214 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



opportunity. If the law is used as a means of re- 

 claiming land economically and putting it into the 

 hands of actual settlers on reasonable terms, it will 

 prove a boon and a blessing to the East and West 

 alike. It will furnish labor to thousands of men at a 

 time when it is sorely needed, and then it will furnish 

 the laborers with homes where they may become in- 

 dependent. On the other hand, if the lands are ob- 

 tained by syndicates and corporations, either to hold 

 for their own uses or to sell to American citizens at 

 prices which the public cannot control and which 

 hold no fair relation to the cost of reclamation, then 

 the West will be disgraced, irrigation will be dis- 

 credited and our progress set back for many years. 

 Doubtless there are men in each State whose mouths 

 are now watering for the rich plum they see in the 

 Carey law. But we shall never believe that these 

 greedy appetites are in the control of a single West- 

 ern State until the shameful fact has been demon- 

 strated by actual experience. While there has been 

 some reason to fear that during the past decade 

 Triumphant Democracy has succumbed to Triumph- 

 ant Plutocracy throughout the United States, we 

 cannot believe that the great public assets, repre- 

 sented by water and land on the public domain, will 

 further illustrate this dangerous tendency of our 

 times. No element of our citizenship is so unfettered 

 as the men who breathe the free air of the West. 

 They are sometimes eccentric to the verge of cranki- 

 ness, but they have evinced no disposition to be the 

 slaves of class or party. We believe they will rise 

 to the full height of their opportunity and see that 

 the Carey law is utilized in the spirit in which it was 

 passed unanimously by the Senate, with only nine 

 dissenting votes in the House and promptly signed 

 by the President. 



The exposition of the Carey law pub- 

 Wyoming lished in these pages in October may be 

 May Use It. acce pted as a very fair reflection of the 

 views of Wyoming people, who originated the law. 

 The article, we understand, was prepared with the 

 cooperation and approval of /the leading men of 

 Wyoming. The most important suggestions in the 

 article are contained in the following sentences: 



The State to make contracts with construction companies or 

 colonies for the reclamation and settlement within a named 

 period of defined areas of land in the State for a specified sum, 

 the State Board fixing the price per acre for which land and 

 water must be sold to settlers. When the sum specified by the 

 .contract is realized by the investors in the irrigation enterprise 

 by the sale of land to settlers, the lands remaining in the tract, 

 if any, to be sold to settlers, the proceeds going to the State. In 

 all contracts the ownership of water to be inseparable from 

 ownership of land. 



Or, the act might authorize the State Department to contract 

 with construction companies for the reclamation of specified 

 areas of land, segregated under the Carey act, fixing a maxi- 

 mum and minimum price which may be charged settlers for the 

 iand and water and retaining a nominal price per acre to be de- 



voted to maintaining the department having in charge the con- 

 trol and supervision of the lands. 



Better Now, if this is the disposition of the 

 6 prominent citizens of Wyoming, who 



Law. have urged for years that the cession of 

 the lands was the only practicable solution of our 

 problems, and who scored a partial triumph by the 

 passage of the Carey law, there is every reason to 

 anticipate glorious results from this legislation. The 

 Desert Land law has stood in the way of wise and 

 honest development. When companies have used it 

 as a means of acquiring the lands in large tracts it 

 has been essentially dishonest. When they have not 

 so used it.it has been disastrous, both to the company 

 which built the canal without any control of the 

 lands, and to the speculator who took up the land 

 without any control of the water. Under the Carey 

 law our States can instantly repeal the Desert law 

 so far as it relates to tracts which they propose to re- 

 claim. They can then give capital security upon 

 both the water and the land, and guarantee a fair re- 

 turn upon its investment and that degree of control 

 essential to successful colonization. The proposition 

 as outlined in the sentences quoted, proposes that the 

 States shall regulate the cost and character of works 

 and the maximum price which settlers shall pay for 

 the land. If such a policy is generally adopted it 

 will offer far better security for investment than it 

 now enjoys, while fully protecting the rights of the 

 public. Every friend of irrigation must be delighted 

 to see such propositions as this advanced by the 

 champions of the law. If those who have opposed 

 the policy of cession will now heartily unite in an 

 effort to utilize the law wisely, rather than stand 

 stubbornly in the way of progress, the early months 

 of 1895 will have a most important bearing on future 

 development. The State conventions should be soon 

 called and largely attended. They should bring out 

 all shades of opinion, but the common effort should 

 be to use the law for the benefit of the West and the 

 country, not to discredit it for the satisfaction of in- 

 dividual pique. 



J^abor and There is another aspect of the case 

 ^ypf'he which merits the careful consideration 

 Idle. of the public. Millions of acres of good 

 land are already under ditch and awaiting settle- 

 ment. But the people who are most in need of 

 homes are unable to acquire these lands. To pay 

 from $25 to $100 per acre for land and water right, 

 to clear the ground, prepare it for cultivation, plant 

 crops and await the harvest, to build a house and 

 equip the farm with team and implements, requires 

 some little capital. There are plenty of people who 

 have the required capital, and they are beginning to 

 seek these lands, but there is another great class who 

 have no capital except their labor and possibly a 



