OCR Text |
Show 262 power to tax and appropriate for the general welfare, an authority which the Supreme Court has recently described as "limited only by the requirement that it shall be exercised for the common benefit as distinguished from some mere local purpose." 12 The year 1879 marks the real beginning for power and mul- tiple-purpose projects.13 Congress then authorized the Sec- retary of the Army to lease water power at Moline to a private company upon agreed terms and conditions "if the same can be done consistently with the interests of the Government of the United States." " And in the same year, it gave the Mis- sissippi River Commission duties requiring combined consid- eration of navigation and flood control.15 In 1884 came the first specific authorization for construction of a private power development on a navigable stream.16 This and some 30 similar special statutes enacted prior to the 1906 General Dam Act,17 while subject to alteration or repeal, were perpetual in their terms and without significant restriction except for varying protection of navigation.18 Furthermore, in providing for a federal navigation improvement in 1888, Con- gress empowered the Secretary of the Army to lease the use of power in waters surplus to the needs of navigation, with rates, conditions, and periods deemed by him to be "just, equi- table and expedient." 19 In that same year, while enactment of general reclamation legislation was still 14 years away, Con- 12 United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U. S. 725, 738 (1950) ; see supra, pp. 57-58. 18 For an outline of state and colonial regulation of water power, see The Federal Power Commission, Service Monographs of the United States Government, No. 17, Institute for Government Research, pp. 1-15 (1923). 14 Act of March 3, 1879, § 1, 20 Stat. 377, 387. Water power was ap- parently developed here to serve the purposes of the military arsenal at Rock Island. See Act of June 27, 1866, 14 Stat. 75; J. Res. of March 2, 1867,14 Stat. 573. " Act of June 28, 1879, § 4, 21 Stat. 37, 38, as amended, 33 U. S. O. 647. See also Oklahoma v. Atkinson, 313 U. S. 508, 516-517 (1941). 16 Act of July 5,1884, 23 Stat. 154. 17 See infra, p. 265. 18 See First Annual Report of the Federal Power Commission, p. 48 (1921). 19 Act of August 11,1888, § 1, 25 Stat. 400, 417. |