THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ENCOURAGE IRRIGATION BY OPPOSING THE 



REPEAL OF THE DESERT AND 



OTHER LAND LAWS. 



Speech of Hon. F. W. Mondell, delivered at the National Irrigation 

 Congress at Ogden, Utah. 



We shall best serve the West and most speedily ac- 

 complish its development through the reclamation of 

 its arid lands by encouraging irrigation along all lines 

 and by means of all available agencies. The conditions 

 surrounding our arid lands are so infinitely diversified 

 that no one agency, no matter how effective, no one law, 

 no matter how comprehensive, can, by any possibility, 

 accomplish the reclamation of all our irrigable territory. 



' The question of the reclamation of arid America 

 to the fullest extent possible necessarily includes not 

 only the consideration of the large and expensive 

 projects which will be undertaken under the national 

 irrigation act, but as well of enterprises large and 

 small under the provisions of the Carey act in the 

 States where that act is operative, and the countless 

 projects developed by individual and co-operative effort, 

 often for the reclamation of a very limited acreage, but 

 in the aggregate constituting a large proportion of the 

 reclamed area of the country. 



The national irrigation law, we confidently be- 

 lieve, will prove in its workings what its supporters 

 claun it to be, the most important legislative aid in 

 Western development since the passage of the home- 

 stead law; but no one conversant with conditions in 

 the arid S'tates imagines that the complete reclamation 

 of the West by irrigation can be accomplished through 

 this agency alone; on the contrary, side by side with 

 the work of the national reclamation service must pro- 

 ceed the work of individual, co-operative and corpo- 

 rate enterprise. In fact, one of the most hopeful 

 phases of the national irrigation movement, as I see 

 it, lies in the impetus and encouragement which it has 

 already given and will give to private enterprises in 

 irrigation development. 



There never has been a time in my State when 

 irrigation reclamation by private enterprise has been 

 as active as it is now and has been since the passage 

 of the national law. A number of enterprises under 

 the Carey act are progressing favorably, and innumer- 

 able projects for the irrigation of small tracts are 

 being carried forward by individual enterprise, and this 

 diversified development will go on without conflict and 

 without complication, each agency in the grand work 

 of reclaiming the desert performing the part within 

 the limit of its ability and the legitimate scope of its 

 operations. 



Recently we have heard considerable of an or- 

 ganized agitation for the repeal of certain of our land 

 laws among others the desert land act but, so far 

 as I have been able to determine, but little of this 

 agitation has come from the States to which this act 

 applies, or from those that have the best opportunity 

 to know of its workings and have no personal or pe- 

 cuniary interest in its repeal, and I am of the opinion 

 that the movement for the repeal of this law. which in- 

 cludes also an effort to repeal the timber and stone act 

 and the commutation clause of the homestead act, will 

 find scant support in the West, particularly in the 

 intermountain States. 



Under the desert land law rfiore land has been 

 reclaimed from desert and made fruitful than under 



all the other land laws, and beyond all question its re- 

 peal would greatly retard Western development by irri- 

 gation. Scattered all over the arid States are in- 

 numerable tracts of from a score to two or three hun- 

 dred acres possible of reclamation from springs, small 

 streams and, to a vastly greater extent, by the impound- 

 ing of flood waters. I have in mind scores of cases 

 within the past few years, remote and isolated tracts, 

 having no visible water supply, and in their natural 

 state valueless, that have been reclaimed and trans- 

 formed into verdant and productive fields and made 

 the seat of prosperous and happy homes by the im- 

 pounding of the storm waters of some dry gulch or 

 drainage basin. This class of development can be best 

 carried on under the desert land law, for the conditions 

 surrounding such enterprises make a continuous resi- 

 dence from the initiation of the enterprise, as would 

 be required under the homestead law, impossible; but. 

 the work completed, the water diverted or impounded) 

 the establishment of a home is inevitable. 



An entry under the homestead law, perfected after 

 five years' residence and complete compliance with all of 

 the present requirements of the land office, may, at the 

 end of that period, and often does, present nothing but 

 the dilapidated fragments of a claim shack and a disfig- 

 uring weed patch, whereas a perfected entry under the 

 desert act, with anything like even a partial com- 

 pliance with the provisions of the law, must and does 

 present a beautiful picture of verdure and home life in 

 the midst of aridity. 



It is no argument against the desert land law to 

 say that, years ago, when the law permitted the entry 

 of 640 acres, before the value and necessity of irriga- 

 tion were appreciated, considerable tracts of land were 

 patented under the desert land act without complete 

 reclamation. Today, under the limited area of entry 

 allowed, with more intelligent administration, it is 

 well nigh an impossibility to make proof on a tract 

 of desert land without at least making a reasonable 

 provision for its permanent reclamation. 



No law on the statute books is surrounded with 

 so many safeguards as the desert land act. With re- 

 gard to none of the land laws are the rules and the 

 regulations of the department so stringent, so con- 

 stantly operating upon the entryman, so well calcu- 

 lated to discourage and prevent the acquirement of 

 land without full compliance with the law. 



Assurances of the complete and permanent re- 

 clamation of the tract entered under the desert land 

 law depend largely \ipon the State statutes under which 

 the water rights are acquired. If the State law defin- 

 ing the character of a water .right, if the State provi- 

 sions relative to the steps to be taken to acquire the 

 same aro lacking, loose, uncertain or illy defined, it 

 is extremely difficult f6r the federal officials charged 

 with the enforcement of the law to determine whether 

 the entryman really possesses a permanent water right 

 for the irrigation of his tract. But in States in which 

 the character of water rights is clearly defined, the pro- 

 cedure for the acquirement of the same is definite and 

 there aro proper administrative officers, the officials of 

 the general land office can demand an official showing 

 from the entryman as to bis water right, which, in 

 addition to the other requirements of the law. renders 

 the acquirement of title to a tract of desert land with- 

 out provision for its permanent irrigation well nigh 

 impossible. 



