with earnest approval the principle of Federal control. At the same time, even the extremest advocates of Federal control recognize that the investor should be fully protected. According to the unanimous report, the following principles should govern the granting of a privilege to use a water power:

(a) The privilege should be for a definite period, should be financially attractive to investors, should be irrevocable except for cause, and should be reviewable by the courts.

(b) After this definite period the privilege should continue subject to revocation in the Government's discretion upon giving reasonable notice and upon payment of the value of the physical property and the improvements made.

(c) After the expiration of the definite period, at recurring intervals of not more than ten years, the amount of compensation to be paid to the Government for the privilege and of the conditions of the grant should automatically come up for determination.

(d) The privilege should be unassignable.

(e) The privilege should be granted only on condition of development of the whole capacity of the power site.

(ƒ) The right to receive compensation for the value of the privilege, varying according to the proper conditions of each case, should be reserved to the government, State or Federal, from whom the privilege comes.

(g) The Government should have the right to prescribe uniform methods of accounting.

The Chairman of the Water Power Committee was Professor George F. Swain, the head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Harvard, and also President of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The other members were Mr Pinchot, ex-United States Forester; Mr. Stimson, ex-Secretary of War; Mr. Stillwell, past President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; President Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin; Mr. Leighton, formerly the hydrographer of the United States Geological Survey; Mr. Webster, of Stone & Webster, one of the largest and best-known firms engaged in financing and constructing water power developments; and Mr. Hall, a civil engineer of Atlanta. All of these men are authorities on water power development.

The difficulty with the water power report, according to the "States' Rightsers," was in the use of the word" Federal." After a long fight, they were beaten by a three-to-one vote. They were not at all pleased at their defeat. Some of the more impetuous even charged that the Forest Service had been in complicity with Mr. Pinchot in an improper and illegal expenditure of public funds, for the

purpose of bringing hundreds of Forest Service employees to Washington to back the Conservation Congress. This rumor, really too absurd for serious consideration, was stopped only when Mr. Graves, the United States Forester, announced that no member of the Forest Service had been brought to Washington for the purpose.

Of course the daily papers accentuated any expressions of sharp differences of feeling and opinions. Certainly the fight was lively and strenuous enough in all conscience. For instance, behind me sat a young man who marked every approving reference to States' rights by emitting a piercing yell. Similar screeches from others followed this example. Finally some ladies alongside ventured to request the young man to desist. "I can't," he replied; "I have come five thousand miles to do this." To show the character of the contest, Senator Bankhead, of Alabama, one of the States' rights leaders, actually defended the Coosa River Bill, which met, in Mr. Pinchot's words, President Taft's "wise and patriotic veto." Another States' rights leader, Senator Shafroth, of Colorado, pleaded that Federal control imposed undue burdens on the Western States, and declared that "the question of the maintenance of Government was at the bottom of all this." Yet, despite this menacing declaration, he sat smilingly alongside me all one afternoon, vigorously applauding every sentiment which I did not applaud. His good humor was shown at the end of the afternoon when, stung by some allusion to his previous course as Governor, he rose to reply, and yet on the protest of an unknown person at the back of the hall that "the time had been too much taken up by ex-Secretaries, ex-Senators, and ex-Governors in defending their records," simply turned around. smiled on the protester, ȧud said, "Very well, have it your own way," and sat down.

The majority of the Congress did have its own way. It is the Nation's way. But it is cheering when that way can be accomplished with good humor as well as in good spirit.

The good humor was well illustrated on the evening between the two days of strenuous sessions concerning water power when at a great dinner the best feeling prevailed. and at which an especially inspiring address came from Mr. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, a man of Presidential timber. But he was born in Prince Edward Island!

ELBERT F. BALDWIN.

THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE PANAMA REPUBLIC

A feature of the celebration was the procession of school girls, of whom nearly 3.000 marched through the streets, which were handsomely decorated with the flag of Panama and with the Stars and Stripes