[QO8 



Dk UNING THE SWAMPS 



209 



However, the constitution is some- 

 times a serious stumbling block to the 

 carrying out of good policies, as it is 

 a safe-guard against the consumma- 

 tion of bad ones. 



There are many, nevertheless, who 

 believe that both irrigation and drain- 

 age of private lands by Federal agency 

 is a constitutional privilege, if not a 

 duty, of the General Government. 

 Senator Xewlands puts it, that drain- 

 age considered broadly is an inter- 

 state affair in its direct effects, because 

 it influences the flow of interstate 

 rivers; a disturbance of the conditions 



trend of the time- -inn- t he to ac- 

 cord more power to the state than 

 heretofore, and to take into o>n-idera- 

 tin broadlv the <|Ue-tinn i general 

 welfare. For instance, the Supreme 

 Court of the State of Maine handed 

 down an opinion during the month, 

 that the State Legislature had a right 

 to prevent forest destruction or wa-te 

 on private lands. If a legislative body 

 has such a right and power to go on 

 to privately owned land^ and the 

 opinion calls attention to the fact that 

 all lands are originally derived from 

 the State and prevent the owner 



Swamp scene in Dugdemona Bottom, Louisiana 



of run-off or drainage in any one lo- 

 cality must affect other localities wide- 

 ly separated, and in the case of drain- 

 age on a large scale the changes 

 caused would be very great. Yet even 

 aside from this phase of the question, 

 the projects and commodities from 

 drainage reclamation would enter in- 

 to interstate commerce ; and the Sen- 

 ator holds that upon this broad ground 

 alone the Nation would IK- warranted 

 the w< >rk. 



n 



Various other good constitutional 

 lawyers have -tated their belief in the 

 constitutionalitv of such w.>rk. The 



from wasting his timber, a natural re- 

 source, in the intciv-t- of the general 

 welfare, it should similarly have a 

 ri-ht to go upon private waste lands 

 and make them productive. The fact 

 that in irrigation. 11 a- in the pro- 



d dran StOlCtion, the COSt 



of the Government work is returned 

 to tin- G"vernment. removes the ob- 

 ject ion of many who look 

 with disfavor upon annual appropria- 

 tions for internal improvement*, the 

 hem-tits from which come back to the 

 Government onlv indirectlv. 



