70 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Any questions which may arise in the minds of 

 our readers on the subject of Power Irrigation may be 

 forwarded to this office, and replies will be published 

 regularly at the diction of Mr. Eeybold. 



The editorial suggested by a conversation 

 Eastern with Mr. C. H. Eobertson, of Wyoming, 



Assistance which appeared in our issue of December, 

 Needed. concerning the attitude of the west against 



Gifford Pinchot and the Forestry policy 

 is indicative of a strong sentiment against him and 

 shows that, politically, he may change by this policy, 

 the entire conditions in the west. 



The people of the East cannot understand the 

 feeling which exists in the West against this domineer- 

 ing, arrogant policy of the Forestry Service. They only 

 get one side of it and that is the side which is fur- 

 nished through the Government Press Bureau conducted 

 by the Forestry Division which furnishes information 

 regularly to the daily newspapers of the country. It 

 should be borne in mind that the people of the West 

 heartily sympathize with Eastern people when it is 

 brought to their knowledge that a wrong is attempted 

 against them by Congress or government officials. It 

 may be said safely that Western people are no more 

 quick to resent conditions of an oppressive character 

 than are the people of the East. Why, then, should 

 not the Eastern people investigate and learn the cause 

 of this universal protest which comes out of the West? 

 All that the Western people request is that Easterners 

 investigate carefully and be npt too precipitous in form- 

 ing opinions based upon information furnished by the 

 Forestry Bureau. 



The Eastern people have no direct means of study- 

 ing the attitude of western people and the conditions 

 under which they are trying to build homes and this 

 is due to the fact that no organization has as yet been 

 perfected to combat the misrepresentations boldly put 

 forth in forestry bureau bulletins and through Pin- 

 chot's Press Bureau. 



In his annual report for the last fiscal 

 Would year, Commissioner Fred Dennett of the 



Withdraw General Land Office, recommends the 

 From Entry, withdrawal from entry of all public lands 



which may be irrigated that are not now 

 capable of being utilized for homes. On that point 

 he says : 



"The proper step to take would be to classify the 

 lands of the United States in order to ascertain what 

 public lands, which in their present condition, are in- 

 capable of affording a home, are susceptible of irriga- 

 tion at a cost even much greater than that now enter- 

 tained by the Eeclamation Service, and to withdraw 

 these lands from entry, awaiting the time when they 



can, by irrigation, be made homes, either by the United 

 States Government or under the Carey Act." 



To one who has studied the moves of the General 

 Land Office during the past ten or fifteen years, a 

 suggestion or recommendation concerning withdrawal 

 from entry of any of the public domain, is scrutinized 

 somewhat carefully, and the suggestion by Mr. Dennett 

 that no one can be hurt by such a withdrawal owing to 

 the fact that desert lands which cannot be reclaimed by 

 the individual efforts of settlers can never become a 

 home until water is brought to it by the government, 

 state, or by the expenditure of vast sums by private 

 enterprises, tends to mislead. In the first place Mr. 

 Dennett must certainly know that no private corpora- 

 tion would attempt to develop or expend money in the 

 survey to demonstrate water quantities and the feasi- 

 bility of reservoir sites on land which had been with- 

 drawn by the General Land Office. 



It looks very much to us as if there were "A nigger 

 in the fence" in this suggestion, and it would be well 

 for those interested to investigate the matter carefully 

 and learn the exact intention of the proposed with- 

 drawal. This should be looked after by the various 

 western representatives in Washington in the interest of 

 the prospective colonists and corporations who contem- 

 plate development under the Carey Act. In other 

 words, the suggestion of Mr. Dennett should be thor- 

 oughly gone over by competent men in Congress before 

 definite action is taken. 



Irrigation 

 Law. 



In a recent discussion of irrigation law 

 problems, a prominent Western judge and 

 lawyer expressed himself in terms that 

 indicate that the water users must soon 

 be afforded that protection which is guaranteed by some 

 public authority in nearly every profession of business. 

 While not recalling his exact words, the sentiment of 

 his address was as follows: 



"Our government has been slow to accept funda- 

 mental principles. It is unnecessary for me to enter 

 into a detailed discussion, to prove this to be the case. 

 It must be remembered that Congress has spent many 

 days and years in the discussion of land laws and prin- 

 ciples embodied by them. The wisest and best of men 

 have given their entire time to this subject; yet we 

 find that, although our land laws are of the best, in- 

 justice and fraud have not been entirely avoided. No 

 one can read our land laws and then say without quali- 

 fication that those responsible for them have not shown 

 great ability and foresight. 



"Lands originally belong to the Nation at large. 

 States and individuals obtain patent to them by and 

 through acts of Congress. Another important resource 

 is water. Under the national constitution the general 

 government is to retain the management of streams 



