His administration is characterized by intelligent temperateness. He follows no hard and fast lines, but is willing to be original if it is advisable. He realizes where aid is needed and gives it promptly. When he decided in November, 1899, to devote a part of the national surplus to the purchase of government bonds, he did not rush wildly into the market, but conducted what might have been made a sensational financial coup in a quiet businesslike manner. He estimated what certain bonds were worth according to interest earned, and announced that this price would be paid for all such bonds. This sale to the government was advantageous to those who had these securities, for there were no stamp taxes or other attendant expenses. The offer put more cash in circulation and steadied the market price of government securities. Such was the confidence, however, that less than $19,000,000 worth of bonds were offered for redemption. FINANCIER, NOT POLITICIAN Mr. Gage is not an active politician, in fact he has rather a contempt for professional politics. He performed excellent service in the last campaign, however, by rejoinders to attacks made upon the financial system of the administration. He is neither a high protectionist nor a free trader. Personally, Mr. Gage is genial, accessible, and democratic. He has none of that hardfisted uncharitableness generally associated with money getting. He is a kindly man, though stern with dishonesty. Many Democrats still hold important offices in his department which might have been filled by Republicans, had Mr. Gage so desired. With those who consult with him he has a patient, persistent way of making things absolutely clear. His wonderful faculty of illustration is noticeable from first acquaintance. He has a way of reducing great economic problems to simple examples of everyday life. President McKinley sought a Secretary of the Treasury who not only represented the financial world, but one who could combine with his ideas of finance an understanding of equally important economic questions. In this mood he turned to Mr. Gage, then president of the First National Bank of Chicago, as the one man for the place. Mr. McKinley hesitated because Mr. Gage was not a strict party man. He communicated with personal friends of the banker in Chicago, Republican leaders, and found them enthusiastic, for they believed in the man. By When the position was offered to Mr. Gage he hesitated. He was president of one of the strongest banks in the country, with a salary of $25,000 a year. His influence in his home community was far reaching. entering the Cabinet he practically retired from the business world. To be Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is an honor. To a man on the further side of sixty, with a modest competence assured, it was a satisfactory way of rounding out a busy life, especially as he saw in it a betterment of the public service. And Mr. Gage entered the Cabinet. President McKinley leans strongly upon his Secretary of the Treasury. In questions of finance his advice would naturally be sought, but his ability, foresight, temperateness, and good common sense, with his power of grasping readily an entire situation, have made him an invaluable adviser to the President. In the affairs of Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, Mr. Gage has played an important part. During Mr. Gage's occupancy of the Secretaryship there has been no opportunity for a great dramatic event such as the resumption of specie payments was in Mr. Sherman's time. But the chance has presented itself for service of hardly less real value; and he has so managed the larger problems as to take rank among the most efficient Secretaries. The whole weight of his influence has been felt towards the fullest establishment of the gold standard, so as to prevent the recurrence of a cheap-money crusade. He has done what he could to reduce the interest charges of the government; and he has worked towards a greater elasticity of the currency — all in a thorough, businesslike way. He is a good example of the well-trained man of affairs applying businesslike methods to a great public task. I' WATER-FALLS AND THE WORK OF HOW THE LONG DISTANCE TRANSMISSION OF POWER HAS REVOLU- BY THEODORE WATERS F the wasted waterfalls in the world were to drive dynamos, their power would probably be sufficient for the mechanical needs of the whole world. We could do without gas and coal, and the smoke problem would be solved. Our houses would be heated and lighted and our cooking done by electricity. Farms could be cultivated with the same power, and electric railroads would become universal. The recognition of these facts has started a veritable world-movement, and it is only a question of time when most waterfalls will be harnessed and electric power be transmitted in every direction. The influence of what has already been done on our scientific, industrial and political life, is great, and the ulti mate extension of the uses of the waterfalls will have a profound, and at last, universal effect. The most remarkable examples of the way in which the sending of power over long distances may effect our social life are to be found in our western states, where the latest achievement is transmitting a current 150 miles across the Rocky Mountains. The story of the first electric transmission plant and how it came to be installed is a simple statement, but it gives a key to all that has followed. A mine owner in Colorado was bemoaning the fact that he must presently go out of business because the cost of mining his low grade ore was greater than the profit from its sale. The mine was high up on a mountain spur, and the way to it was a zig an old, unused aqueduct, which had been built in the days of the Romans. "Ah," he said to his chief engineer, "if I had that old aqueduct in this watershed I could make a fortune." "Do you know," replied the chief engineer, "that there is a big waterfall on one of the upper spurs of these mountains ?" "Yes, but it is twenty miles away." "Well," said the engineer, "if you should bottle it up and bring it here you would not have to go to Rome for your power. At PIPE LINES THAT WOUND LIKE SNAKES THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN PASSES" least, you can make the fall run a dynamo and then transmit the current to the mine." The mine owner went forth into the engineering world to see what could be done. He found that the idea had occurred to others, and that mighty preparations were making for a reclamation of the wasted waterpowers of the silver districts. In the end he secured rights to the waterfall, and had parts POWER-HOUSE, PIPE LINE, FLUME AND WASTE GATE of the water diverted into a wooden sluice- Starting in this way, it was not long before the greater number of mining districts were supplied with electric power emanating from distant waterfalls. Some of these waterfalls were found close to the mines; others were thirty or forty miles away. Some falls were found ill-fitted for the purpose and had to be adapted, as in the case of the Silverton mine, where a pipe-line, or flume, had to be constructed to carry the water several miles before a proper "head" could be obtained. And in still other cases where the water was scarce, especially in summer, artificial reservoirs were constructed to hold it and keep a "head" continuous enough to drive the turbines all the year around. Following these efforts of the individual mine owners men of capital went into the cañons, and harnessed the waterfalls and rented electric power to the districts around about, and sometimes the demand became great enough for several power-houses to occupy one cañon. In one instance, near Salt Lake City, power is generated by the cañon water, which passes down A POWER-HOUSE IN THE MOUNTAINS NEAR SALT LAKE CITY to another power-house, and after operating Sacramento is lighted and drives its trolley cars with current generated by the American River at Folsom, twenty miles away. This power being insufficient for the increased needs of the city, another water-power has been harnessed at Newcastle thirty miles away. The waters of San Antonio Cañon, California, generate 10,000 volts, which are transmitted overland sixteen miles to Pomona, in one direction, and twenty-eight miles to San Bernardino, in another. In the same way Snoqualmine Falls, Washington, send sixteen volts overland twenty-five miles to Seattle and thirty-five miles to Tacoma. Butte, Montana, utilizes the waters of the Big Hole River, which transmits 15,000 volts over the twenty miles of intervening space. Redlands, California, receives its electric light from an unpretentious station in Mill Creek Cañon, nine miles from the city. Salt Lake City, Utah, gets 10,000 volts from the waters of the Big Cottonwood, fourteen miles away, and when the multiplying trolley system became too heavy, the city went further and harnessed the waters of Ogden Cañon, thirty-five miles distant, and added 16,000 volts to the available supply; the town of Ogden taps the current en route. Plants have been So all over the West. installed in Los Angeles, California; Riverside, California; Colorado Springs; Puray, Colorado; New Richmond, Wisconsin; and when the success of the movement was assured, it spread East and South. A mill owner at Taftville, Connecticut, where the looms were operated by an expensive 350 horse-power |