256 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and streams in the east, but unwilling to 

 spend a dollar for reservoirs in the West. 



They, no doubt, thought the senate 

 would yield, as it did on the Indian bill 

 and the sundry civil bill,- but in this in- 

 stance they reckoned. without their host. 



The whole river and harbor bill was de- 

 feated in the senate by Senator Carter, of 

 Montana. He held the floor in the senate 

 for the last twelxe hours of the session, 

 and mercilessly exposed the methods by 

 which the bill had been made up and the 

 wasteful prodigality with which-it appro- 

 priated millions upon millions for unim- 

 portant or impracticable schemes. 



The arbitrary and iinreasoning opposi- 

 tion of the chairman of the house commit- 

 tees cannot continue for long to stand in 

 the way of the reclamation of the West. 

 The sentiment of the country favors pro- 

 gress, and this sentiment is rising like an 

 ocean tide, slowly it may be, but steadily 

 and surely, and it will sweep away with 

 an irresistible force the opposition of a 

 few men who seem willing to use their 

 temporary power to stultify their party. 



But between now and the next session 

 tireless and unceasing work must be done 

 to broaden the influence and extend the 

 organization of the National Irrigation 

 Association. Success can only come to 

 this great movement through the wide- 

 spread campaign of education and organi- 

 zation which this association is carrying 

 on. 



Impounding During the discussion of the 

 irrigation 1 * River and Harbor bill in the 

 House of Representatives, Mr. 

 Mondell, of Wyoming, suggested that less 

 money be expended on the Mississippi and 

 Missouri rivers in constructing works for 

 the prevention of overflow, and that it 

 would be better to expend the money in 

 constructing dams and reservoirs to re- 

 ceive the water of the tributaries of those 

 rivers in the arid region and impound it 

 for purposes of irrigation. 



Nearly fifty years ago Messrs. Humph- 

 reys and Abbott, officers in the engineer 

 corps of the army, were appointed to in- 

 vestigate the physics and hydraulics of the 

 Mississippi river with a view of devising 



the best plan to prevent overflow of that 

 river and its tributaries. Among the sub- 

 jects to which they gave attention was the 

 construction of reservoirs to hold back the 

 water produced by the melting of the snow 

 in the mountains near the heads of the 

 Yellowstone, Platt, Arkansas and other 

 tributaries which contribute so largely 

 to the volume that debouches into the sea 

 through the channel of the Mississippi. 



Their report was in substances that the 

 plan would have some effect in preventing 

 overflow nothing was said in regard to 

 the value of impounding the water for irri- 

 gation purposes. It was a subject that was 

 notthenin the.minds of the people, as there 

 was such a vast unoccupied public domain 

 that did not require irrigation to make it 

 productive. The region liable to overflow 

 without preventive works compromises 

 about 20000,000 acres, and the great' 

 thought was to secure it to occupation and 

 cultivation. 



For nearly twenty years there has been 

 a Mississippi river commission, created to 

 secure those 20,01)0,000 acres against sub- 

 mergation, and annually a considerable 

 sum has been appropriated to carry out the 

 plans the commission has devised. The 

 plans comprise building dykes to narrow 

 the channel, where there was shoal water 

 (and it is only shoal where the channel is 

 broad) on the well known principle that 

 narrowing the channel increases the velo- 

 city of the current; and its erosive power 

 at the bottom, revetting the banks where 

 necessary to prevent caving, and in low 

 places building levees. The^e works have 

 been of value in preventing inundation, 

 and in facilitating navigation. These ex- 

 penditures have been made under the 

 constitutional power to promote the gen- 

 eral welfare by aiding navigation and con- 

 sequently commerce. 



It seems logical that if congress has 

 power to protect a section against too. 

 much water, it has like power to aid a sec" 

 tion that hts not enough that if it is ne- 

 cessary to construct works to preserve 

 land to cultivation by keeping water from 

 it, there is equal power to conserve water 

 to be supplied to land that will otherwise 

 remain nonp oductive. 



