148 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



a quarter of the necessary water to reclaim all their 

 land, should first be considered in these expenditures 

 for development of the water supply, especially if, at 

 the same time, other land in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood could be reclaimed by the same system of works 

 which would assist these early settlers. 



There is no method of ascertaining through in- 

 vestigation whether or not the works to be constructed 

 by the Government will be adequate for the purposes in- 

 tended, or whether they will include all the available 

 land that is irrigable from a specific source. There 

 is nothing under the present method of secrecy in 

 vogue with the officers of the Reclamation Service by 

 which their plans can be reviewed by the State author- 

 ities. Repeated requests for information have been 

 met with the statement that it was not to the interest 

 of the objects of the Reclamation Service to publish 

 their plans or information beforehand. 



It seems to be the policy that, when private capi- 

 tal proceeds to investigate an enterprise with a view 

 of constructing works, a crying need immediately oc- 

 curs for the withdrawal of the land under investiga- 

 tion or the withdrawal of a reservoir site it is sought 

 to improve. Notably is this the case with a recent 

 decision of the General Land Office in the case of a 

 reservoir site on the Owyhee River which it was pro- 

 posed to improve for the irrigation of lauds lying 

 partly in Idaho and partly in Oregon. 



The irrigators of the Boise and Payette valleys, 

 acting under the guidance of the Reclamation Service, 

 are organizing themselves into a "Water Users' Asso- 

 ciation," in order to eventually enter into a contract 

 with the National Government by which they will be- 

 come equal sharers in whatever water the engineer? 

 may be able and willing to conserve and supply. The 

 organization is an excellent one, and, when once 

 formed, will be one great irrigation district. The 

 members will then be in position to construct their 

 own irrigation works under our irrigation district law. 

 The benefit to them of having signed a contract to 

 mortgage their lands to the National Government, to 

 agree to make no changes in their by-laws except with 

 the approval of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, 

 and to accept and pay for whatever irrigation works 

 may be designed and constructed without their knowl- 

 edge or approval, is not apparent. The irrigator must 

 eventually pay the bills, and the only advantage he 

 can have in accepting and paying for the Government 

 works is in the apparent saving of interest charges. 

 It is doubtful if this will offset the disadvantages in- 

 cident to Governmental supervision and control of his 

 every act and the increased cost to him of the works 

 which becomes daily more inevitable. 



There is to my mind no good reason for turning 

 over the control of our irrigation matters to the Rec- 

 lamation bureau, but the effort is seemingly being 

 made to accomplish this end. Already we have the 

 spectacle of the State of Nevada having surrendered 

 her birthright, and, for the money consideration of 

 having her irrigation matters advanced by National 

 loan, passing a law compelling her Governor to ap- 

 point to the office of State Engineer only such a man 

 as meets with the approval of the Chief of the Recla- 

 mation Service. We see, also, the State of Washing- 

 ton appointing a commission to devise a suitable ir- 

 rigation law, and this commission so influenced by the 

 numerous employes of the Reclamation Service (whose 

 salaries and expenses the irrigator must eventually 

 pay), that they have evolved and published a proposed 



irrigation law which suspends the right of the State 

 to inspect the construction of any work which is in 

 charge of officers of the United States; and further 

 providing that an officer of the United States may no- 

 tify the State authorities "that the United States 

 wishes to use certain specified waters * * * and the 

 waters so specified shall not be subject to further ap- 

 propriation under the laws of the State." 



The officers of the United States might construct 

 a dam that would be a menace to life and property, 

 and this proposed law would leave the officers and citi- 

 cens of the State no protection. They might stop irri- 

 gation development on every stream in the State by 

 notifying the State authorities that "the United 

 States wishes to use certain waters." This pro- 

 posed legislation bears the signature of the United 

 States attorney for the Reclamation Service. Are the 

 States ready to yield to this aggressive usurpation? 



Such legislation is far reaching, and, while not 

 particularly alarming at first glance, would nullify any 

 beneficial features it might contain, as becomes more 

 apparent upon careful study. Why this Government 

 control should be necessary is not easily understood. 

 The National and State Governments should work in 

 complete harmony if the best results are to be ob- 

 tained and the idea of the President and congress 

 of providing homes for the people carried out. This 

 can be done without surrendering our rights as a 

 State or as individuals. It is a great work, if carried 

 out along the lines intended by the framers of the- 

 reclamation law, and worthy of the careful and earnest 

 efforts of all our citizens. The steps now taken in 

 irrigation development and establishment of stable 

 rights, both in law making and construction, should 

 be in advance, and, with care, there is no reason why 

 the present stage of development, so laboriously at- 

 tained, should ever be receded from. 



Appreciating the enthusiasm with which the pub- 

 lic has welcomed the inauguration of certain enter- 

 prises by the engineers of that department, it is with 

 the greatest reluctance that I have called attention to 

 what, in my judgment, is the perversion of the orig- 

 inal purpose of the Reclamation act; but I am com- 

 pelled to this course by the obligations of my position 

 as State Engineer, charged with the oversight of irri- 

 gation matters within our boundaries. I am hopeful, 

 in view of the sentiments expressed by PresideTit 

 Roosevelt, that the methods of the bureau will soon 

 be brought into harmony with the original intent of 

 the act that created it, and that this department of 

 the Government, instead of entering the field as a 

 competitor with private enterprise in the construction 

 of irrigation canals from streams already largely, if 

 not over, appropriated, will turn its attention to in- 

 creasing the water supply available for irrigation by 

 the construction of reservoirs for conserving the flood 

 waters of our streams. There will then be no occasion 

 for their efforts to change the State laws in such a way 

 as to place the control of our irrigation affairs in the 

 hands of a department with headquarters in Wash- 

 ington. To my mind, local control is the prime 

 requisite for the best development of our irrigation 

 resources, and, as far as practicable, the affairs of each 

 drainage basin should be left to the management of its 

 own settlers and irrigators. General rules and regu- 

 lations adopted or approved at Washington for the 

 government of our irrigation conditions, however wise, 

 could be framed for only general application, leaving 



