Ogden Daily Standard | 1902-12-20 | Page 46 | Reclamation of the Arid Region Section

1 I i 4 by GEO H MAXWELL of chicago As sa i THE TREE IS OP tab FOUNTAIN the people ot this whole country and ahe western 1 l cd around to the fc tates arc thoroughly of national benefit gigantic polities now from the reclamation and settlement of alo arid region under a national irrigation policy few w ho eliut there are comparatively nealise realise hat many thin A lone to accomplish tho a t s dional ut u t mere IY S thresh bold of the opened alo door just far s c the vast benefit that he in ct the door thrown vide open so the people of this generation may oaf con matter bow not solve the question no chev nale wo kimt not only e et appropriations tout we must it dewi a dirtion of public which to build alich vl ich will inome tsy maw and of alo ill benefit jut in proportion as let adl aho vho alc 11 whole 0 1 loo or annl to 1 mb erv nuit nui t if organized whole united sartes 0 the irr gnp awal cn aio oio to a problem and to maintain an ana rat imie with refer enro to 0 erv aln o tilli N ASSO the notional Aso dation oamer thou facture rs of the state that must h increased to not thousand evera eom cral annj association nier S nannal nat nal inet be omitted omia ted with S mg so many of them aie now an ld and all of them knust have an au a ot homed y the national advisory Advis orv council of the awl association the winch tao association Us been on for the last three A ba the pubic the ca effrom opposition to 1 general favorable senU ment be teli ail earned into the t as U into tte cast tae T alc plc of the west enst become familiar j th the ot o t every ale of abo irrigation problem avery citi yan interested in development from the to jhc merchant with whom bo deals must be united to work to a common end along lines OBSTACLES TO BE we have bad to contend against K theories emana lins from the west r from the begin nim ot this movement we leavo fluit our way over them one at a time indi by inch and step by step until we have feay overcome over coma most of them first we had to state cession then we toad to dabat the state leasing bill then we biad to defeat the state engineers bill all of these turned the control of the reclamation of uncle sams farm over to the state politicians all of these ea were either advocated or approved nt one time oran abber bv elwood bicad the irrigation pert in charko of the irrigation investigations of the office of experiment stations of the department of agriculture but tho chont of state control like that of banquot banquo will not down mr mead ever since tie hr B held that office has used the it gives him to try and the adoption in every western state of a codo of water lawa providing or an administrative system similar to that of wyoming where the water is distributed by a corps of state flitch tenders appointed by state officials such a system as this is the very thing that should not be where t docs not already exist it puts the control of tho distribution of the waters of a state in the stands of a great al machine controlled by state mm and raises possibilities of complications between the state and national governments in carrying into actual operation the national irrigation act HOME RULE IN irrigation what is wanted is the exact contrary of this theory of a centralized political control of irrigation home rule in irrigation should be the slogan of the imga tora ot the west from this time on the individual irrl pator should manage the distribution of jhb water fraai his own ditch on his own the hind owners under each canal large or email should their own affairs in practically the same way distributing the water from the canal to the farmers who arc entitled to it where anoro than one canal system water from a tingle stream they t hould all ho organized together into one association to manage ir mutual interests and divide tho water among jt public offic cra arc n caca drainage ansin should be cp into tin administrative district having power to elect its own torn and ditch no bubli niri cors ix acil and ant ivar any by anny or any state board of any kind nicil no such administrative district donld lo 10 organized organised sed unless it is done voluntarily hy the themselves on their own anil vote if this plan ho followed every drains iasin acry annal system and tho hole oy every ot on any stream control hs ir their on nir airs alicy can then deal nith the national as a unit to secure the construction hy il ot cither or canals they can aaran tco the government the return of its investment they can adopt anny and desired or approved hy alia secretary of tho interior and all this can be done without any necessity for any complicated code of state laws ko man can tell in what statutes may bo needed if we arc let alfonc then a are created or plans made for building new systems cither hy governmental or private enterprise statutes can bo enacted when feces n canal should be shown that compa niesi have licon the graveyard of of dollars invested in them while operative cooperative co canal companies have been almost uniformly in irrigation promoters should sell stock and not water arilita ri lita putting lir olit on alio of alic stock tedi ahen the in intorf tors got back their money and their pr olits the ownership of the system poet to the land owners who should control and operate it for their common benefit not another water liht company should ever bo organized and all now existing should as rapidly ait possible be transformed into land owners companies AX educational CAMPAIGN to kiako all chefe matters generally pene rally known and understood requires a great and persistent educational campaign it can only be carried on by an organization like the national irrigation aso W bear ay L T H c W firrek