. THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



201 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



ONE of the common practices of high finance is 

 'consolidation. Economy of production and improve- 

 ment in operation assures greater profit. Pioneers of 

 whatever industry it may be have risked initial and 

 experimental stages, and shrewd financiers step in with 

 absorption theories, reaping a harvest far in excess of 

 those whose originality and energy laid firm founda- 

 tions. It is the spirit of commercialism, and captains 

 of industry, in their insatiate ambition, often use their 

 centralized potency to compel individual independent 

 spirits to their way of thinking. 



THE fierce vindictive spirit exercised in contests 

 to crush inferior enterprise is the one most ignoble man- 

 ifestation. It is the prime occasion which brings crit- 

 icism and malediction alike on all, or nearly all, our 

 giant industries, and which has inspired our National 

 Executive to numerous prosecutions. 



YET minor departments of the government are 

 emulating Standard Oil and U. S. Steel methods and 

 endeavor. Millions of dollars are set aside for reclama- 

 tion, but did the framers of the National Irrigation 

 Act contemplate or intend to endow a service with coer- 

 sive powers? Powers to compel unwilling private and 

 corporate canals to yield their legitimate holdings, and 

 make way? 



CANAL districts which have had abundant water 

 five to twenty years are threatened with a shortage 

 unless they abandon their identity and pay a price 

 considerably in excess of present cost. If construction 

 of a government reservoir injures priorities, or menaces 

 supply, it indicates a juggling of water measurements, 

 or record. 



WAS not the law's intent to provide a way to con- 

 struct new canals and irrigate new areas? Should the 

 fund be expended to consolidate our interests, increase 

 our obligations, and give us in return just what we had 

 before (with this amendment, that a government agent 

 will lock and unlock our head gates) ? Is this the pur- 

 pose of the law? To supplement where there is adequate 

 supply is well, but the demand should emanate from 

 water users, and not originate from fear excited by 

 assurance of federal attaches that a contingency is im- 

 minent which never did exist and can not now exist, 

 unless invasion of government work imperils vested 

 rights? 



IMMEDIATELY after the organization of the Ameri- 

 can Irrigation Federation the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 

 the Los Angeles Times, the Eedlands Citoffraph, publi- 

 cations here and there, discovered ( ?) "something." 

 Almost verbatim editorials appeared. The singleness 



of thought expressed is of itself remarkable coincidence, 

 but diction chosen simultaneously in different parts of 

 the country being so strikingly identical, the wary 

 analytic eye is prone to look for those familiar ear- 

 markings. 



IN THE final round-up of the year all of these pre- 

 sumed mavericks of opinion will be found to have the 

 private mark of the National Irrigation Association, 

 and may be driven to the home ranch of Geo. H. Max- 

 well. 



ESTABLISHING a land unit of proper proportion is 

 one of the problems of the reclamation service. It is 

 urged that an irrigation community will support (in- 

 cluding villages) an inhabitant to an acre, and theoriz- 

 ing engineers are prone to render deductions in favor 

 of small units. 



If all areas to be reclaimed were susceptible of in- 

 tensified farming and fruit culture, and if there was 

 unlimited market, small units would avail. But a 

 minor portion of the 20,000,000 people (which Jamea 

 J. Hill states irrigable America will support) if en- 

 gaged in intensive agriculture or horticulture, will over- 

 supply any possible market. 



HOSTILE legislation the menace of obliterated or 

 reduced tariffs and soil exhaustion, if beet raising is 

 continuous, are obstacles, and crop rotation will be neces- 

 sary. Inevitable deductions are, after a time cereals 

 and meats must be the basis of our agriculture. 



FOE a period, when favored by state or federal 

 patrimony, producers of protected products will flour- 

 ish. Certain local conditions will in other places give 

 fruit raisers advantages. Climatic or soil conditions, 

 or markets, will assist. Smaller units under such con- 

 ditions would be favored. But probably nine-tenths of 

 the empire to be reclaimed must be utilized for raising 

 bread and meat. 



EVERY interested American should endeavor that 

 settlement upon reclaimed areas be builded on a basis 

 that will endure. False prosperity, based on legislative 

 or temporary contingencies, will eventually collapse and 

 be compelled to readjust itself. Newly developed sec- 

 tions should build upon the safe and sure foundation 

 of ordinary farming; and to do so, sufficient farm units 

 should be allotted to interest ambitious citizens. 



IT is not the question of how many acres will "sup- 

 port" a family. No good American ought to be con- 

 tent with a nominal living. Contentment in humble en- 

 vironment will not build up republics, or turn a vir- 

 gin soil to fruitful fields. Restrictions to "a living" 

 will eliminate ambition and induce inertia. The class 



