498 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Kutz, Lieut. Col. John Biddle, of San Francisco, division 

 engineer of the Pacific division, and Lieut. Col. W. C. 

 Langfitt, now of Washington, D. C., but formerly located 

 for many years at Portland. Maj. W. W. Harts, now of 

 Nashville, Tenn., formerly was located at San Francisco 

 for several years; Maj. Harry Burgess, of New Orleans. 



N t H M A !arge number of the most noted men 



in the country will attend the Eighteenth 

 To Be At National Irrigation Congress at Pueblo, 



the Pueblo It is expected that President Taft and all 



Convention. l1 ' 1 - members of his cabinet will be pres- 

 ent and letters have been received from 

 many members of the United States Senate, House of 

 Representatives, and the Governors of several States ex- 

 pressing their intentions of taking part in the proceedings. 

 Theodore Roosevelt has been invited as one of the prin- 

 cipal speakers, and it is quite certain that a large number 

 of his influential friends and admirers will also be there. 

 Gifford Pinchot will urge Mr. Roosevelt to accept the in- 

 vitation to speak at the Congress, and he will himself 

 champion the Roosevelt conservation policy. The mayors 

 of every important city in the country have been invited 

 to attend the Congress, and scores of bankers, financiers 

 and railroad men who are deeply interested in the develop- 

 ment of the West and the policies which govern, are ex- 

 pected to take an active part in the discussion of subjects 

 to be considered. Altogether it will doubtless be the 

 most notable irrigation congress ever held and illustrates 

 the extraordinary inteiest in this great work that has 

 seized upon the people. Conservation of our natural re- 

 sources in its broadest sense is the most important sub- 

 ject claiming the attention and vitally affecting the inter- 

 ests of the people today and they are beginning to realize 

 it. It must be a source of gratification to those far-seeing, 

 hopeful and determined men who, many years ago, saw as 

 in a vision the tremendous future importance of irrigation 

 and conservation, to now see that their hopes are being 

 realized and their predictions verified. 



It is stated on the authority of the offi- 

 cials of the Reclamation Service that 

 Farmers thousands of American farmers who 



Leaving went to Canada are again turning their 



Canada. faces homeward. Many farmers who 



sold their holdings in this country to try 

 their fortunes in Canada, have already arrived at their 

 former homes and many are expected to follow soon. It 

 is said that practically every American farmer in the 

 neighborhood of Alberta, where the Canadian Govern- 

 ment maintains an irrigation project, is dissatisfied with 

 conditions and wants to get back home. 



The principal crops raised there are alfalfa and winter 

 wheat, and there is much uncertainty as to these. The 

 climate is extremely cold, heavy snowstorms falling in 

 September and October last year adding to the general 

 discomfort and discontent. It is estimated that 15,000 set- 

 tlers have returned from Canada during the past nine 

 months, and the great majority of these base their prin- 

 cipal objection .to the country on the form of the Canadian 

 Government. Free born Americans do not take kindly to 

 Canadian or other foreign laws, and homesickness quickly 

 strikes them when they get beyond the boundaries of their 

 own country. 



The turning homeward of the tide of immigration that 

 has flowed northward during the past few years is no 

 surprise to those who are familiar with the conditions in 



this country. With the vast tracts of tertile arid lands 

 now being developed along broad and intelligent lines by 

 the best government on earth, located near the big mar- 

 kets in the biggest country in the world, with a people 

 and climate unsurpassed, the farmer who leaves America 

 to seek his fortune in Canada is making a great mis- 

 take and will soon regret it. 



Dangers 

 in the 

 District 

 Irrigation Law 



Every State having the district law 

 should have a competent State adminis- 

 tration and a code of irrigation laws 

 which will enable the officers in charge 

 to see to it that the district business is 

 safe. The early California experience has 

 been repeated in Colorado. It would seem that Colorado 

 has adopted much ot questionable value from California 

 and that it has not accepted much that is good from other 

 states. The Wright District Law of California was worked 

 to the limit. Bonded indebtedness piled up until the situa- 

 tion seemed hopeless. It was hopeless. An attempt was 

 made when the seriousness of the situation was fully real- 

 ized to have the law declared unconstitutional. California 

 has no administration that can pass on the legality or 

 feasibility of irrigation works and plans for irrigation dis- 

 tricts. Colorado is in much the same position. Wyoming 

 has adopted the district law with some changes and unless 

 all signs fail trouble will occur in that state. 



The great difficulty with the law is that some specu- 

 lator will buy up lands and then vote favorably for a dis- 

 trict. In Wyoming the state engineer must pass on the 

 feasibility of the plans for reclamation. There is nothing 

 to force the promoters of the district to carry out these 

 plans. There is nothing to protect the prospective settler. 

 It is easy for the promoters to prepare plans that are first- 

 class in every detail. It is easy for them to place lands 

 on the market at $30 and then add $20 for water rights 

 when the lands might have been bought in the first place 

 for $2 per acre and the irrigation system built for at least 

 $20 per acre. This kind of business always reacts. 



For this reason we hold that an irrigation district 

 should not be possible except where the lands are in pri- 

 vate holdings and where these holdings are small compara- 

 tively. The district law should never operate except where 

 competent public supervision of 'plans is provided. This 

 public supervision should go further. The money raised 

 by a bond issue should be placed in the hands of some 

 public officer or at least subject to the examination of such 

 an officer. The public should exact a bond or some kind 

 of security from those who are responsible for the comple- 

 tion of the irrigation system so that the plans as approved 

 may be carried into effect. There should be some means 

 whereby the promoters, if such exist, will be compelled 

 to dispose of lands and water rights at a price that would 

 compare with real values. The prospective settler should 

 have some protection. 



Colorado 

 To Help in 

 Arid Land 

 Development. 



A. campaign of colonization directed by 

 the State officials of Colorado, now under 

 way, promises to be of the greatest bene- 

 fit to that State. Its objects are to bring 

 farmers into the State and to protect 

 their interests by helping them to choose 



desirable locations and to guard them against mistakes 



