THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. X. 



CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1896. 



No. 5, 



PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



Tlte Wright The all important deci- 

 Decision sion on the constitution- 

 rendered. a ii ty o f the Wright Irri- 

 gation District Law has been rendered, and 

 as this comes from the Supreme Court of 

 the United States there can be no further 

 dispute as to main points of the law, that 

 the use of water for irrigation is a public 

 use. The decision in the case of the Fall- 

 brook Irrigation District vs. Maria King 

 Bradley, et al. has been awaited with great 

 anxiety for many months. After passing 

 out of the jurisdiction of the State Courts 

 it was taken to the United States Supreme 

 Court on a question of constitution- 

 ality and attracted wide attention among 

 Eastern people, who were just beginning 

 to realize the importance of irrigation, on 

 account of ex-President Harrison deliver- 

 ing an argument in its favor. The case 

 was closed about a year ago and the de- 

 cision expected immediately but through 

 some peculiarity of the Supreme Court it 

 has been withheld. It is a matter affect- 

 ing bonds with a face value of about ten 

 millions of dollars, and applies not only to 

 California but to many other states, 

 which followed California's lead and 

 adopted the district system. 



The A portion of the decision as 

 Decision, rendered by Justice Peckharn 

 on November 16 follows: 



To provide for the irrigation of lands in states 

 where there is no color of necessity therefor, 

 within any fair meaning of ihe term, and 

 simply for the purpose of gratifying the taste 

 of the owner, or his desire to enter upon the 

 cultivation of an entirely new kind of crop, not 

 necessary for the purpose of rendering the or- 

 dinary cultivation of land reasonably remu- 

 nerative, might be regarded by the courts as an 

 improper exerciee of legislative will, and the 

 use might not be held to be public in any con- 



stitutional sense, no matter how many owners 

 were interested in the scheme. 



On the other hand, in a state like California, 

 which confessedly embraces millions of acres 

 of arid lands, an act of the legislature providing 

 for their irrigation might well be regarded as 

 an act devoting the water to a public use, and 

 therefore as a valid exercise of the legislative 

 power. The people of California and the mem- 

 bers of her legislature must in the nature of 

 things be more familiar with the facts and cir- 

 cumstances which surround the subject, and 

 with the necessities and the occasion for the 

 irrigation of the lands, than anyone who is a 

 stranger to her soil. This knowledge and 

 familiarity must have their due weight with the 

 state courts, which are to pass upon the question 

 of public use in the light of the facts which 

 surround the subject in their own state. 



California For these reasons, while not re- 

 State gardiug the matter as concluded 

 Courts by these various declarations 

 Upheld. and acts and decisions of the 

 people and courts of California, yet we, in con- 

 sideration of the subject, accord to and treat 

 them with very great respect and we regard the 

 decisions as embodying the deliberate judgment 

 and matured thought of the courts of that state 

 on this question. Viewing the subject for our- 

 selves and in the light of these circumstances, 

 we have very little difficulty in coming to the 

 same conclusion reached by the courts in Cali- 

 fornia. The use must be regarded as a public 

 use or else it would seem to follow that no 

 general scheme of irrigation can be formed or 

 carrie 1 into effect. 



To irrigate and thus to bring into possible 

 cultivation these large masses of otherwise 

 worthless lands would seem to be a public pur- 

 pose and a matter of public interest; not con- 

 fined to the land owner, or even to any one sec- 

 tion of the state. The fact that the ue of 

 water is limited to the land owner is n t, there- 

 fore, a fatal objection to the legislation. It is 

 not essential that the entire community, or even 

 any considerable portion thereof, should directly 

 enjoy or participate in an improvement in order 

 to constitute a public use. All land owners in 

 the district have the right to a proportionate 

 share of the water, and no land owner is favored 

 above his fellow in his right to the use of the 



The entire contents of THE IRRIGATION AGE are copyrighted . 



