THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



231 



5,000,000, is unconstitutional. Justice Brewer does 

 not specifically say so, but declares that Congress can 

 only legislate in respect to such matters as are enume- 

 rated in the constitution. The power to legislate with 

 respect to irrigation of arid land was not one of the 

 enumerated powers granted by the constitution. The 

 authority of Congress to irrigate its own lands, or that 

 portion of the country wherein the property benefitted 

 is chiefly that owned by the government, is unquestioned. 

 But, the opinion holds, "we do not mean that its (con- 

 gress) legislation can override state laws in respect to 

 the general subject of reclamation." 



Of course the decision opens the way for suits to be 

 brought by private corporations to restrain the govern- 

 ment from entering upon irrigation projects which 

 might interfere with private undertakings. In fact one 

 such suit is now pending that brought by ex-Senator 

 Turner of Washington on behalf of an Arizona com- 

 pany to restrain the government work on the Colorado 

 river so that the corporation may use the water for irri- 

 gation purposes in California. It is not unlikely that 

 the Twin Falls company in Idaho will bring a similar 

 suit, as there is prospect of a conflict between the gov- 

 ernment and private enterprise along the Snake river. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



BY Q. L. SHUMWAY. 



BARON "PINCHOFF," as he is dubbed throughout 

 the west, has eyes far too large for his capabilities, a 

 fact amply illustrated by the accomplishments of the 

 forestry department, with which he has been connected 

 and has presided over practically ever since its origin. 

 It had hardly been initiated when the reigns of govern- 

 ment passed to the present chief forester, who has since 

 posed in the limelight as the savior of the American 

 forests; 



ELIZABETH JACOBS of Washington is authority for 

 the statement that while it costs the government $2,- 

 000,00'0 a year to maintain the forest service, only $400 

 a year is actually expended in planting trees. Inas- 

 much as the original purpose of the law which created 

 the service was to reforest denuded lands, and the big 

 eyes of Pinchot overlook the fact, it is time for execu- 

 tive decapitation. Less than one fiftieth of one per cent 

 of the total expense of the department is expended for 

 the cause for which the department was created. 



OFTEN in his discourses and self-written eulogies 

 he speaks of what reforestration of the mountain slopes 

 will do to the streams and for prevention of floods. 

 Annual planting of trees by the United States amounts 



to around 150,000 trees upon about 400 acres, and only 

 about 2 per cent of those planted survive. At that rate 

 it will take something over a million years to reforest 

 the denuded lands inside of forest reserves. And it 

 will cost around fifty billion dollars. It will require 

 something like fifty million years to replace the forests 

 which the lieu lands clause took from the American 

 public, if the present policies and ineffectiveness of the 

 department remain. 



ANOTHER favorite illustration which emanates from 

 the star performer of the Kitchen Cabinet, is that of 

 pouring water upon a bare table and observing how 

 quickly it will disappear if the table is set at an angle, 

 and then use the same table with a cloth upon it. With 

 this he attempts to show what a covering of the moun- , 

 tain slopes with timber will do for the flood waters. 

 Imagine if you can, the ludicrous example of the chief 

 forester of the United States telling an intelligent 

 audience that trees of the forest grow horizontally, that 

 they are criss-crossed, and that they absorb water like 

 cloth. 



MOST of us who have ever been in the forest labored 

 under a delusion that trees were perpendicular, with 

 parallel trunks, and were f a fibre that did not take 

 up water like a sponge. If this has been a delusion all 

 these years we are prone to be shocked by the realization 

 of Mr. Pinchot's illustration. 



WE ARE again bold enough to ask the ear of the 

 administration in behalf of the people of the West. We 

 admit that it is with waning hope, yea, almost despair, 

 that we call upon the chief executive of our country to 

 shake off the fetters of dependency upon those so-called 

 personal friends of his and stand for the people of this 

 republic. He should abandon political intrigue to per- 

 petuate the name and memory which should be the 

 heritage of a man like him. 



ONCE again I plead the cause of the West, without 

 hire or hope of reward save the serenity of conscience 

 of a duty well performed. Once again I say put special 

 and secret service agents upon oath in their reports, 

 and under bonds for damages if they fail to tell the 

 truth. 



THE public lands convention, which is to be held 

 in Denver, June 18-19 and 20, bids fair to be well at- 

 tended, and it is to be hoped that the West will get to- 

 gether upon some amendments to the laws if amend- 

 ments are needed. We have expressed from time to 

 time through the IRRIGATION- AGE a solution of the 

 public grazing lands question, and we herewith reiterate. 



