38 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Judge M. S. Bailey, of Colorado, has de- 

 Colorado cided that no company or corporation 

 Decision. can remove water from one county to 



another in that State. In this particular 

 case, which was a suit brought by the Bessemer Ditch 

 Company, of Pueblo, to remove one foot of water 

 from the Tasenne ditch, near Salida, the court decided 

 against the former. This was a test case, and had it 

 been decided in the Bessemer Ditch Company's favor 

 100 feet of water would have been taken from Chaffee 

 County to the headgates of the La Junta Ditch Com- 

 pany, which, it is said, had made arangements with 

 various farmers to purchase all the water to be re- 

 moved through the channels of the Arkansas River 

 to southern Colorado. This would have been a serious 

 blow to Chaffee County, as within a few years what 

 is now populous county would have become a barren 

 desert. This practically settles one of the bitterest 

 fights ever waged over water in that section. 



The Los Angeles Times of November 19 

 "Ozone contains an article headed "Decisive 



George." Victory," concerning the resolutions on 



the repeal of the land laws. It also bears 

 the inscription, "exclusive dispatch." This article in 

 the Times is purely the product of George H. Max- 

 well, and in the article he scores a lot or reputable dele- 

 gates to the congress for their opposition to the resolu- 

 tions. In order to illustrate the egotism of the man 

 we quote what he wrote: 



"For a while there was almost a riot on the floor, 

 which was stilled when President Pardee announced 

 that if the floor was trying to run the Chair, the at- 

 tempt would not succeed. Whereupon the Convention 

 cheered the Chairman and the Convention got good. 

 The previous question was ordered before the Con- 

 vention could hear from George H. Maxwell, who had 

 changed his mind overnight and had remained for the 

 fray. Maxwell got the floor in a few minutes, how- 

 ever, to jump upon an amendment, offered by Prince, 

 that the Congress substitute for the repeal the same 

 colorless resolutions passed last year at Ogden through 

 the efforts of Needham of California and Mondell of 

 Wyoming. Maxwell's speech was of the whirlwind 

 type, and he took the Congress with him. Then 

 Prince's resolution was voted down and the resolutions 

 as presented were adopted in a tempest of noise, Max- 

 well joyously leading the jollification, waving a hand- 

 kerchief from the front row." 



The tone of this whole article in the Times is 

 Maxwellian and will give our readers some idea of 

 the egotism of a man who can so highly compliment 

 himself over a private wire and through the columns 

 of a daily paper. We have heretofore referred to Max- 

 well's "boiler-plate" editorials in the Los Angeles 

 Times. The Times, by the way, is the only paper in 

 the West of any strength which supports Maxwell, and 

 why its editor does so is an enigma to all fair-thinking 

 people who fully understand the situation. There is 



probibly no man today who is occupying any prominent 

 position in the United States who has written so many 

 complimentary things about himself for publication 

 as this fellow, "Ozone George" Maxwell. If the pub- 

 lic generally knew the quantity of rot which has been 

 sent out laudatory of Maxwell by his personal press 

 bureau he would occupy a position even more ridicu- 

 lous, if possible, than his present one. 



THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



The Salt Lake Tribune of November 20 has the 

 following to say concerning the Twelfth National Irri- 

 gation Congress: 



"The Irrigation Congress at El Paso did very well 

 in the selection of its officers and managers, but it 

 seems to have placed itself crossways with the Irriga- 

 tion Service and with the irrigation law. All the reso- 

 lutions regarding changes in the land laws and their 

 administration, and the repeal of the Timber and 

 Stone Act, must be at once relegated to the rubbish 

 heap, as ill considered and of no consequence. 



"There is one resolution, however, which is of an 

 especially evil tone. We refer to that in which it 

 urges the passage of a law permitting States to 'or- 

 ganize into districts for the sale of irrigation lands 

 and upon approval by the Secretary of the Interior 

 to be allowed to employ engineers of the Reclamation 

 Service.' 



"If that means, in fact, what its language means, 

 then it is something which by no possibility should 

 be allowed or thought of for one minute. It contem- 

 plates turning over to the States, by districts, the 

 control of the Reclamation Service and irrigation work. 

 It is not worth while to waste time on a proposition 

 like that, which is wholly vicious. The strength of 

 the Service is in the general control by the National 

 officials ; to turn any part of it over to the S'tates, 

 with the money that would necessarily be claimed, 

 would be not only to invite confusion and disaster, but 

 to compel them. 



"Another resolution that is not only vicious, but 

 wholly impracticable, is the one calling for the exten- 

 sion of the Government reclamation work into Texas, 

 where there is no Government land, and whatever is 

 done the arid land fund derived from other States 

 would have to pay for. If Texas wants this help, let 

 her place herself on a parity with the other State's by 

 first transferring to the General Government its pub- 

 lic lands. Until then, Texas is not in the reclamation 

 class, and it would be a gross imposition upon the 

 other States to take the money derived from lands 

 sold within their borders to improve lands for a State 

 which retains the ownership of all the public lands 

 within its borders for itself. 



"This session of the Congress, with its unwise 

 declarations, its barrenness of good ideas, and its gen- 

 eral tone of irresponsibility, raises the question whether 

 it did not reach its high tide of usefulness at its 

 session in Ogden last year, and is now going into de- 

 cadence. There does not seem to be any reason to 

 expect helpful or fruitful action by holding further 

 sessions of this body. Its work was in fact done when 

 the irrigation of the arid region was . taken in hand 

 by the National Government, and it might as well 

 die; its work is done; its usefulness is past." 



