284 



I BE IRRIGATION AGE. 



requiring owners to cap their wells when 

 the water is not actually needed for a use- 

 ful purpose. 



There is more of truth than 

 fiction, more of practicality 

 than poetry in the representations of Mr. 

 George H. Maxwell, Executive Chairman 

 of the National Irrigation Association 

 when he says: 



"It would accomplish the colonization 

 of the West, and -the creation of a great 

 market for manufacturing: it would result 

 in the employment of labor, the develop- 

 ment of mining, in assistance to naviga- 

 tion, the prevention of floods, and in relief 

 for the congested condition of our cities in 

 supplying material for thousands of rural 

 homes. 



The great stimulation of business and 

 production incident to the colonization of 

 the Middle West, where men went out and 

 took up from 160 to 640 acres each, and 

 made homes for themselves, would be 

 small compared with what would occur if 

 100,000,000 acres of arid land, which would 

 be inexhaustibly fertile, were given water 

 and divided into 10 to 40-acre highly cul- 

 tivated farms." 



Eastern Lead- The defeat of the great 



crs Less 



Arrogant. River and Harbor Bill, car- 



rying its $50,000,000 of appropriation, has 

 caused no little bitterness of spirit among 

 those who had favored the resulting im- 

 provements to the various rivers, creeks, 

 and harbors included in the bill. 



The suggestion has been made that East- 

 ern men who have been favorably disposed 

 to the irrigation measures proposed for 

 the West will be alienated therefrom by 

 this method, <which has been denounced as 

 a dog-in-the-manger policy on the part of 

 Senator Carter, who held the floor of the 

 Senate for the last twelve hours of its ses- 

 sion, and thus prevented the passage of 

 the bill, because, they say, the House re- 

 fused to allow the irrigation amendments. 

 Senator Carter expressly stated that he 

 undertook the defeat of the measure with- 

 out any motive of revenge, but because he 

 believed it to be his patriotic duty to work 

 his utmost to prevent such wasteful and 

 extravagant expenditures, and to draw the 



line against such abuse as had crept into a 

 policy of national improvement. 



That the River and Harbor Bills, which 

 have come to be generally known as "Gov- 

 ernment pork bills," have grown to be out- 

 rageous extravagances, is well recognized, 

 and it is probable that the defeat of this 

 measure will be a warning to Congress to 

 in future eleminate these ridiculous bo- 

 called national aids to navigation where a 

 channel to be improved starts with only 

 six inches of water (as was the case in one 

 instance in the defeated bill), and to frame 

 the bills on the lines of improvement to the 

 great harbors and waterways which really. 

 affect the whole United States, and at the 

 same time to recognize the sentiment of 

 the country, which demands that the great 

 arid area of the West, lying like a vast 

 fortune in trust, shall be developed and. 

 made to contribute its share to the nationa 

 wealth. 



Mostly Gov- 



connection with the much- 



eminent Land.discussed proposition for th 

 Government to provide storage reservoirs 

 for irrigation in the West, it is interesting- 

 to note the large proportion of public land 

 yet remaining in some of the Western 

 States and Territories. Jn Arizona, 76 

 per cent, of the land belongs to the Gen 

 eral Government; of California, with all its 

 great private developement, 58 per cent, is 

 public land: of Montana. 78 per cent, re- 

 mains public, in Utah, 89 per cent, belongs 

 to the United States: in Wyoming, 86 per 

 cent; in Idaho, 89 per cent., and in Nevada 

 95 per cent, belongs to the Federal Govern- 

 ment. 



With title to all this vast acreage yet 

 remaining in the General Government, it 

 would seem to be the part of wisdom for 

 that Government, to provide the means for 

 its improvement and settlement. 



Differs from "The forestry and irrigation 



the American 



Way. problems in almost all the 



countries of the old world are solved by the 

 respective governments. The compara- 

 tively small country of Sweden," says Na- 

 tional Irrigation, "owna nearly 20,000,000 

 a^res of forest lands, the income from 

 which maintains numerous forestry school 



