PUBLIC OPINION AND THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



177 



shall be done with the arid lands. At least one-third 

 of the area of this country is arid, and the ability of 

 the nation to support a large population depends 

 very much upon the extent to which this arid area 

 can be reclaimed and made fertile. In this we see 

 the vast importance of the problem. 



There is a division of sentiment among men who 

 have considered this subject as to the proper policy 

 to be adopted. Some persons take the position that 

 Congress ought to appropriate money for the con- 

 struction of irrigating ditches and storage reservoirs. 

 They claim that since a great deal of money is ex- 

 pended upon the improvement of rivers and harbors 

 in which the arid region has but a remote interest, it 

 would be nothing more than just to make a similar 

 expenditure in the construction of works for the 

 reclamation of arid lands. 



On the other hand, it is claimed that the better 

 policy is to have Congress grant the arid lands to the 

 several States and Territories in which they may be 

 situated upon the condition that those States and 

 Territories assume the burden of reclamation. If 

 this were done, each State receiving such a grant 

 would assume the duty of constructing the irrigation 

 works requisite, and the control of all matters per- 

 taining to irrigation in its limits would be in its 

 hands. 



As between these two policies, the latter is to be 

 preferred. It would be practically impossible to in- 

 duce Congress, in the face of Eastern opposition, to 

 make sufficiently large appropriations for the con- 

 struction of irrigation works. Eastern farmers would 

 say that their money ought not to be taken for the 

 reclamation of land which would be used in competi- 

 tion against themselves. The East controls Congress, 

 and in the face of this opposition very small appro- 

 priations, if any at all, would be obtained. 



Furthermore, a national law would not be so free 

 from defects as a State law, for very few of the mem- 

 bers of Congress know anything at all about irriga- 

 tion. The irrigation problem is a very intricate one, 

 and it presents many difficulties even to men living 

 in the arid region. It may be taken for granted that 

 Congress would not handle it as well as the legislat- 

 ure of an arid State. 



CHICAGO TIMES. As to the necessity and value of 

 some general scheme of reclamation of those arid 

 lands of the West there can be no dispute. Millions 

 of acres of fertile but now barren soil in over a dozen 

 States and Territories but await the touch of water to 

 blossom into productive farms and gardens, capable 

 of supporting an immense population. And artificial 

 irrigation is no experiment. It has been proved suc- 

 cessful beyond man's fondest hopes in the many dis- 

 tricts where private or State enterprise has already 

 introduced it. But the work of reclaiming th'e great 

 arid tracts which are within reach of the surface of the 

 subterranean waters of the Platte and Arkansas riv- 

 ers and the dozens of minor streams which find their 

 way from the mountains down into the dry plains of 

 Colorado, New Mexico and the western portion of 

 Kansas and Nebraska, is an immense one a verita- 

 ble task for Titans. Still, these lands should be re- 

 claimed, and the privilege of reclaiming them should 

 not be left to private corporations, either. The gen- 

 eral government should do the work, or else it should 

 parcel out the lands to the various States; not to be 

 turned over to irrigation companies, however, but to 

 be irrigated by the State itself. And none of these 



lands which now belong to the public domain, or 

 which shall hereafter be recovered from the railway 

 monopolies which unlawfully and immorally hold 

 them, should ever be sold or given away. Let the 

 federal or State governments build the reservoirs and 

 dig the canals and ditches which are to turn these 

 desert tracts into productive farms, and let them 

 leave the lands in such lots as applicants may re- 

 quire, charging a fair annual rental per acre based 

 upon the value of the land. Thus will the bonds or 

 other obligations issued to pay the expenses of con- 

 structing the reservoirs, canals and ditches, be speed- 

 ily redeemed and a perpetual income assured the 

 State from the only proper and natural source for 

 State revenues, the land itself. 



SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE. The more the sub- 

 ject of irrigation can be agitated, the more life will 

 come to it, and the importance of it cannot begin to 

 be estimated. As for the land in the arid belt, there 

 is this to be said about it: The people in the east 

 read of the number of acres and seem at once to 

 take up the idea that it is a part of their inheritance, 

 and seem further to hold to the idea that these lands 

 are something like the lands in the Mississippi valley, 

 most valuable now and prospectively. The Irriga- 

 tion Congress ought to emphasize the fact that these 

 lands are utterly worthless until they are redeemed, 

 until water is carried upon them, and that the expense 

 is something so great and the region so vast that the 

 federal government cannot be relied upon to do the 

 work, and that in the interests of all the people, east 

 and west, the government ought to cede these lands 

 to the respective States. Then each State could have 

 the handling of the question itself, and could decide 

 whether to try and do it as a state measure or whether 

 to give contracts to corporations to do the work, put- 

 ting such checks upon them as to secure the water 

 needed to cultivate the land at fair charges. 



INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL. The Irrigation Congress 

 now in session at Denver represents a movement of 

 general interest. The benefits and possibilities of 

 artificial irrigation as a means of reclaiming arid 

 lands or insuring regular and abundant crops have 

 been known and practiced in some parts of the old 

 world for a long time, but not until recently has the 

 subject received much attention in this country. As 

 long as we had vast areas of fertile land still unpeopled, 

 which were fairly watered by nature, it was hardly to 

 be expected that much thought should be given to 

 artificial irrigation. Gradually, however, the subject 

 has been forced upon public attention. Experience 

 has shown that the arid and desert lands of the west, 

 which, in their natural and dry state, do not bear 

 even a blade of grass, become wonderfully fertile 

 and productive under irrigation. There are millions 

 of acres of such lands in some of the Western States 

 that can be reclaimed from a desert condition and 

 made to yield abundant crops by a general system of 

 irrigation. To establish such a system would, however, 

 be so costly that it is beyond the reach of private 

 enterprise, and it is to solicit government aid that 

 the Denver convention is called. The work seems 

 to be a suitable one to enlist government aid, but it 

 would seem that such aid should come from the 

 respective State governments rather than from the 

 national government. In a certain sense it is to the 

 interest of the entire country that every part of it 

 should be brought under cultivation and made pro- 



