100 



arid lands. It is one of innumerable illustrations of the constantly 

 increasing importance of water to the health and comfort of man. 

 Increasing use and augmented value is bringing about a fundamental 

 change in the legal and economic status of streams which is pro- 

 foundly affecting property values and social conditions throughout 

 large areas of this countr}- and is destined to exert a still more com- 

 manding influence in the future. AVater is ceasing to be regarded as 

 valuable because of its relation to other forms of property, but is 

 coming to be dealt with as a commodity valuable in itself, like crude 

 oil from wells or coal from mines. This is especially true in arid 

 lands and in the vicinity of great cities. The facts disclosed in this 

 report show that under laws and court decisions rights are being 

 established to the flow of creeks and rivers, which are being bought 

 and sold like warehouse receipts for grain. It is, therefore, highly 

 desirable that the subject of property rights in water should receive 

 more consideration from trained investigators of economic prob- 

 lems than has hitherto been given. Especially is this true in the 

 arid region, where the right to use water lies at the very foundation 

 of development and where its control, unless subjected to wise limita- 

 tion, will in time reap all the benefits of that development. The need 

 of expert and disinterested study is made all the more urgent because, 

 as stated in President Roosevelt's first message, " We are now in the 

 pregnant years when institutions are forming." The rights to water 

 now being acquired under the liberal policies adopted in western 

 States are made perpetual. They have not only great i^resent value, 

 but are certain to affect the welfare of a large part of the people of 

 that region for all future time. Unless they are subjected to proper 

 limitations, there is danger that they may in the future embarrass or 

 prevent the adoption of legal principles needed to protect the public 

 welfare and prevent enduring wrong. 



Primarily this report is a discussion of two features of stream' 

 ownership and control. One is the division of the water of a stream 

 between States, and the other is the relation of the rights of appro- 

 priators of water and of riparian proprietors to each other where both 

 exist on the same stream. The Platte River has been dealt with 

 because it is one of the best concrete illustrations of both these prob- 

 lems. Three States are dealing with the same water supply. In one 

 State, Xebraska. the laws recognize both rights of appropriation and 

 common-law riparian rights. As these questions are quite fully dis- 

 cussed by Mr. Teele in the preceding pages, this paper will only con- 

 sider the character of the appropriations of water now being made in 

 each of the States through which the river flows. This is the funda- 

 mental question. A division of water betAveen States requires that the 

 rights in each Commonwealth be aclj usted to a conunon standard. This 



