166 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



suitable head for the reclamation service. This latter is 

 very gratifying news to those who watched development 

 along this line of work. Mr. Shonts is an engineer but he 

 is also a better administrative officer and business man. 

 This makes a good combination for the exalted position 

 which he is to fill. THE IRRIGATION AGE is not in 

 favor of putting work of this character under a busi- 

 ness man who knows nothing of engineering, particu- 

 larly a lawyer. It has very little use for the legal pro- 

 fession in positions of this character. A man whose 

 business it is to work for the side that can pay the 

 most, regardless of the effect upon the people at large, 

 gradually develops theories and prejudices which in 

 every day practice tends to retard all kinds of reform 

 movements. It is sincerely hoped that President Roose- 

 velt may be able to find a man fully capable to head 

 the reclamation service. The position requires a man 

 broad enough to listen to others and act upon that 

 which is good regardless of his personal prejudices or 

 inclination. No man should fill this position who is so 

 narrow as to assume that no opinion is valuable except- 

 ing his own. 



This irrigation subject will evolve itself into a 

 concrete and cleanly developing condition later on. Per- 

 haps a club or fire will be necessary to purify present 

 conditions. 



The preparation of a model code of state 

 irrigation laws by the reclamation service 

 Model was probably a wise step. The model, as 



Irrigation it stands, contains many important and 

 Code. good provisions and by slight modi- 



fications it can be made to meet the re- 

 quirements of almost any district in the West. Its 

 provisions will be incorporated in the statutes of a 

 number of States and Territories this year. The laws 

 of the various States will in this way more nearly ap- 

 proach uniformity, and while the model code reserves 

 many rights to the Government which have not been 

 conceded generally heretofore, yet with the proper 

 kind of adminstration of the reclamation service, noth- 

 ing but good should result. The code recognizes many 

 of the more important principles which experience has 

 shown should govern the distribution and use of water. 

 We hope that through this influence on the part of the 

 Government the irrigator will receive better protection 

 than he has in the past. Litigation over water rights 

 has been a fruitful source of income to the lawyer and 

 a burden to the irrigator. As the irrigator has a com- 

 paratively small part in the making of laws it is rarely 

 that he secures relief through the passage of reform 

 measures. 



Even the courts disagree where fundamental yet 

 simple principles are at stake. When the supreme 

 courts of two adjoining States having practically the 

 same statutory provisions relating to irrigation, hand 



down decisions diametrically opposed to each other, it is 

 time that the Government or some other influence is 

 i'elt. We have two recent supreme court decisions before 

 us which illustrate this point. Nebraska adopted the 

 Wyoming law without material change in 1895. In 

 June, 1904, the State Supreme Court of Nebraska 

 handed down a decision which states that because the 

 laws of that State are taken from Wyoming, where water 

 is appurtenant to and inseparable from the lands irri- 

 gated, the same principle must be recognized in Ne- 

 braska. (Farmers' Canal Company vs. Frank.) On 

 the last day of the same year the supreme court of 

 Wyoming handed down a decision which holds water to 

 be personal property to be sold like any commodity. 

 (J. R. Johnston et al vs. the Little Horse Irrigation 

 Company.) The former decision was rendered for the 

 irrigator, the latter for the lawyer. 



The principle of inseparability of water and the 

 land it serves to irrigate is growing in favor and must 

 soon be universally recognized. If the Government can 

 settle for all time the recognition of such principles it 

 will have performed a good service. 



We are publishing in this issue an article 

 from the pen of one of our regular corre- 

 Reclamation spondents on the proposed St. Mary's 

 Service River diversion canal. This correspondent 



Abuses. shows conclusively that the Reclamation 



Bureau of the United States is weak and 

 this article is well worthy of perusal by all those who 

 are studying irrigation development under the reclama- 

 tion law. In future issues it will be our aim to illus- 

 trate some of the abuses being carried on by officials of 

 this bureau. As stated in former issues many complaints 

 have come to us concerning the arbitrary high-handed 

 manner in which officials of this department carry out 

 their designs regardless of the effect upon the promoters 

 of private projects throughout the West. Well founded 

 and reasonable complaints come to us regularly from 

 many of the western States and these complaints are no 

 doubt also being forwarded to the Secretary of the 

 Interior at Washington, who, it is hoped, may thor- 

 oughly investigate all of them so that every legitimate 

 private irrigation project may be accorded fair play. 

 Word comes to us that many of the division engineers 

 pose as absolute dictators where complaints are brought 

 to them personally. In fact, we are told that they 

 wholly ignore reasonable complaints by people who are 

 trying to carry out irrigation projects with private capi- 

 tal. There seems to be a tendency on the part of the 

 press throughout the West to accept all statements made 

 by these gentlemen as law, hence it is difficult for the 

 private individual to secure attention or redress for 

 wrongs committed. This is a pitiable state of affairs, to 

 be sure. There are men who have charge of irrigation 

 districts under the reclamation service who are not com- 

 petent to conduct an ordinarily successful grocery busi- 



