potential horse power wasted at Niagara

[unpakwon]

I have trouble understanding the following expressions in bold. Could you please help me?

We are told that there are some millions of people in poverty and poorly nourished in this country, yet here at Niagara is wasted the equivalent of 250,000 loaves of bread an hour. We may see with our mind's eye 600,000 nice fresh eggs dropping over the precipice every hour and making a gigantic omelet in the whirlpool. (1)If calico were continuously pouring from the looms in a stream 4,000 feet wide like Niagara River, it would represent the same destruction of property. (2)If a Carnegie Library were held under the spout it would be filled with good books in an hour or two. Or we can imagine a big department store floating down from Lake Erie every day and smashing its varied contents on the rocks 160 feet below. That would be an exceedingly interesting and diverting spectacle, quite as attractive to the crowd as the present, and (3)no more expensive to maintain. Yet some people might object to (4)that on the ground of extravagance who now object to the utilization of the power of the falling water.

1. Could you paraphrase (1) in easy English? You don't have to explain the meaning of each word.
2. What does (2) mean? Especially what is the meaning of "spout" there?
3. In (3), no more expensive to maintain what?
4.What does the "that" refer to in (4)?

Thank you.

[Anglika]

1. Could you paraphrase (1) in easy English? You don't have to explain the meaning of each word.
2. What does (2) mean? Especially what is the meaning of "spout" there?
3. In (3), no more expensive to maintain what?
4.What does the "that" refer to in (4)?

Thank you.

Both one and two are reinforcing the image of the amount of economic loss occurring at Niagara by not harnessing the Falls for creating energy: the first by suggesting the water can be imagined as fabric coming off the looms and disappearing; the first by suggesting that the water be imagined as books coming out of a water-spout and filling Carnegie libraries.

It would cost nothing to do this [if the water was books]

"that" is the concept of filling the library with free books or the department store floating over the cliffs and smashing at the bottom

[unpakwon]

I see.

I think I can understand more clearly now.

Thank you for the help.