230 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



named combination. The true friends of irrigation de- 

 velopment in the West will take warning and prepare 

 to combat any effort which may be made by this crowd 

 to run things their own way at El Paso. In this con- 

 nection it appears that the railway companies are per- 

 mitting themselves to be misrepresented when they al- 

 low such men as Maxwell to state publicly that by the 

 use of free transportation furnished by the railways 

 through him they will bring delegates so as to pass 

 such resolutions at a national congress as will suit 

 certain individuals. It is high time that the railway 

 companies placed a muzzle on this man Maxwell, so he 

 may not put them in a bad light before the public. 

 His efforts at carrying out certain plans and develop- 

 ing special policies along irrigation lines have fallen 

 so flat in the past that it is a wonder the railway com- 

 panies or others still retain faith in him. 



It is understood that several of the large corpora- 

 tions have become so thoroughly disgusted with his 

 work that they have or soon will withdraw their sup- 

 port from the movement. It may as well be understood 

 that the members of the American Irrigators' League 

 will have something to say at the time of the El Paso 

 congress, and if any effort is made to hoodwink the 

 delegates, as in the past congresses, an exposure will 

 take place that will put those back of these schemes 

 in an undesirable light before the public. 



Mr. C. B. Boothe. a henchman of George 

 Look Out H. Maxwell, is carrying on the arrange- 

 El Paso. ments for the Irrigation Congress at El 

 Paso with a high hand. He was elected 

 or appointed chairman of the executive committee, and 

 as such is playing into Mr. Maxwell's hands in a way 

 that threatens to make a successful meeting an impos- 

 sibility. We were informed a few months ago that 

 the President had become acquainted with Mr. Max- 

 well's true character and had warned Mr. Pinchot and 

 Mr. Newell to discontinue their co-operation with that 

 gentleman. These officers of the Government have 

 made an outward appearance of having done so, but 

 no one who watches the progress of affairs can be de- 

 ceived. The association is as close as it has ever been, 

 regardless of the apparent attitude of unfriendliness 

 which Mr. Pinchot and Mr. Newell manifest in public. 

 Mr. C. B. Boothe secured the chairmanship of the 

 executive committee of the Irrigation Congress last year 

 through the cunning of Mr. Maxwell. Boothe and Max- 

 well have been feeding at the same trough for a num- 

 ber of years and, as was predicted early in the year, 

 Mr. Maxwell has entire control of the arrangements 

 for the Congress. Boothe has recently formed the 

 following "sections" for the conduct of the program : 

 SECTIONS. 



Forestry Gifford Pinchot, chairman, Atlantic 

 building, Washington, D. C. 



Land and Water Laws George H. Maxwell, chair- 

 man. Fisher building, Chicago. 



Engineering and Mechanics Frederick H. Newell, 

 chairman, Reclamation Service, Washington, D. C. 



Production by Irrigation Chairman. 



Climatology Willis L. Moore, chairman, Depart-, 

 ment Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Does this look as though Mr. Maxwell and his 

 friends in Government service were working in any 

 manner but harmoniously? Mr. Moore was doubtless 

 selected as a blind. To place a professional railroad 

 lobbyist in charge of the section dealing with land 

 and irrigation law and a mining engineer and geolor 

 gist, who has never had experience in the Government 

 work he now assumes to conduct, in charge of the sec- 

 tion dealing with engineering and mechanics, is the 

 acme of the ridiculous. The question now is whether 

 or not the local management will stand for any such 

 arrangement as Mr. Boothe has made The people of 

 El Paso and Texas are interested in the success of 

 the Congress. Will they permit it to be used as an 

 instrument to further the cause Mr. Maxwell and Mr. 

 Boothe advocate in behalf of the land and repealers and 

 holders of land scrip? 



The irrigation law of 1902 creates an 

 The empire within an empire. On the one 



Irrigation hand are many sovereign States with su- 

 Problem. preme dominion over matters and 

 things, persons and property within their 

 boundary lines, powerless to enforce any mandate or 

 law beyond those boundary lines. 



On the other hand is the Federal Government, ex- 

 ercising uniform, universal dominion over its prop- 

 erty, scattered through all the vast territory included 

 within the sovereign State lines. There is not and 

 there can not be any conflict of jurisdiction or do- 

 minion upon this point, both being sovereign within 

 their spheres of jurisdiction, and each may enact what- 

 ever laws it shall deem proper and adequate for those 

 subject to its dominion, without interference one with 

 the other when acting within constitutional limits. 



The national irrigation law expressly limits its 

 operation to its domain scattered over many States and 

 Territories specifically selected out of the total num- 

 ber of the United States, and omits all the remaining 

 States. The law, therefore, operates only in a certain 

 specified portion of the country and is inoperative in 

 all the remaining portion. 



Whence it may be said that it is practically spe- 

 cial or local legislation, expressly and intentionally in- 

 tended to benefit one portion of the country directly 

 and to exclude from its benefits all other portions ex- 

 cept indirectly as their trade and commerce may be 

 benefited by the proper enforcement of the law upon 

 lands reclaimed. 



Considered, therefore, as special legislation, and 

 from the letter of the law itself, it is impossible to 

 consider it in any other light; the national irrigation 



