THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



339 



rious commercial forms of organizations corpora- 

 tions selling water rights, Carey Act companies, 

 irrigation districts, water users' association, and 

 individuals might be secured in small amounts, but 

 the outlook in this direction is not genuinely hope- 

 ful and this course is not without its side of serious 

 objection. 



The Congress and its governing board will 

 have other matters besides finance to engage its at- 

 tention questions pressing for immediate solution 



largely through remedial legislation by the states. 



The present era of paralysis in irrigation and immi- 

 gration was precipitated in May, 1910. It had been 

 foreseen and heralded by able thinkers and sincere- 

 minded students for a number of years previously. 

 The writer has before him papers predicting the 

 cataclysm from the pens of no meaner authority 

 than Director Newell of dates of 1908-1909 papers 

 in a similar vein by two of the most eminent en- 

 gineers in private practice in Colorado, the illumi- 

 nating discussion of Irrigation Securities by C. M. 

 Keys of March, 1910, and the reports of a number 

 of state engineers ranging from 1909 to 1911 all 

 of them "sounding a note" against the then prevalent 

 flood of "paper" Irrigation Projects. The writer, 

 bimself, in 1911, contributed a series of "Papers on 

 Irrigation Finance" to the "Financial World" of 

 New York, much of it being a resume of personal 

 observation fortified by that of well-known author- 

 ities. 



The attitude of the Congress towards these 

 vital questions has been lethargic. At Pueblo, in 

 1910, the subject of more effective control of Irri- 

 gation Projects was disposed of by a resolution au- 

 thorizing the board of governors to appoint a com- 

 mission to study the entire subject and to report to 

 the next Congress. This commission, so far as any 

 records show, was never called into being. The 

 Congress of 1911 was brought to Chicago largely 

 upon the representation that the questions of "Irri- 

 gation Finance" would be given prominence upon 

 the program in the city of their greatest importance. 

 The subject was disposed of in one paper by Mr. 

 Norman E. Webster, Jr., largely devoted to the 

 technique of irrigation accounting, although our 

 speaker in a thoroughgoing manner, pointed out,, 

 again, some salient facts of vital import. We can- 

 not refrain from culling a few excerpts by way of 

 emphasis. "There are, today (1912), five or six 

 million acres supplied with water but unirngated 

 for lack of settlers. In addition to these acres, there 

 are fully ten million acres included in partially com- 

 pleted projects, the managers of which are looking 

 forward, anxiously, to the time when the water will 

 be in the canals and the settlers on the land. We 

 naturally compare this total acreage to' be opened 

 up in the next seven or eight years, to the rate of 

 settlement during the last decade. In ten years of 

 good times we have added to this irrigated area of 

 the west but 6,200,000 acres. In other words, to 

 bring settlers to the fifteen million acres now ready, 

 or to be ready, in the next seven or eight years, we 

 will have to procure settlers about three times as 

 fast as we have secured them in the past decade. 

 The west must not place upon the industrious set- 

 tler a greater burden than he can bear. Already 

 the price of land under many of the irrigation enter- 



prises is more than he can pay for. Raise it a little 

 higher and he will stay at home. Only a little 

 more inflation is needed in some districts to burst 

 the bubble created by land owners. The rallying 

 cry then will be "Back to the shops and the city." 

 our speaker knew whereof he spoke and he did not 

 stop here. He gave to the "Speculative Enterprise" 

 its full meed of attention. The west, with all its 

 marvelous resources and advantages of living, 

 is confronted "by a condition not a theory." Con- 

 ditions can be righted and restored to healthful 

 equilibrium, but they cannot be depended to over- 

 come their own inertia, unaided. The Irrigation ; 

 Congress is the only organized body in a position 

 to cope with the situation, and it is plainly "up to" 

 that body to devote its energies to the most serious 

 situation that has confronted the land and irriga- 

 tion interests of the west during its entire evolution. 

 At the Chicago Congress I, again, introduced a 

 resolution of import similar to that of 1910, which 

 was again carried, and which went further in that it 

 authorized the board of governors to raise such 

 sums as might be needed to carry on the work of 

 the commission. This resolution met the same fate 

 at the hands of the governing board as that adopted 

 .at Pueblo. At Salt Lake, resolutions favoring states' 

 control of irrigation projects were adopted, but 

 nothing was said of a commission the authors of 

 the former resolutions having, apparently, tired of 

 their efforts. It was left for Mr. George Snow of 

 Salt Lake City to point out, in an ably prepared 

 paper, a line of procedure which seems to meet with' 

 the approbation of students generally and which 

 follows, somewhat, the system adopted by Califor- 

 nia in 1911, relative to irrigation districts. The 1 

 broad question is now, what shall the Congress do 

 to become a potent militant force for good, instead 

 of a mere forum for public discourse for addresses 

 many of which are not heard of again till embodied 

 in some printed document. First, it must place it- 

 self in a position to devote continued, active, effort 

 toward the work at hand. If, to accomplish this, it 

 be necessary to strengthen its organization, let this 

 be done. Continuity of efforts will go far, also, to- 

 ward solving the vexed problem of finances. Sec- 

 ond, it should pursue an active, far-reaching cam- 

 paign to procure needed legislation to the end that 

 irrigation enterprises and their securities be prop- 

 erly safeguarded. Third, it should act in the same 

 manner to the end that the states make their "bu- 

 reaus of immigration" official clearing houses for 

 real information respecting all phases of land open 

 to settlement, including the status of water rights. 

 What does the average man know or where can he 

 find out of the value of a water right in a new 

 country? Fourth, let the Congress embark on a 

 campaign of legitimate newspaper and magazine 

 publicity, setting forth to the world at large what 

 is being done to safeguard the interests of the in- 

 ventor and intending settler. Reputable publica- 

 tions, generally, will not be adverse to the publica- 

 tion of such data, if not tinctured with suspicion of 

 "private gain." Lastly, the Congress, itself, or its 

 permanent salaried officials should constitute them- 

 selves a bureau of information, a clearing house, so 

 to say, of the irrigation interests of the country. 



