10 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



will guarantee better forms of civilization than the 

 world has ever known. 



LOOKING FROM THE tAST. 



These words are written in New York City. When 

 I accepted for the second time the standard of 

 leadership, so generously tendered by the representa- 

 tives of twenty-three States at the Denver Congress, 

 I promised that our countrymen should hear us and 

 that they should listen. By an extended trip through 

 the West and public addresses at leading points, and 

 later by correspondence with incoming governors, 

 members of the National Committee and other pub- 

 lic men, I have sought to prepare the West for its 



part in coming events. I am now .almost ready to 

 open the battle in the East. I have presented our 

 cause to many public men in Washington. I have 

 waited upon Presidential candidates and urged them 

 to hitch their wagons to the star of irrigation. I am 

 now in conference with prominent journalists and 

 other friends of progress in New York. It is not yet 

 time to disclose the plan of campaign. But it is 

 proper that the friends of irrigation should know that 

 their work is not being neglected. Whatever may be 

 accomplished by individual enthusiasm and slender 

 personal resources will be done. Let every man per- 

 form to the best of his ability the work he finds at hand. 



IRRIGATION PRINCIPLES; 



III. ASSOCIATION. IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. 

 BY WM. HAM. HALL, MEM. AM. SOC. C. E. 



THE large and important canal works of Italy, for 

 the most part,had their origin during feudal times, 

 or in periods soon following those times, long ago 

 when only rulers, governments, rich civil and eccle- 

 siastical corporations, wealthy nobles, and large 

 landed proprietprs could afford such expensive enter- 

 prises as they necessarily were. There were no such 

 things as communities or associations of small farmers 

 combining to take water out on their own account. The 

 topography of the country, character of streams, and 

 severity of winter climate (in northern Italy) all forbid 

 the construction of small and cheap works which poor 

 landed proprietors could compass, and made ne- 

 cessary the employment of much capital and a high 

 degree of skill and strong business organization to 

 effect the purpose. Consequently, there are but few 

 small private works of irrigation in Italy, and until 

 necessity, under the civil law, forced it, there were 

 no irrigation associations, for the social and political 

 tendency and influence had been all against such 

 organizations. 



As a legacy from feudal rule in the middle ages, 

 land holdings were much consolidated into few hands : 

 the canals were owned by government, wealthy 

 nobles and ecclesiastical and municipal corporations, 

 who held them as revenue-producing properties. The 

 lands were leased to tenants? the waters were farmed 

 out in bulk to middlemen who made a business of 

 selling and distributing them to the tenant irrigators. 

 The small farmers and tenants were pressed to the wall 

 by this condition of affairs, and out of it came, on the 

 basis of the common ownership of waters, the legisla- 

 tion providing for association of irrigators. 



To end the troubles, the formation of such associa- 

 tions were made compulsory, according to certain 

 general principles of organization; but the details of 

 internal organization were left for each district to 

 determine for itself at the time of formation. Each 

 irrigator and each land owner were made eligible as 

 members. The affirmative action of a majority of 

 the members, representing at the same time a ma- 

 jority area of the property in the district, was required 

 to determine all questions in its control. Thus, the 

 principle of manhood suffrage is coupled directly 

 with that of land area voting, and on this point the 

 system is distinctly a dual one. 



*A11 rights reserved by the author 



The minority is obliged to submit to the will of the 

 majority; and no lands can be withdrawn from a 

 district during the period of time for which it is 

 formed, except by action of the courts and after 

 showing that no interests will suffer thereby. The 

 law made the association of irrigators into districts, 

 obligatory under all works, the old ones as well as 

 those to be built after its passage; so that now all 

 irrigation neighborhoods are formed into districts 

 each deliminated by the extent of irrigation from any 

 one distinct work or unified' group of works. 



SPANISH, FRENCH AND ITALIAN SYSTEMS REVIEWED. 



Reviewing: We find in Spain, France and Italy 

 the three principal civil law irrigation countries of 

 Europe that the association of irrigators, for local 

 control of irrigation affairs, in districts, is made 

 obligatory by-law in almost all cases, no matter how 

 the works are carried out and owned whether by 

 the district itself, by a contracting company, or an 

 individual. The idea is, that the water belongs to 

 the people, however it maybe delivered to them, and 

 they must organize to receive and protect their 

 interests in it. The basis of control rests on the 

 voting of lands, and is arranged in a way as far as 

 possible to favor the small holder. Before any dis- 

 trict is authorized to exercise the full right of eminent 

 domain, or to contract a fixed debt (issue bonds or 

 debentures), its limits, works, projects, and water- 

 rights are subjected to governmental examination 

 and adjustment, and must receive sanction. In 

 every case the government, or state, reserves the 

 power and authority to compel all such districts to 

 pay their debts and meet their obligations; equally 

 protects the interest of the districts, in arranging 

 the terms of concessions to companies which may 

 undertake to deliver water for their irrigation; and 

 provides that works and rights are, at the expiration 

 of fixed periods, to become the property of the dis- 

 trict served, in each case. 



CALIFORNIAN IRRIGATION DISTRICT EXPERIENCE. 



The communal system of irrigation control was 

 introduced into America by the Spanish, and found 

 footing in California by the establishment of the 

 pueblo of Los Angeles, in 1781; and, until the Ameri- 

 can form of city government took its place, this old 



