PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



NOT A SPECULATION COMMODITY. 

 The time has gone by in the West for ir- 

 rigation -water to be used as a commodity 

 for speculation. In the early days the ti- 

 tle to water supply or the prospect of get- 

 ting it was used as a means to enhance 

 values and in many cases to sell land to 

 strangers themselves eager to invest ; but 

 now water is needed to legitimately irrigate 

 land so that it will yield its products which 

 must be sold in the face of constantly-in- 

 creasing competition. Water, therefore, 

 should no longer be used as a speculative 

 medium. It should be made available to 

 the consumer at the actual cost of the con- 

 struction and operation of the necessary 

 distribution works, and without cost for 

 reservoir storage. It has been generally 

 demonstrated, during the past ten years, 

 that there is but little profit in private 

 storage enterprises, for, while the advan- 

 tage to the community is great, the owners 

 of the plant do not reap the full benefit. 

 The practicable and fair method and the 

 only one which will be absolutely success- 

 ful is the building of reservoirs by either 

 the General or State Governments, wiMi 

 the free use of the waters stored to the land- 

 owners. The proposition is exactly simi- 

 lar to that in which the public has the free 

 use of and benefit from the improvements 

 made by the Government on some harbor, 

 the dredging of some river for navigation, 

 or the establishment of some light-house 

 or danger signal. 



A UNITED DEMAND. 

 Every great project of any age and in 

 any country has always been attained 

 through united effort. "In union there is 

 strength!" "United we stand, divided we 

 f Jl !" These mottoes are peculiarly appli- 



cable to present conditions in the West. 

 For many years the whole Western coun- 

 try has been trying to get irrigation through 

 one method and another. That the meth- 

 ods employed have not been as entirely 

 satisfactory as the benefits which arise 

 from irrigation would suggest is shown not 

 only by the fact that over 70,000,000 acres 

 of productive land subject to irrigation de- 

 development are yet arid, but by the evi- 

 dent reluctance of capital to enter this 

 field. After much wrangling and cross- 

 fire fighting for the past ten years, the 

 leading men, newspapers, congresses, com- 

 mercial and organized bodies in the West 

 have ''gotten together" on an irrigation 

 policy. Granting that the West is a unit 

 in favor of irrigation, and a unit in favor 

 of a definite irrigation policy, there is yet 

 the opposition of the entire East to over- 

 come, so that the absolute necessity for 

 unity of action and demand is evident. 

 The Los Angeles Times, than which there 

 is no more capable nor resolute advocate 

 of Western development and irrigation, 

 calls attention to this policy and the great 

 necessity for entire harmony of purpose 

 and action in working to secure advance- 

 ment through irrigation. 



The policy referred to is that storage 

 reservoirs should be built by the national 

 Government under the Kiver and Harbor 

 appropriations, as recommended by the 

 Engineer Corps, and that the public graz- 

 ing lands should be leased, but without 

 cession of the title to the States, and the 

 rentals devoted to irrigation development. 

 Heretofore the West has been unable to se- 

 cure any Eastern recognition along these 

 lines because it has been divided and an- 

 tagonistic, one section wanting one thing 

 and another something else. But now or- 



