JOHN WESLEY POWEIJ, DAVIS 



makes this protection "tardy," as Powell predicted it would be, 

 not being found in mere problems of administration, but alto- 

 gether in the failure of a negligent Congress to provide ade- 

 quate funds for the relatively moderate expense involved. 

 The survey of reservoir sites and the large engineering works, 

 foreseen as necessary for the full developmnt of the possibili- 

 ties of irrigation, are now conducted on an enormous scale by 

 the Reclamation Service, an outgrowth of a branch of the Geo- 

 logical Survey and one of the best and most beneficent of our 

 governmental undertakings. The introduction of electric- 

 power plants, advantageously installed in connection with irri- 

 gation dams, and of immense economic value in using a natu- 

 ral supply of energy that would otherwise be wasted, have only 

 increased the importance of everything that Powell said re- 

 garding the necessity of guarding our water supplies from 

 monopolistic control and conserving them for the common 

 good. 



When all this is appreciated, Powell must come to be re-1 

 garded as one of our great national benefactors. The opinions \ 

 of two highly competent judges may here be quoted. Gilbert 

 wrote, in effect, that Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid 

 Regions set forth with marvelous insight the conditions by 

 which the problem of their best utilization is surrounded; his 

 views were discredited at the time, because he announced that 

 only a small percentage of the Far West can ever be reclaimed 

 for agriculture. The Report raised a storm of indignation,"' 

 because it characterized as semi-arid the middle belt of the 

 Plains, toward which settlement was then tending, yet today it 

 is recognized as a classic treatise. _/ 



Van Hise wrote in a similar vein, telling how Powell gave 

 the benefit of his knowledge of the arid regions to the legis- 

 lators of the nation. He saw that the arid lands were a pos-1 

 sible great resource to the country, but an exceptional resource, I 

 which could not be wisely handled under the common law as ijj 

 had been developed in humid regions. He saw that there was 

 no danger of monopoly of land, but that the real danger was 

 the monopoly of water that he who controlled the water was 

 the master of the land. Consequently he proposed broad and 

 statesmanlike legislation for the division of the lands of the 



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