THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XIX 



CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER, 1904. 



No. 11 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which is Merged 



MODERN IRRIGATION 

 THE IRRIGATION ERA 

 ARID AMERICA 



THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 

 M ID-WEST 



THE FARM HERALD 



THE D. H. ANDERSON PUBLISHING CO., 

 PUBLISHERS, 



112 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 



Entered at the Postoffice at Chicago, 111., as Second-Class Matter. 



D. H. ANDERSON / Pir . 

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Western Office: Chamber of Commerce Building, Denver, Colo. 

 GEO. W. WAGNER, Mgr. W. C. JACKSON, Editor, Western Dept. 



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EDITORIAL 



The interview of Mr. Newell's, published 

 Newell's elsewhere in this issue, and the reply 

 Interview. of Governor Chatterton of Wyoming are 



deserving of some study and further in- 

 vestigation. Mr. Newell has always taken the posi- 

 tion that only the work he does is worth consideration 

 and he makes sweeping statements regarding the large 

 irrigation companies of the West that are calculated 

 to discredit such development as has taken place under 

 their management. A few years ago Mr. Newell said 

 that investment in irrigation works on a large scale was 

 not profitable, and the truth is that but few com- 

 panies have received large returns from the money 

 expended. It is also true that many of the irrigation 

 companies of the West have sold land with a water 

 right at half the price the Government will find it 

 necessary to charge. It is also true that the water 

 rights of these companies have been perfected and the 

 people who bought their lands are today as secure as 

 local laws, under which the Government must operate, 

 to a certain extent, can make them. 



Such statements coming from a man who stands 

 high in the service of the Government should have 

 weight and would, usually, be accepted as an approxi- 

 mation of the truth. Mr. Newell does not name any 



of the canal companies to which his remarks might 

 more particularly refer, but would lead one to be- 

 lieve that what he has said has general application. 

 Would he care to say that his statements refer to the 

 Washington Irrigation Company of the Yakima Val- 

 ley in the State of Washington, to the Bear Kiver Canal 

 Company in Utah, to the Grand Valley Canal Com- 

 pany in Colorado, to the Pecos Valley Irrigation Com- 

 pany in New Mexico or to the Wyoming Development 

 Company of Wyoming? He knows, as all know who 

 have visited these States, that the operation of these 

 companies has made possible the settlement of large 

 areas by comparatively poor people; that the canal 

 companies have carried these people on their books for 

 years in many cases; that only a fair return has been 

 received or is expected from the money invested, and 

 in some cases no return has yet been made. He also 

 knows that the above named companies are only a few 

 among a hundred and more that might be mentioned 

 and put in the same class. 



As before stated, Mr. Newell never recognizes the 

 _ value of any work unless done under his supervision. 

 The Irrigation Act, under which he is operating, has 

 as yet accomplished nothing for the people. It is in 

 an experimental stage and it would seem that Mr. 

 Newell would prefer to show us what can be done 

 under Government control before he discredits those 

 who have risked their money and employed the best 

 years of their lives in developing the West. 



Mr. Newell's remarks would come more gracefully 



