A CREATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DISTRICT LAW. 



13 



THE LA GRANGE DAM NEARLY COMPLETED, TUOLUMNE RIVER, CAL. 



deny the necessity of irrigation. They were annoyed 

 to learn that ten acres of land scientifically cultivated 

 by means of irrigation were actually worth more, for 

 all the purposes of agriculture and horticulture, than 

 a section of their land under dry farming. And when 

 they remembered that nature had provided a noble 

 river in their immediate neighborhood they instantly 

 decided upon the nature of the reform they needed. 



OBSTACLES IN THE WAY. 



It was only when this point had been reached that 

 the people realized that a new law must be devised to 

 meet the necessities of their situation. They were 

 confronted by the fact that a small minority of large 

 land-holders would not patronize an irrigation canal 

 because they preferred that the country should remain 

 in its present state. Without the patronage of these 

 large tracts of land no private enterprise would pay. 

 They were also confronted by the fact that under the 

 recognized principle of riparian rights they would be 

 forbidden to divert the waters of the Tuolomne river 

 o the outlying lands which it might be made to water. 



From this situation was born the "Wright law, which 

 enabled a community, through the votes of a majority 

 of its citizens, to condemn private rights and bond all 

 the real estate within the limits of an organized dis- 

 trict to raise means for the construction of irrigation 

 works. Such was the problem and such its solution. 



PUBLIC GOOD ABOVE PRIVATE INTEREST. 



Those who have assailed the Wright law have 

 generally done so without knowledge of the circum- 

 stances from which it took its being, but some who 

 were familiar with the facts have opposed it as an un- 

 warranted invasion of private rights. On this latter 

 point it is hopeless to expect general agreement. 

 There are those who hold private interest above the 

 public good. Men who hold that view will still con- 

 tend, after the District system has wrought out its 

 very highest results, that it was a crime to tax the 

 property of any man for benefits which he did not de- 

 sire and that it was nothing short of communism to 

 take private property for public uses, even if justly 

 paid for. It is the opinion of such men that the 



