500 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



advantage of the laws that are framed to protect them, 

 that all who have failed to secure rights of way and to 

 have these rights of way properly recorded should see to 

 it that these details are attended to at an early date. It is 

 often much easier to settle rights of way during the early 

 stages of development when all settlers and landowners 

 are striving to encourage every move which will add to 

 the prosperity of the community. Delay generally means 

 complications and great expense. Above all things, when 

 an agreement has been reached as to the disposition of 

 lands for rights of way for any purpose, a deed should be 

 immediately drawn and recorded. Deeds of this kind 

 should only give the purchaser the right to use tne land 

 for a specified purpose and when the use fixed by the 

 deed ceases, the land should revert to the original owner. 



, The man who reads at random and 



Mr. Pinchot s ,. . . , 



never digests what he reads must be 



ter convinced that a water power monopoly 



Power is likely to develop. Mr. Pinchot, late 



Advertising. forester of the United States, has ad- 



vertised this scare very thoroughly. He 

 is a good advertiser but his theories are generally found 

 to be of but little value when they are analyzed or put 

 to a practical test. He has very adroitly brought many 

 to believe that every natural resource is liable to be 

 monopolized. The only monopolies in the public land 

 states are those that are fostered in some way by the 

 national government, and Mr. Pinchot has been very active 

 in his co-operation with such interests as have been able 

 to help him out in his political and publicity campaigns. 

 We have certain land grants made by Congress, which 

 might be termed local monopolies in land. We have 

 exchanges of scrip for land Mr. Pinchot wished in forest 

 reserves, which are monopolies of a more dangerous kind. 

 He did not hesitate to approve of a plan whereby a rail- 

 road secured 6,000,000 acres of scrip. He holds up his 

 hands in holy horror when a poor homesteader violates 

 some rule or regulation under the homestead act. 



Yet this man now poses as the defender of the com- 

 mon people. He conjures up a new plank and calls it 

 "conservation." 'He has never defined what the term 

 means. He has embraced pure food, the white slave 

 traffic and the water power monopoly under the one com- 

 prehensive heading. It is possible that some prophet will 

 rise up and give us some light. Thus far Mr. Pinchot has 

 not shown the way, yet many who read without study 

 and who accept policies without mature reason, have ac- 

 cepted "conservation" as the true faith. One year it is 

 the money question, the next year it is imperialism. Of 

 all of the fads "conservation" is the most ridiculous. 

 We know nothing about the scientific features of pure 

 food and possibly less about the white slave traffic. We 

 will make a few remarks as to the water-power scare. 



Let us refer to a country that has worked out some 

 of the material problems which Mr. Pinchot now tries to 

 solve in his own way and for his own benefit. Egypt 

 is old enough to furnish us examples. What about water 

 power on the Nile? Did we ever hear of a water power 

 monopoly there? Although the native rule of Egypt was 

 corrupt and Turkish domination almost intolerable, each 

 giving franchises to favorites, yet power developed from 

 the waters of the Nile is still a drug on the market. The 

 rapids at the first cataract would furnish power. Every 

 farmer in Egypt needs power for lifting water from the 

 river or canal to his fields. Gravity irrigation there is 

 hardly known. All irrigation, practically speaking, is per- 



formed by lifting the water from the channel where it 

 flows. How is this done? There are many devices that 

 are worked by hand power. There are many that are run 

 by animals. There are many that are operated by steam. 

 The coal comes largely from England. Why has the 

 water power of the river not been developed? Simply 

 because it would not pay. Why has the water power 

 of our streams not been developed? Because the market 

 for power would not justify the investment. In several 

 thousands of years it may be that our coal supply will 

 give out. The people then will be as much our superiors 

 as we are the superiors of the cave dweller. They will 

 have methods for accomplishing results necessary to the 

 life of that age that we cannot dream of now. There 

 will be plenty of undeveloped water power then. 



We have a theory that must finally be, we believe, 

 recognized. Resources must be controlled by the people 

 concerned in their use. The national government should 

 only retain control as long as no plans are submitted for 

 a more local supervision or for actual beneficial use. If 

 a state can administer resources in behalf of the public 

 represented within its borders, it should be held responsi- 

 ble. If the community within a state organizes so as to 

 provide proper management, the entire control should go 

 to that community. It is easy for Congress to make 

 appropriations. It is easy to provide for new offices and 

 to get new officers. The necessary work of the national 

 government has narrow limits. Because so much is being 

 done now that has no value to the people at large, it is 

 easy to multiply federal places. This all tends to in- 

 crease the official family at Washington. The wires to 

 many districts throughout the country are multiplied and 

 the life of the politician is mide more secure. The na- 

 tional government has not been able to erect buildings 

 in Washington with sufficient rapidity to shelter the 

 officeholders. The government is renting buildings 

 throughout the city. The outlook for quarters for the 

 future is not bright because the official family is very 

 prolific. This horde of officeholders accomplishes some- 

 thing. If some departments were entirely obliterated and 

 others reduced from sixty to ninety-nine per cent, the 

 change would never be noticed by the people at large. 

 Only the officials directly concerned, their immediate rela- 

 tives and friends and their political allies would pay at- 

 tention to such a reform. Each officeholder of any stand- 

 ing can tell you how much he is doing for the people, 

 but upon investigation it will be found that a large part 

 of the work is worth but a few cents when it costs thou- 

 sands of dollars. It will be the purpose of the AGE to 

 show to the reading public some of the most notorious 

 examples of useless offices. 



We should like to review some recent 

 What history which should be kept in mind. 



Does We wish to inquire into the meaning of 



Conservation the term "conservation" and try to un- 

 Mean? derstand why the little coterie of govern- 



ment officials at Washington have broken 

 away from administrative work, as prescribed by law, and 

 have launched into politics. We only need go back a few 

 years to find how the forest service developed. When we 

 remember the many conventions that we attended and 

 when we review the efforts of the forest people to get a 

 resolution indorsing their work, we begin to see the begin- 

 ning of the publicity movement. 



Mr. Pinchot has been a great success as a publicity 







