304 



THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



these streams at this time is the highest 

 possible measure of reclamation without 

 the storage of storm water. The flood 

 waters or freshets are of no value, for they 

 are not available when needed. 



The question now comes from different 

 sources, "Why should the government un- 

 dertake the irrigation of these lands?" 

 and the question is generally accompanied 

 by the suggestion, ''Why not leave it for 

 private enterprise?" There are conclusive 

 answers for both suggestion and question: 



The limit of private enterprise has al- 

 ready been reached. 



Small areas of land bordering on run- 

 ning water available for irrigation may be 

 easily kept under cultivation by the small 

 supply of water, but nothing adequate and 

 systematic can be accomplished by private 

 parties. 



Most projects of the kind have proved 

 financial failures, although as shown in 

 the report of the United States Geological 

 Survey, many bankrupt enterprises have 

 created great values and conferred great 

 public benefits. 



The financial failure of these private 

 ventures has been due mainly to the great 

 cost, the slow returns, and to the fact that 

 the projectors could not own and control 

 both the land and the water supply. All 

 of which are vital points in the considera- 

 tion of this subject. This may be done 

 by the government through its original 

 ownership of the lands and its greater 

 facilities and more ample meano for the 

 construction of reservoirs and irrigation 

 works. In these circumstances we find 

 abundant reason why the reclamation and 

 irrigation of these arid lands are properly 

 within the scope of government work. 



The government owns 6,000,000 acres 

 of arid and semi-arid lands, and it is the 

 duty of the government to open these 

 lands to settlement. In order to do this 

 all thit is necessary is to save and store 

 the snow and storm waters and provide 

 means for conveying them upon the land, 



in order that they may be within the reach 

 of the home seekers who settle these 

 lands. This the government can and 

 should do. We have found reasons why 

 private enterprise could never accomplish 

 this, and we can find good and sufficient 

 reasons why the state could not do it. 



In the first place the states do not own 

 the land in question. In the second place 

 if the national government could turn over 

 to the states the ownership of these lands, 

 interstate disputes would arise concern- 

 ing the waters of some river which are 

 used by two states for irrigation purposes. 

 Such a case is at present in litigation be- 

 tween the states of Colorado and Kansas, 

 in the supreme court of the United States. 

 Again disputes would arise over the ques- 

 tion of diverting the wateis from a water- 

 shed, the whole of which does not lie in 

 either state. All of these hitches in the 

 machinery of systematic irrigation would 

 be overcome if placed under the control of 

 the national government. 



Another great question arises, "How 

 are these works to be paid for?" The ir- 

 rigation bill concerning this provides 

 that the already reclaimed lands shall be 

 sold to the actual settler in small tracts of 

 not less than 40 acres, and not exceeding 

 160 acres, toe price to be fixed by the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior as to be payable in 

 ten yearly instalments, so that the money 

 expended in the construction of one work 

 on the lands just disposed of, will return 

 and be used again on the construction of 

 another work, thus creating a revolving 

 fund, which renders the scheme self-sus- 

 taining, the required end being accom- 

 plished without additional taxation on the 

 people. 



"How do we kuow that the reclaimed 

 portions will be settled ?" 



When we consider that in 1850 our 

 population was 23,000,000, in 1880 50,- 

 000,000, and in 1900 75,000,000, it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that in the next fifty 

 years it will be more than doubled and at 



