104 



from the Platte has the amount and limitations on his right fixed in 

 the permit. Compliance with its conditions is all that is necessary 

 to establish his appropriation. Hence in these States every step in 

 the acquirement of a water right is an administrative act. In Colo- 

 rado the courts decide what the right is after the appropriation is 

 made, fix the amount, and determine the order of priority. All 

 three States have declared that water is public property." In Wyo- 

 ming and Nebraska the basic idea in interpreting this provision is 

 that this water is a public property; that the giving of a right to 

 it is a surrender by the State of a public resource. In Colorado the 

 basic idea is that the stream is there for everybody to take, and that 

 the settlement of rights to it is a question which concerns only those 

 who are seeking to acquire it. The State or the public in Colorado 

 is never represented in the establishment of appropriations. No one 

 appears in water-right adjudications but the appropriators. Where 

 there is an actual scarcity of Avater the controversies are usually 

 genuine and conflicting interests prevent the acquirement of excessive 

 rights, but in the earlier litigation over this matter the necessity 

 for restricting appropriations was not felt. Hence it sometimes 

 happened that instead of attempting to restrict each other to 

 their actual needs or uses the appropriators agreed among them- 

 selves as to what each one's share should be and submitted testimony 

 in accordance wdth this agreement. The vested rights to some of 

 the tributaries of the South Platte were established in this manner. 



The water laws of Wyoming and Nebraska have several advantages 

 over those of Colorado. The method of establishing rights is 

 simpler and cheaper, and the results are more nearly in accord with 

 actual uses than in Colorado. The full benefits of the Wyoming and 

 Nebraska plan have not been reached because public sentiment will 

 not support irrigation officials in enforcing regulations which rigidly 

 limit rights to water in streams. We are as yet in the pioneer stages 

 of development. The public resources are so great and the number 

 of people using them relatively so few that men look with imjjatience 

 on the efforts of those who seek to restrict the acquirement of these 

 resources. Appropriators of water are not altruists. This a])plies 

 to the ii-rigator who seeks water for his own land as well as those 

 who appropriate water to rent or sell to others. All wish to make 



« Colorado and I\^ehraska. — " The water of every natural stream not hereto- 

 fore appropriated, within the State of Colorado (Nebraska), is hereby declared 

 to be the property of the public, and is dedicated to the use of the people of 

 the State, subject to appropriation as hereinafter (hereinbefore) provided." 

 Colorado Const.. Art. XVI, sec. .5; Compiled Statutes of Xebi-aska, sec. G450. 



Wlioiiiiiif/. — "The water of all natural streams, springs, lakes, or other col- 

 lections of still water within the boundaries of the State, are hereby declared 

 to be the property of the State." Wyoming Const., Art. IX, see. 1. 



