8 



THE IKKIGATION AGE. 



Eepeal the desert land act and you take from the 

 statute books the only law under which, by individual 

 and co-operative effort, the multiplied thousands of 

 opportunities for the irrigation of small tracts are made 

 available. 



At a meeting of irrigationists it would not be 

 proper to consume time with a discussion of the ques- 

 tions involved in the proposition to repeal the timber 

 and stone act and the commutation clause of the 

 homestead act, except in so far as such action might 

 affect irrigation development. Inasmuch as these laws, 

 however, have furnished a major portion of the na- 

 tional irrigation fund, the question of their repeal is 

 pertinent, for their repeal would amount to the same 

 thing as the repeal of the national irrigation act. 



The idea of the repeal of the timber and stone act 

 carries with it the theory of a gigantic permanent Gov- 

 ernment timber monopoly. It is proposed that the 

 Federal Government shall retain all public lands con- 

 taining timber, regardless of the kind or quantity, and 

 engage in the wholesale business of selling timber in 

 lots to suit the purchaser. He who can contemplate 

 such a bureaucracy, with its irritating and vexatious 

 regulations, its enormous 'machinery of administration 

 and its opportunities and probabilities of peculation, 

 with cheerfulness and confidence is much more op- 

 timistic than I am. The price paid for land under 

 the timber and stone act, in the intermountain States 

 at least, generally measures its full value, and in many 

 cases is more than the land would bring if in private 

 ownership. It would, in my opinion, be well to amend 

 the law so that the price everywhere may be approxi- 

 mate to the value of the land, for the timber land of 

 the country which for any reason may not properly be 

 included in forest reserves should be considered an 

 asset of the irrigation fund. 



The repeal of the commutation clause of the home- 

 stead law would, beyond all question, retard settlement 

 and development in the West. The homesteader, under 

 the conditions which surround the major portion of the 

 vacant public lands today, stakes his homestead right, 

 his desire for a home and his labor against the peril? 

 of the enterprise, and the repeal of the commutation 

 clause of the homestead law would discourage and pre- 

 vent settlement, because it would take from the intend- 

 ing settler that partial insurance against total loss, 

 should sickness, death or shortage of crops render it 

 impossible for him to maintain a continuous residence. 



To the membership of this congress, interested as 

 we all are in the success of the national irrigation act. 

 the agitation for the repeal of these laws constitutes a 

 most serious menace, for they are the sources from 

 which flows nearly three-quarters of all the irrigation 

 fund. At the close of the last fiscal year there was in 

 the treasury of the TTnited St.ttes. to the credit of the 

 irrigation fund, in the neighborhood of $16.000,000. 

 During the three years during which the irrigation 

 fund was accumulating, the proceeds from the pale ofi 

 lands under the laws in oneslinn wore as follows, mak- 

 ing a total from t^ese source of $13 0-13.S28.lfi : 



Commuted Desert Land Timber and Stone 



Homesteads. Entries. Entries. 



1901...$ 820.782.10 $ 324.376.04 $ 002.144.93 



1902. . . 1.290,506.80 443.067.00 1,363,166.41 



1903... 2,874,793.37 520.979.60 4,413.911.91 



If these laws had been repealed at the time the 

 national irrigation act was passed, we should have in 

 the reclamation fund today, not $16,000,000, but in- 

 stead something over $3,000,000. 



The fear has been expressed that public land was 

 passing into private ownership so rapidly that little 

 public land would be left in a few years for reclama- 

 tion under the national act. There need be no uneasi- 

 ness on this ground. Uncle Sam still owns, within our 

 continental boundaries and exclusive of Alaska, over 

 500,000,000 acres open to settlement and entry, be- 

 sides 61,000,000 acres contained in forest reserves and 

 about 60,000,000 acres contained in Indian reservations 

 outside of Indian Territory. The land still open to 

 settlement and entry constitutes a territory over five- 

 eighths as large as the entire acreage which we have 

 disposed of under all laws since the foundation of the 

 Government, and is equal in area to the thirteen 

 original States of the Union and Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 West Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi. 

 Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Wis- 

 consin and Iowa. 



Even though some tracts may pass into private 

 ownership which it may be found wise and proper to 

 irrigate under the national irrigation act, still such 

 transfer need in no way affect such reclamation, for 

 the provisions of the national act relative to the re- 

 clamation of lands in private ownership are complete, 

 and the reclamation service is already contemplating 

 extensive operations under these provisions. 



There is another feature of this case which appeals 

 to those of us who had something to do with the pass- 

 age of the national irrigation act, and should appeal to 

 all those citizens and organizations who urged and 

 promoted that measure. The law was passed and much 

 support obtained for it with the understanding and be- 

 lief that the West would be reclaimed, so far as na- 

 tional undertakings were concerned, with the proceeds 

 of the sale and disposition of the public lands. The 

 law so provides, and I am not prepared to admit that 

 the enactment was not in good faith ; and yet certain 

 gentlemen propose legislation which would either make 

 the law inoperative or compel us to seek direct appro- 

 priations from the federal treasury. 



When the national irrigation law shall have been 

 in actual operation for a term of years, when there 

 shall begin to roll into the treasury returns for the ex- 

 penditures made, sufficient to insure that through these 

 sources the fund may be kept intact, when there 

 shall be danger of an actual scarcity of enterprises to 

 be undertaken, instead of an embarrassing and be- 

 wildering abundance, as at present, then we may pos- 

 sibly, with propriety and reason, discuss the repeal of 

 some of these laws. In the meantime let us labor for 

 their honest enforcement and welcome that demand for 

 lands which is peopling the West, developing its re- 

 sources and pouring ducats into the national irrigation 

 fund. 



$4.086.182.27 $1.288,422.64 

 Total, $13.043,828.16. 



$6,769,223.25 



Two Dollars will secure for you one year's sub- 

 scription to THE IRRIGATION AGE and a finely 

 bound volume of the Primer of Irrigation which will 

 be sent postpaid in a few months, when volume is 

 completed. The Primer of Irrigation will be finely 

 illustrated and will contain about 300 pages. Send 

 post office or express money order for $2.00 and se- 

 cure copy of first edition. 



