THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



347 



whatever and failing in this he tried to be- 

 little the work of Elwood Mead, but was 

 roasted by everybody to a dark brown 

 finish. Denver Field and Farm. 



Ceo. H.Maxwell The IRRIGATION AGE has 

 Etal - recently been brought into 



contact with some of the men, who claim 

 the credit of having secured legislation by 

 Congress extending aid in the construc- 

 tion of irrigation works. Through conver- 

 sation with those men we have become ac- 

 quainted with some of the more active 

 spirits, and have discovered why they 

 should be active and what will be the prob- 

 able outcome of national irrigation, if the 

 work continues to be manipulated as it is 

 at present. We believe our understand- 

 ing of the situation is correct, if not, we 

 shall be glad at any time to receive sug- 

 gestions or criticisms. "We reg'ard nation- 

 al aid in irrigation to be essential to the 

 development of any arid country. If the 

 needs of the west had been fairly consid- 

 ered in the legislative halls of our govern- 

 ment fifty years ago or if the people of the 

 east had understood the conditions exist- 

 ing west of the Missouri, we believe funds 

 would have been forth-coming from the 

 National treasury, when the home-steader 

 first ventured beyond the limits of the re- 

 gion enjoying ample rain-fall. The strug- 

 gle for a livelihood, which confronted the 

 western pioneer would, under such condi- 

 tions, compare favorably with the hard- 

 ships, which were faced by the early set- 

 tlers of the more humid eastern states. As 

 it is, our western farmers have been com- 

 pelled to fight their battles single-handed. 

 They have had but little protection from 

 the states or the government, when the 

 water supply has become short. As a 

 last recourse they have usually been com- 

 pelled to resort to the courts, and have 

 spent much more in an attempt to protect 

 their rights than in the construction of ir- 

 rigation works, for diverting water from 

 the streams and distributing it over their 

 farms. The government has furnished 



them title for their land, but water, and 

 not land, is the valuable thing in an arid 

 country. Transfer the water from one 

 tract to another and land values fluctuate 

 accordingly. 



Wise men from the East who could have 

 made themselves acquainted with irriga- 

 tion in foreign countries, became the le- 

 gal advisers who conducted these suits and 

 have taken from the farmer a large part of 

 the profits of his farm. Nearly all the 

 principles of irrigation law, which are rec- 

 ognized in older irrigated countries where 

 water users are protected, have been dis- 

 regarded. The legal lights, profiting from 

 this kind of litigation, were not slow to 

 see what a field was opening before them. 

 They have used their influence to block 

 reform in irrigation law in our state legis- 

 latures, fearing that the farmer, under 

 more favorable conditions, would no longer 

 contribute to their income. 



This was the situation when a new legal 

 light appeared on the scene. Not a great 

 many years ago, a young man named 

 George H. Maxwell was clerk of the court 

 in Oakland, Cal. He studied law there, 

 and was admitted to the bar. The irriga- 

 tion lawyer in California holds an enviable 

 position as far as personal pecuniary ad- 

 vantages are concerned. But few irrigated 

 states fall further from their duty of pro- 

 tecting the irrigator than does California. 

 Mr. Maxwell saw his opportunity and with- 

 out attempting to reform state laws or aid 

 the irrigator, he became the representa- 

 tive of large interests which, through poor 

 laws badly administered, were able to se- 

 cure a monopoly of the water of a number 

 of streams of the state. While represent- 

 ing one of these companies, it happened 

 that it would be an advantage to the cor- 

 poration if the Wright act could be re- 

 pealed. The constitutionality of the act 

 was therefore questioned and the case fin- 

 ally came before the United States Su- 

 preme Court, where Mr. Maxwell repre- 

 sented his employers in court. The suit 



