THE NATIONAL IRRIGATION SITUATION 



529 



port of a family. To quote a well-worn 

 phrase, its object is to put "the land- 

 less man on the manless land," and to 

 enal^le his family to prosper by the use 

 of waters which otherwise flow to waste 

 or are destructive of human life and 

 property. The land which otherwise 

 is valueless becomes highly productive 

 through the intelligent application of 

 the water thus conserved, and through 

 the labor of the man who otherwise 

 might be unable to employ his energies 

 for the best good of his famil}- and of 

 the commonwealth. 



The Nation is concerned in this work, 

 not only because of the resulting in- 

 ternal development, but also because of 

 the improvement in citizenship and in 

 stability of American institutions. The 

 nomadic herdsman, the restless miner 

 and the wandering laborer add little to 

 the strength or safety of the com- 

 munity, but let one of these men be- 

 come attached to the soil ; let him own a 

 small farm which is sufficiently produc- 

 tive to furnish his famih- with needed 

 subsistence and comforts, and he be- 

 comes a citizen who can be depended 

 upon, in season and out of season, to 

 preserve those institutions which we 

 most highly prize. 



This result of adding to the pro- 

 ductive area of the country and the 

 building up of the highest type of citi- 

 zenship is brought by the expenditure 

 of a fund not created by direct taxa- 

 tion nor taken from the pockets of 

 other farmers. The fund is derived 

 from the proceeds of the disposal of 

 public lands acquired a century or les^ 

 ago and which have been considered al- 

 most valueless. These funds are ex- 

 pended in the construction of reservoirs 

 and canals, the water from which is not 

 given away, but is sold at a rate suffi- 

 cient to repay the cost and to maintain 

 the fund undiminished. '■' * * 



While the (Government has utilized 

 this fund in making homes in localities 

 where otherwise this would not have 

 been done, private capital has also made 

 great advances, and possibly at present 

 five or ten times as large an investment 

 in the aggregate is being made by cor- 

 porations in building irrigation works 

 as is being invested by the Government. 



Much of this investment, however, has 

 been made possible, or at least has 

 been stimulated by the Government 

 work. The fact that the National Gov- 

 ernment has deemed it wise to take up 

 the matter has been one of the strongest 

 arguments appealing to capitalists to do 

 likewise. 



There is no competition as between 

 national and private funds, but rather 

 an attempt at all times on the part of 

 the Government to stinuilate legitimate 

 enterprise through obtaining facts upon 

 which investments might be safely 

 made, and to avoid taking up such work 

 as could be handled successfully by 

 others. Looking back, it now seems 

 probable that if the Government had 

 not begun work in each of the western 

 states, many of the enterprises now suc- 

 cessful under private auspices would 

 not have been taken up : but, on the 

 other hand, some of the enterprises on 

 which the Government is now engaged, 

 if left dormant for several years, would 

 have been entered upon by private 

 capital. 



The reclamation fund has been larger 

 than was expected, upward of $52,- 

 000,000 being available to December. 

 UJ09, this being twice as much as was 

 foreseen. There have been laid out sys- 

 tems which involve the ultimate rec- 

 lamation of several million acres. Large 

 works, whose magnitude is such that 

 they have been passed over by private 

 and corporate enterprise, have been 

 built. In all, it may be stated that in 

 round nuiubers there were ready for 

 irrigation at the beginning of the irri- 

 gation season of the present year over 

 5,000 farms, with an aggregate acreage 

 of 700,000 acres. 



Storage of flood waters had been 

 created and in actual use to the extern 

 of 1,000,000 acre-feet. Canals and 

 ditches were ready for use of an aggre- 

 gate length of more than 3,000 miles. 

 Fifty-eight tunnels had been built of 

 a length of 85,000 feet. Many thou- 

 sands of smaller structures, such as 

 headgates, flumes, bridges, and turn- 

 outs, were completed : a thousand miles 

 of telephone in operation, and yardages 

 of earth moved comparable to that han- 

 dled in the same time at Panama. 



