252 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and second, defects in the law which cannot be eliminated under any dis- 

 trict system, and which forces the conclusion that if we are to have pub- 

 lic ownership and control of irrigation works we can only get it under a 

 system of direct state construction, ownership, operation and control; and 

 the longer any attempt is made to patch up and work along under any 

 form of a district system, just that long will the ultimate purposes and 

 benefits of public irrigation works be delayed. 



. The first immediate defect in the district system is that it delegates 

 to local boards of supervisors and district directors the power and duty 

 to create districts and plan and construct irrigation works on a scale so 

 extensive that it cannot be successfully done without superior engineer- 

 ing skill both in planning the systems and in their construction; and it 

 delegates to local boards of directors the duty of borrowing and dis- 

 bursing vast sums of money which requires financial training and skill 

 of the highest order. 



Experience has shown that it has been, is and always will be an utter 

 impossibility to elect, as members of these local boards, men who have 

 the necessary knowledge or experience to cope with these engineering 

 and financial problems. These powers and duties, if they are ever to be 

 satisfactorily performed, must be vested in competent state officers, 

 commissioners of irrigation and engineers. 



The idea now advanced by some who cling to the district scheme, 

 that the state can control the operations of dishonest officers, is as great 

 a mistake as that the district officers could perform the duties in ques- 

 tion without control. If the state must assume the responsibility it can 

 only safely do so under a system which will vest in state officers the 

 whole duty of planning, constructing and operating the works. 



If the credit of the state must be involved, it must raise the money 

 directly on its own bonds, and either own the works in perpetuity, and 

 administer them as government works, or take a lien directly on the lands 

 irrigated in exchange for a water right from the state, to be paid for on 

 terms which may be agreed on with the land- owner before the state be- 

 gins the work of construction. 



Another defect of the district system which can only be obviated by 

 a state system is that the bonded debt of a district must necessarily, be a 

 blanket encumbrance over a whole district. No man's share of the debt 

 can be segregated, so that he can pay what he owes and be clear of debt. 

 He must stand or fall with the whole community. If the scheme goes 

 wrong, and the burdens on some are greater than the benefits, and they 

 prefer to abandon their land rather than carry the load, as has so often 

 happened in this state, those who remain are burdened so much the 

 heavier, and no land owner can even tell in advance what encumbrance 

 may be put upon his property, or how much he may have to pay to work 

 out under.the scheme. This uncertainty operates to discourage new 

 settlers from'locating in irrigation districts and the system thus defeats 

 its own ostensible purpose, which is to encourage settlement. 



