146 



CONGRESS. (TiiE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



works of another kind. The storing of the floods 

 in reservoirs at the head waters ol our rivers is 

 but an enlargement of our present policy of river 

 control, under which levees are built on the lower 

 reaches of the same streams. 



The Government should construct and main- 

 tain these reservoirs as it does other public 

 works. Where their purpose is to regulate the 

 flow of streams, the water should be turned 

 freely into the channels in the dry season to take 

 the same course under the same laws as the natu- 

 ral flow. 



The reclamation of the unsettled arid public 

 lands presents a different problem. Here it is 

 not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The 

 object of the Government is to dispose of the 

 land to settlers who will build homes upon it. 

 To accomplish this object water must be brought 

 within their reach. 



The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain 

 chose their homes along streams from which they 

 could themselves divert the water to reclaim their 

 holdings. Such opportunities are practically 

 gone. There remain, however, vast areas of pub- 

 lic land which can be made available for home- 

 stead settlement, but only by reservoirs and 

 main-line canals impracticable for private enter- 

 prise. These irrigation works should be built 

 by the National Government. The lands re- 

 claimed by them should be reserved by the Gov- 

 ernment for actual settlers, and the cost of con- 

 struction should so far as possible be repaid by 

 the land reclaimed. The distribution of the 

 water, the division of the streams among irri- 

 gators, should be left to the settlers themselves 

 in conformity with State laws and without in- 

 terference with those laws or with vested rights. 

 The policy of the National Government should 

 be to aid irrigation in the several States and Ter- 

 ritories in such manner as will enable the peo- 

 ple in the local communities to help them- 

 selves, and as will stimulate needed reforms in 

 the State laws and regulations governing irri- 

 gation. 



The reclamation and settlement of the arid 

 lands will enrich every portion of our country, 

 just as the settlement of the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic 

 States. The increased demand for manufactured 

 articles will stimulate industrial production, 

 while wider home jiiarkets and the trade of Asia 

 will consume the larger food supplies and effec- 

 tually prevent Western competition with East- 

 ern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irriga- 

 tion will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local 

 centers of mining and other industries, which 

 would otherwise not come into existence at all. 

 Our people as a whole will profit, for successful 

 home-making is but another name for the up- 

 building of the nation. 



The necessary foundation has already been laid 

 for the inauguration of the policy just described. 

 It would be unwise to begin by doing too much, 

 for a great deal will doubtless be learned, both 

 as to what can and what can not be safely at- 

 tempted, by the early efforts, which must of 

 necessity be partly experimental in character. 

 At the very beginning the Government should 

 make clear, beyond shadow of doubt, its inten- 

 tion to pursue this policy on lines of the broadest 

 public interest. No reservoir or canal should 

 ever be built to satisfy selfish personal or local 

 interests, but only in accordance with the advice 

 of trained experts, after long investigation has 

 shown the locality where all the conditions com- 

 bine to make the work most needed and fraught 

 with the greatest usefulness to the community 



as a whole. There should be no extravagance, 

 and the believers in the need of irrigation will 

 most benefit their cause by seeing to it that it 

 is free from the least taint of excessive or reck- 

 less expenditure of the public moneys. 



Whatever the nation does for the extension of 

 irrigation should harmonize with, and tend to 

 improve, the condition of those now r living on 

 irrigated land. We are not at the starting-point 

 of this development. Over $200,000,000 of private 

 capital has already been expended in the con- 

 struction of irrigation works, and many million 

 acres of arid land reclaimed. A high degree of 

 enterprise and ability has been shown in the 

 work itself; but as much can not be said in ref- 

 erence to the laws relating thereto. The security 

 and value of the homes created depend largely 

 on the stability of titles to water; but the major- 

 ity of these rest on the uncertain foundation of 

 court decisions rendered in ordinary suits at law. 

 With a few creditable exceptions, the arid States 

 have failed to provide for the certain and just 

 division of streams in times of scarcity. Lax 

 and uncertain laws have made it possible to es- 

 tablish rights to water in excess of actual uses 

 or necessities, and many streams have already 

 passed into private ownership, or a control 

 equivalent to ownership. 



Whoever controls a stream practically controls 

 the land it renders productive, and the doctrine 

 of private ownership of water apart from land 

 can not prevail without causing enduring wrong. 

 The recognition of such ownership, which has 

 been permitted to grow up in the arid regions, 

 should give way to a more enlightened and 

 larger recognition of the rights of the public in 

 the control and disposal of the public water-sup- 

 plies. Laws founded upon conditions obtaining 

 in humid regions, where water is too abundant 

 to justify hoarding it, have no proper applica- 

 tion in a dry country. 



In the arid States the only right to water 

 which should be recognized is that of use. In 

 irrigation this right should attach to the laud 

 reclaimed and be inseparable therefrom. Grant- 

 ing perpetual water rights to others than UXT-. 

 without compensation to the public, is open to 

 all the objections which apply to giving away 

 perpetual franchises to the public utilities of 

 cities. A few of the Western States have already 

 recognized this, and have incorporated in their 

 constitutions the doctrine of perpetual State own- 

 ership of water. 



The benefits which have followed the unaided 

 development of the past justify the nation's aid 

 and cooperation in the more difficult and impor- 

 tant work yet to be accomplished. Laws so vital- 

 ly affecting homes as those which control the 

 water-supply will only be effective when they 

 have the sanction of the irrigators; reforms can 

 only be final and satisfactory when they come 

 through the enlightenment of the people nn (-it- 

 concerned. The larger development which na- 

 tional aid insures should, however, awaken in 

 every arid State the determination to make it- 

 irrigation system equal in justice and effective- 

 ness that of any country in the civilized world. 

 Nothing could be more unwise than for isolated 

 communities to continue to learn everything ex- 

 perimentally, instead of profiting by what is 

 known elsewhere. We are dealing with a new 

 and momentous question, in the pregnant years 

 while institutions are forming, and what we do 

 will affect not only the present but future genera- 

 tions. 



Our aim should be not simply to reclaim the 

 largest area of land and provide homes for the 



