THE IRRIGATION AGE. 5 



that all parties entitled to water are included in the decree of the 

 court. Since there is no law to compel an interested party to join the 

 suit it is rarely possible to have all represented either as plaintiffs or 

 defendants. There is usually a third party, viz. : the outsiders. And 

 each individual outsider reserves that privilege of bringing suit at 

 any time against all the others if need be. This keeps the judicial 

 mill continuously at work, for there are always fresh grists to grind. 

 I have not come here to belittle the irrigated West, for I have the 

 most implicit confidence in its future. I believe that no section of the 

 Union can compete with us in the quality and quantity of the products 

 of the soil. Such a statement, however, does not imply that we have 

 no hindrances. There are complicated problems yet to be solved upon 

 whose right solution depends our destiny, and it is the duty of every 

 well wisher of the West to strive 10 remove, if possible, the causes 

 that retard its progress. 



We are all interested in Federal Legislation in be naif of irriga- 

 tion, but spending our time in begging money and lands from Con- 

 gress is not conducive to home interests. One of the surest means, it 

 seems to me, of getting the good will of Congress, is to show the Na- 

 tion what we can do with the laud and water we now possess. The 

 agricultural interests of Arid America can only be prosperous when 

 the welfare and rights of each individual irrigator are carefully con- 

 sidered and protected. Contented and prosperous homes are the right 

 kind of building stones for the future structure. 



Xow a careful diagnosis of the actual conditions in most of the 

 States and Territories would reveal the following facts: The water 

 resource for the most part are unknown; no careful observations have 

 ever been made of the behavior of streams: no records are available to 

 show how much water has been appropriated and used, and how much 

 still remains unappropriated in the channels of each stream. The 

 carrying capacities of thousands of irrigating ditches are unknown; 

 water has been diverted for nearly half a century with no record kept 

 of what became of it or what purpose it served; the majority of the 

 head gates are not fit to control w r ater, and few measuring devises 

 have been inserted: through the absence of an efficient administra; ive 

 system, some ditches receive too much water and others too little; 

 guess- w,>rk in the division of water begets dissentions among the 

 users. Comparatively .few water rights have baen adjudicated and 

 those that have b?en settled by the ordinary courts have cost much 

 more than the decisions are worth, and lastly but rot least, the irri- 

 gated West has spent millions of dollars in water suits, and net re- 

 turns from this investment are not represented by more wealth, more 

 lands or more water, but by ten fold more water suits. 



Now there must be a remedy for this state of affairs and that 

 remedy, I assure you, consists in wise State Legislation. It will not 

 do for our law makers to indicate in a slipshod manner how men shall 



