146 



THE 1RRIGA TION A GE. 



the Filipinos to be governed by a country 

 whose laws they do not make and in -vhose 

 affairs they have no voice, than for Amer- 

 ican women (east of the Mississippi) to be 

 obliged to obey the laws and pay the taxes 

 of a country in whose government they 

 have no voice? Is not this "taxation with- 

 out representation?" The old saying is 

 that "Charity begins at home," and an- 

 other equally true one is that "we should 

 be just, before we are generous." This is 

 not intended as a plea for woman's suffrage 

 but simply to draw attention to the fact 

 that the Constitution is not now literally 

 obeyed. 



Territories have never had equal rights 

 with states. J. B. McMasters, in an ad- 

 mirable article, in the December Forum on 

 "Annexation and Universal Suffrage" 

 says: "The Constitution is made for the 

 states, not for the territories, and does not 

 extend to them. What else is the mean- 

 ing of the words, 'The Congress shall have 

 power to * * * make all needful rules 

 and regulations respecting the territory 

 or other property belonging to the United 

 States?' Is not the grant unlimited?" 

 Does it not imply the right to acquire 

 territory? 



If the actions of the goverment in the 

 past may be taken as the established pre- 

 cedent, then the Constitution is intended 

 to apply to the states only; the territories 

 belong to, but are not a part of, the United 

 States and Congress has a right to give 

 them the government it deems most expe- 

 dient for them. Instead of arguing for 

 the conferring of what might, perhaps, be 

 a doubtful blessing, upon the Filipinos, 

 would it not be wiser to devise measures 

 looking to their immediate welfare? This 

 is our manifest duty. Congress is bound 

 to provide the best possible government 

 for these people and they should be under 

 the protection of the United States. 



As suggested in a previous issue, a good 

 plan would be to establish a "colonial 

 bureau," whose duty it should be to inves- 

 tigate the conditions and needs of our ter- 

 ritories, for they differ materially from 

 those of our own country, and devise 

 means for remedying existing evils. 

 If the term "colonial" offend some other 

 might be substituted, provided only that 

 the object remain the same. 



Too "Not how much, but how 



Much well, " should be the motto of 



the irrigator; not how much 

 water you use but how you use it and the 

 cultivation the ground receives after- 

 wards is what counts. The general 

 tendency of the beginner is to use 

 too much water, his feeling being that in 

 order to "get his money's worth" he must 

 flood the land. Any suggestion to the con- 

 trary is regarded with distrust by many, 

 says Mr. Whitney in his Bulletin on Yel- 

 lowstone Valley, "as a possible device of 

 the ditch management to restrict the use 

 of water in order that it may go further 

 and supply a larger number of customers." 

 This evil was spoken of by T, S. Van 

 Dyke, in the January number of the AGE, 

 in his article on "Unprofitable Irrigation 

 Works, "in which he says: "The kind- 

 ness of companies in putting no restric- 

 tions on the use of water before increas- 

 ing settlement called for them has been an 

 injury in almost every case. Thousands 

 of acres have thus been alkalied and dam- 

 aged in various ways." Alkali soil that 

 is soil in which there is such a great deposit 

 of the alkaline salts as to render it acid 

 has become so common in the irrigated 

 districts, that it was deemed advisable by 

 the Department of Agriculture, to make 

 investigations concerning this evil, with 

 the view of remedying it if possible. It 

 was with this end in view that the work 

 was undertaken by Hon. Milton Whitney, 

 Chief of Division of Soils, making the first 

 examination in Yellowstone Valley, near 

 Billings, Mont., acting upon the advice of 

 the land commissioner of the Northern 

 Pacific Railroad at St. Paul, Minn., in se- 

 lecting this section, as he stated the rise 

 of alkali in the soils threatened serious 

 trouble. 



The results of the investigation is em- 

 bodied in a handsomely illustrated bulle- 

 tin, copies of which were kindly fur- 

 nished the AGE by Mr. Whitney. 



"It must not appear to those unacquaint- 

 ed with the subject," said Mr. Whitney in 

 his introduction, ''that the use of alkali 

 and the disastrous effects following the 

 application of irrigation waters is peculiar 

 to the Yellowstone Valley. These are 

 problems which have to be confronted in 

 all arid regions the world over and where 



