up It may be that the b 11 ust passed by the house will pro e in some decree benefic ai for the reason that the water power s tes have been with drawn from the market and the only chance to ut 1 ze them w 11 be lender the terms proposed n the measure if t passes the senate It is doubtful how ever that there is a general rush of capitalists to invest and in the end the government may be compelled to put up the money for development or allow the power to go to waste as present It is to be hoped the bill will go through according to programme and that the president will sign it forth with Then we shall see whether the Ok lahoma representat ve knew what he was talking about when he predicted it would mean a greater and richer west |