70 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the individual knowledge of the subject at this time 

 are strangely dense. The public is fed constantly with 

 lovely articles about the grand National irrigation 

 works under way, while the fact is that all the great 

 values, mentioned by Judge Parker, for example, in his 

 letter of acceptance, in that part of his remarks con- 

 cerning reclamation of the arid region, are the result 

 of private initiative and enterprise and capital. 



Few people understand that the National irrigation 

 fund is nothing but a bulk of capital which may be 

 ADVANCED to build reservoirs and ditches, upon a 

 guarantee that the owners of the lands to be irrigated 

 will repay the cost to the fund. The National fund is 

 not to be depleted, but must be replenished by the pay- 

 ment back of the cost of the work, as assessed by the 

 Government engineers, and if signatures to such pledges 

 can't be secured, the works proposed will not be built. 



Knowing that all Government work costs vastly 

 more than if done by private capital, and the United 

 States failing to guarantee the limit of the cost, lots 

 of land owners won't sign, and there you are. Mean- 

 time, the Government officials knock private enterprises 

 and warn the people against them, when, as the situa- 

 tion stands, it is only private enterprise, in promoting 

 irrigation district bonds, in Colorado, at least, that is 

 really doing anything. 



The Denver Republican of December 

 Echo 16th contains the following editorial 



of headed "Monclell and the Irrigation Con- 



Congress, gress." It will prove interesting reading 

 to those who are acquainted with the 

 subject. 



The criticisms of Mr. Arthur Francis upon the 

 attitude of Congressman Monclell toward the Irrigation 

 Congress which met in El Paso were ill-timed and un- 

 wise. Had Mr. Francis been correctly informed he 

 would not have made them, for the attitude of Mr. Mon- 

 dell was clearly correct. 



The Congress which met in El Paso was by no 

 mi'iins representative of public sentiment in Colorado 

 or any other of the leading States of the arid region. 

 It was engineered by George Maxwell and certain other 

 men who for a long time have favored the absorption of 

 reclamation work by the National Government, and 

 who have recently been strong advocates of the repeal of 

 all the land laws except the one authorizing Homestead 

 entries. 



It is claimed by these advocates of repeal that it 

 is for the purpose of retaining the public lands for 

 actual settlers, but back of this stands the fact that for 

 years Maxwell and his associates have been maintained in 

 their work by a large fund provided for by certain leading 

 Western railroads. The purpose of the effort to secure 

 the repeal of the land laws is to make a better market 

 for railroad land. Should all but the homestead law 



be repealed, the people would he so far restricted in 

 their endeavor to secure homes on the public lands that 

 they would be compelled to turn to the railroad land 

 grants. It is very clear why the roads owning these 

 grants should wish the Jand laws repealed and should 

 maintain a big lobby in Washington with that object 

 in view. 



The claim that frauds against the land laws are 

 so numerous and so great that the laws themselves 

 should be repealed is without value, since the thing 

 needed is not the repeal, but the enforcement of the 

 laws. The success which has attended recent prosecu- 

 tions of persons connected with frauds on the public 

 lands shows that the remedy lies in that direction and 

 not in making it more difficult for the people to secure 

 homes on Government lands. 



Mr. Francis attended the Irrigation Congress from 

 Teller County, a part of the State in which there is no- 

 irrigation and little knowledge of the subject. The 

 fact that some of the best informed men in the arid 

 region in regard to irrigation were not in sympathy 

 with the purposes of the men who controlled the El Paso 

 Congress is shown by the fact that the State engineers 

 refused to attend. No one who knows anything about 

 the subject can seriously question that among the best 

 informed men in the arid region concerning the needs 

 of irrigation are the State engineers. Certainly they 

 are better qualified to speak intelligently on the sub- 

 ject than the miners of the Cripple Creek or any other 

 mining district. The fact that they ignored the Irri- 

 gation Congress should have suggested to Mr. Francis 

 that the meeting was not in line with the best interests 

 of irrigation in this and other States. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE has been making 

 How an investigation through one of its rep- 



About resentatives of the matter of forest land 



This? grabbing and the uses put to what is 



known as lieu land scrip or forest re- 

 serve scrip. One peculiar feature of the forest lieu 

 land scrip law was that it had the appearance of an 

 exceedingly clean measure and at the time of its pass- 

 age there is no question but that the members of Con- 

 gress who voted for this law believed that they were 

 doing a good service to their constituents. All of our 

 readers are no doubt acquainted with the intent of the 

 law. Prior to its passage, however, a clause was added 

 to the law which was so worded that in case settlers 

 had holdings in any tract reserved, they were to be given 

 in lieu of their holdings scrip which would be applica- 

 ble for entry on any part of the public domain, regard- 

 less of its character. There is no question but that 

 this clause was placed in the bill purely for the bene- 

 fit of holders of large areas of valueless lands which it 

 was their intention to turn in to the Government in lieu 