gex IDAHO alver ur NEAR ogdan sary to meet the local needs as they arise the development of the laws of irrigation in every state must bo a grad j ual evolution following rather than arc ceding the practical experiences of the irrigators themselves the first task before us is to overcome this movement which lias now attained too much headway in favor of the adoption of these complicated codes 0 water laws in every state we do not danl them they would complicate and retard beyond calculation the operations under the national irrigation act WHAT STATES SHOULD DO there are things that the states ought to do but those things are not alic adoption ot complicated codes of water laws the states should establish a few simple fundamental principles by constitutional amendment and judicial decision it cannot be done by statutory enactment every state should adopt a constitutional amendment to the effect that the right to the use of water for irrigation vests in the user and becomes appurtenant to the land irrigated and that beneficial use is the basis the measure and the limit of all rights to water in every state in addition to tah constitutional amendment decisions cf alion laving a fixed policy and a permanent membership and an adequate fund for conducting ane campaign by public lectures and the distribution of printed matter arid information through the presa i the work that has teen done in the last three years to convert the cast through our campaign lias been done by the national irrigation association not by the irrigation congress and alim association will continue its work the association now has e national membership which is steadily growing and it should never in the future be confused with the irrigation congress which is a distinct and separate organization merely an annual convention for the discussion of irrigation topics and the passage of resolutions chih itlay advocate one policy one year and another and different policy the next year the national Ii association must continue educational its work in the cast until eastern public sentiment will favor the appropriation of just as much money as is necessary in every state to bui ld projects chic li been surveyed and approved by the secretary should to had iti the supreme court ot the this to bo the law and also establishing the doctrine that this banie rule ot beneficial use applies to the rights of a riparian owner as well as to the rights of an appropriator it is the law of our entire and when correctly interpreted and should be clearly so declared by our courts that a riparian owner cannot prevent by injunction a diversion from the stream neova him unless it interferes with some beneficial use of the water then being rando by the riparian owner it should bo also established by our courts clearly and beyond question that the right of a riparian owner to use water to irrigate land to produce crops as we understand tho meaning of the term irrigation in the arid region is not a common law liht but one prow ins out of the necessities of tah arid country and that the riparian light to the we 0 water for irrigation arises from necessity and is based on and limited by use jt ia not perfected until the water ha ban actually used and there fora if an appropriator ft byuse on the arlow the riparian owner the owner uses tha water the right of the lower ampro beep rt vested liht btuch tho upper lit irian owner must respect and the riparian owner cannot afterward water ariy from tho lower prior appropriator rhetie ar which must be adjudicated judica ted coulta who have jurisdiction to not only what the right ot riu irian owners now anre but to ind have been tn the past if abeso tights aro thua by judicial pic decision 13 not an inter with anny right it ia boore ly a of what that right ia and has aci aid noot its limitations CO CANAL the oi f bifi ot the interior the farid lands should bo reclaimed just as fast as settlers will take the land and pay back to the government the cost of he irrigation works built for reclamation alis and the merit of each project and nothing eke should be the test of whether any given project should be built unless we can this broad policy is the policy of the national government the result will be that at alie end of a couple of years the western states will inevitably be lighting among themselves tor tho email uni iuni i of or a which is all that will be available under the act in the net two years there will be about for construe tion because wo with ti fund of nearly when the bill win passed taix fund of ia as much ns can JB wisely expended during the next avo or dcarr it will bo enough to build faw great reservoirs and djin llido adjla aa object io alp crt our to abo eastern people of what asin bf na tiona irrigation it ia not material where these projects may to located our will back up abc interior department in any they may laake but the people of any of taa west who unite their forces can do hofich to promote the construction of any particular project if it every merit und promise of I 1 would tho organization of ft sec lion of the association sn every city and own in tho west to study and to tho true principles of chist whole arri atoni propaganda prop aRanda it ia not lir anted con Bt ruction it covais jahe bolo fald private anif irm alio ir d water tl 1 f betterment ot our laws of water alona lines of development and of pumping for froia crery underground der ground and latt but not least it takes in the whole field of the jcak plains of western nebraska should be dotted groves planted by anop sam awry fanner be in ito plant tre and then to plant more trees the children in your schools should be to love the trees and to preserve those we have and plant more every year until the whole H dotted all over vita groves of beautiful trees