54 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



west enormous benefits would accrue to the states and to the people of 

 those states and eventually to the whole people of the country if the 

 grazing lands could be leased and the revenue derived therefrom de- 

 voted directly by the states to the construction of irrigation works. 



The true theory for the development of the irrigation resources 

 of the West must be, first: Federal storage reservoirs to conserve 

 the flood waters that are now wasted; second: Federal irrigation 

 works to reclaim the arid public lands, each system to be made ap- 

 purtenant to and sold with the lands irrigated thereby, so that when 

 all the lands under it have been sold the irrigation works will belong 

 to the land; third: Wherever main distributing canals are necessary 

 which are too costly for construction by the co-operative efforts of 

 land-owners, these should be built by the states, not by issuing bonds 

 or creating debts, but out of revenues derived from other sources; 

 fourth: Co-operative distributing systems which should be construct- 

 ed by the land-owners themselves under the organization of land- 

 owners companies in which the stock should be made appurtenant to 

 the land. 



In many of the Western States the leasing of the grazing lands 

 affords the most available source of revenue for the construction by 

 the state of such irrigation works as must be built by it to develop its 

 resources. There is no necessity whatever that the title to the lands 

 should be ceded absolutely to the states to accomplish this purpose or 

 that any risk should be run that lands so ceded will embrace lands 

 that are not grazing lands or which may hereafter become available 

 for agricultural purposes though they may not now be so, or that the 

 land should fall into the hands of owners who would unite them in 

 large ranges to the exclusion of the actual settler and home builder. 

 These risks ought not to be run, but they cannot be avoided under an 

 absolute cession of the lands. 



The resolutions adopted at the Cheyenne Irrigation Congress fa- 

 voring the leasing of the grazing lands states a policy which will ac- 

 complish all the benefits which those who advocate this leasing policy 

 hope to achieve by it, and will at the same time obviate the evils and 

 dangers of unconditional cession, because it provides that leases shall 

 "be subject to right of reclamation by irrigation and of settlement on 

 lands actually cultivated, title to remain in federal government until 

 actual settlement." 



Now, if all will unite on the broad policy outlined in these resolu- 

 tions a great movement can be inaugurated which will accomplish 

 marvels within an incredibly short space of time. There should be no 

 opposition from any source to uniting upon the conservative ground 

 outlined by these resolutions. Let this broad policy be the corner 

 stone upon which to build, and 4hen let all work together with all the 

 aid that can be obtained from either the state or national governments 



