154 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



although they received no pay for services and even 

 defrayed the expense of their work largely from their 

 own personal contributions. The congress listened 

 to only a portion of the reports of these commissions. 

 The Committee on Resolutions was able to consider 

 the voluminous and valuable suggestions only in a 

 hasty and casual way. This was due in part to lack 

 of time, but it was also due to the unwillingness of a 

 considerable element to consider anything looking to 

 definite results. And yet the congress has ordered 

 that the commission system shall be continued for 

 another year, with new appointments. The National 

 Committee, learning something from experience, 

 will very probably adopt means to get the work of 

 its commissions before the delegates in a different 

 way next year. It has been suggested that the call 

 for the next congress shall be issued six months in 

 advance of its meeting, and that an effort shall be 

 made to have the appointment of delegates made 

 three or four months in advance. The commissions 

 will be asked to have their reports ready as soon as 

 delegates are appointed, and the National Committee 

 will then attempt to have them printed in one pam- 

 phlet and put into the hands of all delegates, so that 

 the reports may have the most mature consideration 

 weeks before the convention assembles. By this 

 means everybody will know what is to be considered, 

 and there will be ample time to organize the forces 

 on both sides. It is hoped that no excursions will in- 

 terfere with the serious business of the congress next 

 time. Ornamental features of the program should 

 be relegated to morning and evening hours. Four 

 or five working days will be available for working 

 delegates. When to this program we add the 

 opportunities for discussion which will be given by 

 newspapers and magazines, by minor conventions 

 and by coming sessions of various legislatures, it 

 will be quickly seen that greater results should be 

 obtained at the Fourth Congress, to be held at 

 Albuquerque, N. M., in the autumn of 1895, than 

 were realized on any previous occasion. 



Arizona Any worthy consideration of the work of 

 California. t ^ ie Fourth Congress must begin with a 

 ideas. review of the reports of the State Com- 

 missions. Chairman Van Derwerker, of Arizona, 

 submitted a brief report devoted exclusively to an 

 argument in favor of the cession of the lands. His 

 principle contention was, that water and lands should 

 be under one control, and that as Congress has no 

 power to deprive the State of its control of non- 

 navigable streams the lands also should be turned over 

 to the State. The California commission failed to 

 submit a complete official report, but in the absence 

 of this, Commissioner L. M. Holt furnished a very 

 able letter, devoted to a careful discussion of the 



district law of his State. Mr. Holt was closely 

 associated with Mr. Wright and others in the cham- 

 pionship of this law, but the weaknesses which it has 

 developed were never more clearly set forth than in 

 this letter, which the convention heard with profound 

 interest. He insists that there must be rigid State 

 supervision, and suggests a State board of irrigation, 

 composed of five members, four of whom should be 

 ex-officio members by virtue of holding certain State 

 official positions, while the fifth should be the State 

 engineer. He says the attorney-general should also 

 be a member. This board should have jurisdiction 

 over the formation of districts and none should be 

 allowed to incorporate until all engineering and legal 

 questions had been discussed and the board had 

 given its sanction. In this connection it is interest- 

 ing to remark that Hon. C. C. Wright will appear 

 before the Supreme Court of the United States at 

 Washington, October 8th, to argue upon the question 

 of the validity of the law, and that the request that 

 the case be advanced upon the calendar made by 

 formal resolution of the Los Angeles congress, bore 

 fruit in just one year to a day. Mr. Holt's other 

 important suggestion is, that States, upon author- 

 izing the formation of a district, should issue its 

 own bonds for the amount required, putting the 

 bonds of the district in the State treasury, and, by 

 reason of the difference in interest and selling value 

 of the two classes of bonds, realize a sufficient profit 

 to pay the entire cost of maintaining the State board 

 of irrigation. Mr. Holt says that with such changes 

 as he suggests in the district system it would be ap- 

 plicable to unoccupied public lands, provided the 

 control of the district shall remain with the State 

 board until a sufficient number of settlers occupy the 

 land. Mr. Holt stated that the California districts 

 are already burdened with a debt of $16,000,000, and 

 that -if bonds could be readily sold the amount would 

 quickly rise to $20,000,000. Upon hearing this, some 

 of the Mormon delegates from Utah arose in their 

 places to thank God that their canal systems were 

 the product of their own labor and genius, and that 

 there is not now and never has been a dollar of in- 

 debtedness outstanding against them. 



The report of the Colorado Commission 

 Pointed S claims 4,000,000 acres under ditch and 

 Suggestions. 1^00,000 acres under cultivation, and 

 states that the problem is to get water for avast area 

 of irrigable land. The report furnishes a large 

 amount of valuable data concerning water supply and 

 land. It also describes the gradual development and 

 present status of Colorado local law. The conclu- 

 sions of the commission are as follows: 



1. That none of the public lands should be ac- 

 quired except under the homestead law. 



