As soon as practicable after the filing with the State Corporation Commission of any application for a license under the provisions of this chapter, the Commission shall set a day for a public hearing upon such application, and the applicant shall give notice to the public of the application, in form to be prescribed or approved by the Commission, by publication once in each week for four successive weeks prior to such hearing in a newspaper or newspapers of general circulation published in the city or county wherein the proposed construction, or the greater part thereof, is to be made and any adjoining or connecting county or city affected and every other county downstream from such development through which the stream runs to its mouth, if there be such newspaper, and, if there be no such newspaper, then by publishing the same in a newspaper of general circulation in such county or counties or cities affected. In such notice the date fixed by the Commission for the public hearing on the application shall be stated.