GOVERNMENT VERSUS PRIVATE 

 IRRIGATION. 



That the government will undertake a complete system of irriga- 

 tion works, ultimately covering all possible territory, is a policy as 

 sure to be adopted as the sun is sure to rise, the question being simply 

 one of time. 



There is no likelihood that the government will ever construct 

 reservoirs where private capital can be enlisted to do the work, bufr as 

 each year adds to our experience on water problems, we begin to see 

 that these private water schemes are generally too serious a menace 

 to public welfare. No land in the world can afford to pay so high a 

 price for water as the orange orchards of Redlands. One would 

 imagine that capital would have rushed in long ago to pick up the 

 scattered fragments of the Bear Valley Company, to have built dams 

 in the Santa Ana Basin, and to have developed water at other points. 

 A water famine has stared Redlands in the face for years. The 

 extortionate price of $3, and even $4, an inch for a day's flow of water 

 has been considered an inevitable sequence to a dry season, and has 

 now become a fact, yet comparatively little has been done to avert the 

 disaster. The loss on the coming crop, already affected by water 

 shortage, is estimated to be far in excess of what the necessary dams 

 would have cost. Why has the project not been taken up by capitalists? 

 Why has Redlands stood like one paralyzed? Simply and solely 

 because progress has been and is today blocked by sympathizers of 

 the Bear Valley Company and the holders of the company's securities. 

 No matter what these securities may be, the* owners of them faintly 

 hope that something may ultimately be realized from their interests, 

 and so desire to place no obstacle in the way of a reorganization. 

 The citizens are beginning to realize that their interests are not 

 identical with the security holders of the Bear Valley Company. 



Since the failure of the Company, some years ago, the loss to the 

 State along the Bear Valley system cannot be computed at less than 

 one-quarter to one-half million dollars annually, and this is but one of 

 many private schemes which have wretchedly failed, all of which are 

 now bringing discredit upon irrigation development. As George H. 

 Maxwell, an eminent irrigation authority, says: 



"Litigation, uncertainty and deception as to water supplies and 

 water rights have created widespread distrust and fear of settlement 

 on irrigated lands. Every western colonist whose hopes have been 

 blasted by any of these causes has warned a whole community in the 

 East to beware of risking a similar disaster by coming West. 



