446 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



November, 



stitutional amendment, decisions should 

 be had in the supreme court of the state 

 estabhshing this to be the law, and also 

 establishing the doctrine that this same 

 rule of beneficial use applies to the rights 

 of a riparian owner as well as to the 

 right of an appropriator. It is the law 

 of our entire arid region, when correctly- 

 interpreted, and should be clearly so de- 

 clared by our courts, that a riparian 

 owner cannot prevent by injunction a 

 diversion from the stream above him, 

 unless it interferes with some beneficial 

 use of the water then being made by the 

 riparian owner. 



It should also be established by our 

 courts clearly and beyond question that 

 the right of a riparian owner to use water 

 to irrigate land to produce crops, as we 

 understand the meaning of the term ir- 

 rigation in the arid region, is not a com- 

 mon-law right, but one growing out of 

 the necessities of this arid country, and 

 that the riparian owner's right to the use 

 of water for irrigation arises from ne- 

 cessity and is based on and limited by 

 use. It is not perfected until the water 

 has been actually used, and therefore if 

 an appropriator perfects a right by use 

 on the stream below the riparian owner 

 before the riparian owner uses the water, 

 the right of the lower appropriator be- 

 comes a vested right which the upper ri- 

 parian owner must respect, and the ri- 

 parian owner cannot afterward take the 

 water away from the lower prior appro- 

 priator. 



These are matters which must be ad- 

 judicated by our courts, who have juris- 

 diction to determine not only what the 

 rights of riparian owners now are, but 

 to find what they have been in the past. 

 If these rights are thus limited by judi- 

 cial decision, the decision is not an in- 

 terference with any vested right. It is 

 merely a determination of what that right 

 is and has been and fixes its limitations. 



COOPERATIVE CANAI, COMPANIES. 



Every one planning the organization 

 of a canal should be shown that water- 

 right companies have been the grave- 

 yard of millions of dollars invested in 

 them, while cooperative canal com- 

 panics have been almost uniformly suc- 



cessful. In organizing irrigation com- 

 panies, promoters should sell stock and 

 not water rights, putting their profit on 

 the price of the stock. Then when the 

 investors have got back their money and 

 their profits, the ownership of the sys- 

 tem goes to the land-owners, who should 

 control and operate it for their common 

 benefit. Not another water-right com- 

 pany should ever be organized, and all 

 now existing should as rapidly as pos- 

 sible be transformed into land-owners' 

 companies. 



AN EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN. 



To make all these matters generally 

 known and understood requires a great 

 and persistent educational campaign. It 

 can only be carried on by an organiza- 

 tion like The National Irrigation Associ- 

 ation, having a fixed policy and a per- 

 manent membership and an adequate 

 fund for conducting the campaign by 

 public lectures and the distribution of 

 printed matter and information through 

 the press. This cannot be done by an 

 organization like the National Irriga- 

 tion Congress, which is a mere forum 

 for discussion, having no policy what- 

 ever about anything. 



The work that has been done in the 

 last three years to convert the east 

 through our educational campaign has 

 been done by The National Irrigation 

 Association -not by the Irrigation Con- 

 gress and this association will continue 

 its work. The association now has a 

 national membership which is steadily 

 growing, and it should never in the fu- 

 ture be confused with the Irrigation Con- 

 gress, which is a distinct and separate 

 organization merely an annual conven- 

 tion for the discussion of irrigation topics 

 and the passage of resolutions, which 

 may advocate one policy one year and 

 another and different policy the next 

 year. 



The National Irrigation Association 

 must continue its educational work in 

 the east until eastern public sentiment 

 will favor the appropriation of just as 

 much money as is necessary in every 

 state to build projects which have been 

 surveyed and approved by the Secretary 

 of the Interior. The arid lands should 



