THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



5: 



While we are always glad to allow all sides of im- 

 portant questions to be presented in these pages, we 

 wish to say emphatically that we agree with Mr. 

 Kerr's interpretation of the term "water right " and 

 not with Mr. Hancock's. Water, sunshine and air 

 are natural elements, existing for the benefit and 

 essential to the life of all. Sunshine and air diffuse 

 themselves naturally over the earth, but water must 

 be diverted, controlled and directed by artificial 

 means. The man or company who " appropriates " 

 it merely becomes a trustee for the public. The law 

 compels him to apply the water to " a beneficial use, 1 ' 

 and, presumably, to the best good of the community, 

 so far as it will go. The ditch is a common carrier in 

 the sense that so long as it has water not engaged by an 

 actual user it must deliver the water to whoever will 

 pay for the service and apply it beneficially. The uni- 

 versal law that water must be applied to " a beneficial 

 use '' is in itself a denial of the right of ownership. 

 What a man owns he may apply as he pleases. 

 Water is public property. So it has been in all ages 

 and countries. The public permits individuals to 

 "appropriate" it for the good of the locality that can 

 be reached and benefited by it, but the public can 

 limit, regulate, supervise, and even take away, the 

 latter for just compensation. When any other view 

 of water ownership is admitted it will be time not 

 merely for a king but for a slave-driver. Private in- 

 vestment in works will always be protected, but 

 private ownership of water will not be conceded 

 until air and sunshine are sold in bottles. 



Committeeman Whidby, of Georgia, is 

 Georgia's 



Splendid the agreeable surprise of the season. 

 Commission pj e nag a pp O j nte( j an irrigation commis- 



sion consisting of eminent Georgians who have en- 

 tered enthusiastically upon the work of studying the 

 conditions for irrigation in the South, and who will 

 also cooperate heartily with their western brethren in 

 solving the problem of our arid lands. The amount 

 lost by drouth in Georgia last year would have pro- 

 vided some very magnificent irrigation systems. The 

 members of the Georgia commission, beside Mr. 

 Whidby, are as follows: 



Dr. H. C. White, President of the State Agricultural College of 

 Georgia, an eminent scientist and man of culture, Athens, Ga. 



Major G. M. Ryals, of Savannah, Vice-President of the National 

 Farmers' Congress, one of the largest and most successful truck 

 growers in the South, who is acquainted with irrigation. 



Hon. Martin V. Calvin, ot Augusta, an eminent statistician, and, 

 for a decade a member of our General Assembly. 



Col. Geo. W. Harrison, of Atlanta, a progressive man, who is 

 the general manager of the largest publishing house in the South, 

 and manager of the Southern Cultivator. 



Th The industrial life of Texas presents 



Aspects of three aspects to the eye of the traveler 

 e 



crosses j t from east to west. From 

 Fort Worth to the coast, which comprehends about 



one-third of its stupendous territory, there is an, 

 abundant and fairly regular rainfall. Here we see 

 the out-working of the peculiar land system of Texas 

 under the best conditions. The farms are larger 

 than the average size throughout the Middle West, 

 and cotton and corn are the principal crops. The 

 negro furnishes the manual labor. Homesteads are - 

 free of debt, as the result of the law which makes it 

 impossible to mortgage them. Nowhere in the United 

 States should the system of large farming bring 

 better results than here; where the soil is fertile, the 

 seasons long, labor cheap and abundant, and trans- 

 portation facilities at least reasonably adequate. And 

 if local testimony may be trusted, the results have 

 not been disappointing, on. the average. The citizen 

 of East-central Texas assures you that there is no 

 better place on earth and none where industrious 

 men have made better progress toward independence. 

 Land values are steady, and there is no evidence of 

 a disposition to abandon farms. The low prices . 

 which now rule for all staples prevent extraordinary 

 profits, but the average prosperity in this part of 

 Texas certainly compares favorably with conditions ; 

 in any part of the United States. It is when we pass 

 to the western half of Texas that we behold its . 

 second aspect. It would seem as if fully one-third of 

 the state, and. perhaps a greater portion, is clearly 

 within the semi-arid region. This section is no longer 

 fit for a. stock range and yet is scarcely fit for any- 

 thing else. As you study its discouraged fields from , 

 the car window you are unable to perceive how the 

 people live, and when you meet the people and ply 

 them with questions you discover that they are as . 

 much in the dark on the subject themselves. The 

 writer talked with one group of neighbors in West- 

 central Texas, who stated that they had seen but 

 two. really good seasons in fourteen years. When 

 they were asked how they lived they replied, " Really, 

 we do not know how. We just exist somehow, getting 

 poorer and poorer all the time.'' It is a pathetic, 

 sight to see horses and cattle in a condition of semi-, 

 starvation, but it is infinitely more so to see human 

 beings in the same plight. There is an immense 

 country in Western Texas where this condition pre- 

 vails. There are portions of this section which can be 

 irrigated from surface supplies, and probably other 

 portions where little. oases could be created from 

 wells and other underground waters. Just how ex- 

 tensive an area, can be reclaimed will never be known 

 until Texas .realizes the importance of inaugurating a 

 vigorous irrigation policy of. her own, beginning with 

 th, systematic, study and exploitation of her water 

 resources. This ought to be undertaken at once 

 in the interest of her people. If they are doubt- 

 ful about what irrigation means in Texas, they 

 have^ only, to close their eyes at night on what 



