THE LAND SYSTEM NEEDED FOR THE ARID REGION, 43 
is secured, water will become a property independent of the land, and this 
property will be gradually absorbed by a few. Monopolies of water will 
be secured, and the whole agriculture of the country will be tributary 
thereto—a condition of affairs which an American citizen having in view 
the interests of the largest number of people cannot contemplate with favor. 
Practically, in that country the right to water is acquired by priority 
of utilization, and this is as it should be from the necessities of the country. 
But two important qualifications are needed. The user right should attach 
to the land where used, not to the individual or company constructing 
the canals by which it is used. The right to the water should inhere in 
the land where it is used; the priority of usage should secure the right. 
But this needs some slight modification. A farmer settling on a small tract, 
to be redeemed by irrigation, should be given a reasonable length of time 
in which to secure his water right by utilization, that he may secure it by 
his own labor, either directly by constructing the waterways himself, or 
indirectly by cobperating with his neighbors in constructing systems of 
waterways. Without this provision there is little inducement for poor men 
to commence farming operations, and men of ready capital only will engage 
in such enterprises. 
The tentative bills submitted have been drawn on the theory thus 
briefly enunciated. 
If there be any doubt of the ultimate legality of the practices of the 
people in the arid country relating to water and land rights, all such doubts 
should be speedily quieted through the enactment of appropriate laws by 
the national legislature. Perhaps an amplification by the courts of what 
has been designated as the natural right to the use of water may be made 
to cover the practices now obtaining; but it hardly seems wise to imperil 
interests so great by intrusting them to the possibility of some future court 
made law. 
THE LANDS SHOULD BE CLASSIFIED. 
Such a system of disposing of the public lands in the Arid Region will 
necessitate an authoritative classification of the same. The largest amount 
of land that it is possible to redeem by irrigation, excepting those tracts 
