I02 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



March,. 



A NATIONAL IRRIGATION POLICY.* 



By Senator H. C. Hansbrough. 



THE purpose of this poHcy is to 

 assist in providing homes for the 

 rapidly increasing population of the 

 country. President Roosevelt stated 

 the case in a few words when he said 

 in his message that ' ' successful home- 

 making is but another name for the 

 upbuilding of the nation." 



To say that the national govern- 

 ment cannot, within the Constitution, 

 do its part in the development of the 

 latent wealth that exists in a region 

 that is nearly one-third of the total area 

 of the United States is to discredit the 

 genius of the American people. To 

 say that we may not utilize the waste 

 waters that pour down from the moun- 

 tain heights, and by applying these 

 waters to public lands that would other- 

 wise be worthless make two blades of 

 grass grow where none grew before, is 

 to admit that national progress has 

 reached the end, and that we are hence- 

 forth doomed to slow decay. 



If I may be pardoned for referring to 

 the constitutional features of the case, 

 I find that it has been deemed expe- 

 dient under the Constitution to con- 

 struct large reservoirs at the headwaters 

 and along the tributaries of our great 

 rivers for the benefit of navigation, and 

 incidentally, not accidentally, these res- 

 ervoirs have been and are now being 

 used as storage places for millions of 

 saw-logs. In some instances navigation 

 has come to be the incidental and log 

 storage the chief purpose. Appropria- 

 tions for this work have been made, 

 amounting to many millions of dollars, 

 directly from the Federal Treasur3\ 

 By the terms of this bill it is proposed 

 to devote the receipts from the sales of 

 public lands to the improvement of the 

 lands, converting the desert into pro- 

 ductive fields and pastures and making 

 homes for homeless people. It is pro- 

 posed to conserve the torrential waters 

 of the streams and put them upon the 

 plains for the primary benefit of the 



husbandman, the incidental protection 

 of navigation', and the ultimate and 

 permanent benefit of the nation. Touch- 

 ing this phase of the question, the 

 President very aptly says that ' ' the 

 storing of the floods in reservoirs at the 

 headwaters of our rivers is but an en- 

 largement of our present policy of river 

 control, under which levees are built on 

 the lower reaches of the same streams." 



It will be a difficult task to find a 

 constitutional distinction between these 

 two classes of work. Had the recla- 

 mation of the public domain been a 

 burning question when the Constitution 

 was framed, perhaps the gentlemen whO' 

 are now interested in the deepening and 

 widening of channels and the storage of 

 saw-logs for the benefit of navigation 

 would be without as well as within these 

 doors clamoring for recognition under 

 the general-welfare clause of our organic 

 law. No one has thought of complain- 

 ing of the policy of opening rivers to- 

 navigation at government expense, so 

 that settlers might go in and lay out 

 new fields of enterprise and industry', 

 and there has been no objection to keep- 

 ing these rivers open at government 

 expense, so that the people could mar- 

 ket their products. It would be a bold 

 mathematician who would undertake to 

 compute the amount of public money 

 spent in this way. It is conceded that 

 great national benefit has resulted, so 

 we do not stop to ask the cost. 



The advocates of a national irrigation 

 policy submit a plan whereby large 

 areas of land now practically worthless- 

 may be opened, not at government ex- 

 pense, but at a cost to be assessed 

 against the land. Out of these activi- 

 ties will come a new demand for manu- 

 factured products. This will make 

 New England a party in interest. Penn- 

 sylvania and Ohio will secure a share of 

 the new orders for steel. The South 

 will find an additional market for her 

 cotton and tobacco. 



* Extract from a speech delivered in the United States Senate February 6, 1902. 



