IRRIGATION PRINCIPLES. 



legitimate enterprise for irrigation development of 

 great desert areas, on the basis of district organiza- 

 tion and credit alone, is impracticable. 



Moreover, the conditions which govern this result 

 are present in modified form and lesser degree, only, 

 in a very large proportion of the cases which our 

 country presents tor irrigation enterprise, even where 

 the lands are not strictly "desert" in character. 

 Thus, the point at which it might be said there is 

 sufficient population and enough established value 

 to serve as a basis for legitimate district effort is 

 not found at the limit of purely desert conditions. 

 There may be well established but sparse settlement 

 of an area, and some value to the lands for wheat- 

 growing or grazing purposes, and still neither a 

 population nor a land value sufficient to form a basis 

 for the scheme necessary for the irrigation. 



In such cases, as well as those of wholly unoccupied 

 desert lands, in order to get the people, as well as 

 such money as can be hired for interest only on the 

 basis of established values, a large proportionate 

 amount of capital must first be invested to create 

 the margin on which mere hired or employed capital 

 may be had. This means, unavoidably, the pre- 

 cedence of speculation for profit, as distinct, from 

 mere investment for interest. In the one case, the 

 capital manages the initial enterprise to make profit 

 out of the result of development; in the other case 

 money is simply employed on bonds as security, Out 

 is managed by the community. The broad fact is 

 that the conditions under which pioneer irrigation 

 has to be developed are generally such as do not 

 attract mere investment capital. 



The inference is plain. While it is indeed desir- 

 able for all irrigation enterprise to be so organized 

 that the control of works and water supply will 

 untimately come to the irrigators, it is generally 

 necessary that capital be interested in the develop- 

 ment on a speculative basis, primarily, up to that 

 point where the lands are settled and values estab- 

 lished. In other words, the element of speculation 

 generally, cannot be ignored in irrigation develop- 

 ment, unless the government, Federal or State, ad- 

 vances its credit and its paternal management to 

 bring the lands under irrigation command in advance 

 of settlement. 



Enterprise speculative enterprise must be con- 

 nected with the great majority of irrigation schemes 

 in order that they succeed. The construction of 

 great works for the conservation and delivery of 

 waters to make fruitful vast areas of land on which 

 people cannot, except at a great disadvantage, live 

 without irrigation is surely a legitimate and worthy 

 field for the employment of capital. If money and 

 business organization and management which go 

 with it cannot find profit and welcome in such em- 

 ployment, to what class of enterprise may it with 

 confidence turn? Given: Conditions under which 

 the individual man cannot possibly construct the 

 means to make his living out of lands, and an aggre- 

 gation of men cannot exist and carry out works with- 

 out considerable money on which to live and provide 

 materials for works which if constructed would not 

 profit them until the lapse of time and the incoming 

 of many more people, but in which, after such time, 

 the initial profit in enchanced values would be great, 

 if business management has been good. Surely 

 these are conditions under which speculative capital 

 and organization should be admitted, welcomed and 

 protected in legitimate gain. 



If such capital has already gone into irrigation 

 enterprise in a way to oppress settlers, monopolize 



lands and waters, or otherwise to the public detri- 

 ment, it is the fault of laws which have permitted such 

 abuses. Such laws should be amended and legisla- 

 tion provided under which legitimate speculative 

 enterprise in the field of irrigation development may 

 prosper to the good of the settlers and the country at 

 large. 



A PRIMARY CONCLUSION. 



Recalling now the five great parts necessary to be 

 brought together for the success of irrigation putting 

 them briefly, water, land, works, management, irriga- 

 tors their successful uniting is not to be accomplished 

 in our country by either general government or 

 State action alone in any case. That both Federal 

 and State action is necessary should be conspicuously 

 apparent from what has been herein written; but 

 beyond the legitimate and necessary steps to control 

 and promote enterprise for social and economic 

 reasons, and to conserve the public water supply, 

 neither State nor Federal authority should go. This 

 special point is worthy of a separate paper for it has 

 a history. 



Neither are the five great parts of irrigation exist- 

 ence to be successfully brought together by commu- 

 nity action alone. In some cases there are agricultural 

 neighborhoods already well settled upon the basis of 

 dry farming or a crude system of irrigation, and 

 where it is desirable to introduce a better system. 

 Here are two of the parts already united the lands 

 and the people sufficient for a fair measure of suc- 

 cess in irrigation itself, and the elements of value on 

 which to hire mvesment capital ought, consequently, 

 to be present, so as to leave outside speculative en- 

 terprise out of consideration. But control, on the 

 part of the State, cannot be dispensed with, for, 

 though some enterprises of the kind may fully and 

 economically succeed without control, a system 

 based on association without control is so far open to 

 abuse that it will inevitably be wrecked and the good 

 applications will suffer with the bad. 



Neither can we expect that land, water, manage- 

 ment and irrigators can or will be brought together, 

 as they ought to be in hundreds of cases scattered all 

 over our country, by the intervention of speculative 

 enterprise alone. 1 do not qualify this, and say suc- 

 cessfully brought together. For, although there may 

 be instances of success, as a whole, irrigation develop- 

 ment, as a great economic progress, will fail if left 

 wholly to speculative enterprise. This system also is 

 open to abuse to that degree, and human nature, as 

 represented by the necessary irrigators, is independ- 

 ent and perverse to that extent which will defeat 

 enterprise, in the long run and broadly throughout the 

 country, if it does not accept the protecting action of 

 " control " and the smoothing influence of " associa- 

 tion." 



L One would think by that we had by this time 

 sufficient experience in irrigation development to 

 make all parties concerned take an interest in the 

 fundamentals of the problem, to show them that 

 practice and action cannot with success fly in the 

 face of principle, that mere temporary policy will not 

 in the long run win. Irrigation enterprise is a most 

 worthy class of effort ; but it is a many-sided pro- 

 cess, easily flanked. There is no single irrigation 

 enterprise so good that it cannot be crippled by out- 

 side influence, if the management be not experienced, 

 strong and wise, under any system of law or organiza- 

 tion we now have. In another article on promotion, 

 management and engineering of enterprises, I shall 

 bring the general subject of Irrigation Principles to 

 a close. 



To be continued. 



