I902, 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



65 



trary, its development led to the growth 

 and prosperity of the country, I will ask 

 what the acreage of Missouri, Illinois, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, the two Dakotas, 

 and the acreage lately entered in Okla- 

 homa means in competition ? You have 

 opened up in Oklahoma within the last 

 few years more land capable of being 

 watered from the heavens than can by 

 any possibility under this bill be re- 

 claimed in the arid region in many 

 3^ears. 



Let me explain the provisions of the 

 bill which has been agreed upon by the 

 Senators and Representatives from these 

 sixteen states and territories, aggregat- 

 ing between lift}' and sixty in number. 

 They have agreed that the proceeds of 

 the sales of public lands in these states 

 in the arid and semi-arid states shall 

 be put into a special fund in the Treas- 

 ury, to be called the "Arid Land Recla- 

 mation Fund." 



Then it gives the Secretary of the 

 Interior the power to construct irriga- 

 tion works and to permit entries under 

 the Homestead Law of lands that can 

 be irrigated from those works. It pre- 

 vents him, however, from entering into 

 any contract unless the money for its 

 payment is in the fund. No indebted- 

 ness whatever can be contracted and no 

 obligations can be assumed which will 

 in any waj' threaten the Federal Treas- 

 ur}'. Then it provides that settlers can 

 enter upon these lands and occupy them 

 in areas not exceeding 160 acres and 

 not less than 40 acres, thus securing 

 and dedicating that entire region to 

 homes for the people ; not for the people 

 who now live there, but the people in the 

 East, people in the Middle West, peo- 

 ple in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, 

 and other states, who want to go farther 

 West. 



These lands are not appropriated for 

 the benefit of the people there, except 

 so far as each individual can avail him- 

 self of the act and secure a home ; nor 

 do the proceeds go the states. The 

 proceeds of the sales of public lands in 

 those states are dedicated and appro- 

 priated as a special fund in the Treasury 

 for all time to do this work. The trust 

 is to be administered as a national trust, 

 bv the national government, and the 



public domain is to be regarded as a 

 unit, regardless of state lines. The 

 purpose of the government, as the 

 owner of the public lands, is simply to 

 do such work as will render the waters 

 available for the lands that can be re- 

 claimed. 



Recollect that the area of .settlement 

 is rapidly diminishing. The pressure of 

 the population in the West for new 

 homes and new farms is very great. 

 You all know what happened in Okla- 

 homa, where millions of acres of land 

 were opened. Public notices were given, 

 and people desirous of securing homes 

 rushed to the boundary line in order to 

 avail themselves of the benefit of the act. 

 Mr. Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, 

 said recently in a speech : ' ' You need 

 have no fear that these arid lands will 

 not be settled if water is made available. 

 The farmers' sons of Iowa, who are now 

 going to the British Dominion for the 

 purpose of securing farms from the pub- 

 lic domain, will go out into that region 

 and settle upon it." This simply pur- 

 sues the general policy of the govern- 

 ment in making this land available for 

 the homes of the great masses of the 

 people. 



We propose that the waters shall be 

 put to a beneficial use by indissolubly 

 joining the water and the land, and we 

 insist that the government as the owner 

 of the land has the right and the power 

 and it is its duty to make these waters 

 so available as to facilitate the settlers 

 in making actual reclamation. 



The snows that fall and supply the 

 water may be in one state and the level 

 lands that can be reclaimed may be in 

 an adjoining state through which the 

 waters flow. A state cannot operate 

 outside of its own boundaries, and it 

 will be impossible for it to treat the river 

 as a unit and develop every one of its 

 tributaries for the purpose of preventing 

 the torrential floods, creating a con.stant 

 flow, and securing thus the highest bene- 

 ficial use of the water. 



We enact into law the recognized doc- 

 trine of that entire region, that benefi- 

 cial use .shall be the basis, the measure, 

 and the limit of the right to water. 



I wi.sh to show that this bill does not 

 propose that the federal government 



