THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



43 



funds. It has also taken the first step looking 

 towards construction with public funds if such 

 action is found necessary. 



The "wild cat" irrigation project has seriously 

 retarded development in the west. The financier 

 has become skeptical of all irrigation projects, and 

 the settler without the ability or means to investi- 

 gate every feature of a complicated project, refuses 

 to invest. Those who have purchased dry ditches 

 write letters warning their friends against western 

 investments. A few such failures can easily offset 

 an expensive development campaign. 



The western people are responsible for these 

 conditions and not the administrative officers. Some 

 of our states have not as yet undertaken public 

 supervision of their water resources, others refuse 

 to give their administrative officers the necessary 

 power to deal with the situation effectively, and all 

 refuse to make adequate appropriations for stream 

 measurements and records of water supply, so that 

 the situation could be handled if the laws were 

 adequate. 



If a public officer insists on delay while he is 

 securing water supply records, he is accused of 

 blocking progress by red tape methods. Not even 

 the land owners in whose interest he is laboring will 

 support his action. It is generally assumed that 

 an engineer should be able to measure the water 

 in a stream, and make a complicated water supply 

 report in about the same time and for about the 

 same cost as for a land survey. 



For an expensive project where it is planned 

 to utilize practically all the surplus waters of a 

 stream, daily records for a period of ten years are 

 sometimes insufficient as a basis for an accurate 

 estimate of the avalible supply. 



The remedy for the ''wild cat" evil lies first in 

 more liberal appropriations for stream gaging work ; 

 second, more authority for the administrative offi- 

 cers in passing upon questions of water supply, 

 cost and financial ability, before allowing a large 

 project to proceed ; and third, stronger support by 

 the people benefited, in case a project is turned down. 



Water is of more value than land in the wes.t. 

 It is highly important that the people be aroused 

 to the value of public water surveys, and the ne- 

 cessity of securing more complete information as 

 to the duty of water. 



SEEPAGE WATER 



An interesting decision on the right to seepage 

 water is that of Comstock vs. Ramsay (Colorado), 

 133 Pac., 1107. It appears that the natural flow of 

 the stream had all been appropriated ; that owing 

 to the building of irrigation ditches and a reservoir 

 some distance form the stream, certain waters 

 seeped back into the stream through the gravel and 

 sand underlying the soil sufficient to supply certain 

 appropriations prior in time to upper appropriations 

 which took the natural flow. On the basis that the 

 seepage water was part of the supply of the stream 

 which had been wholly appropriated by prior ap- 

 propriators, the court reversed a judgment in favor 

 of a claimant who had constructed a ditch, caught 

 the seepage water before it reached the stream and 

 sought to acquire a right to use the stream as a 

 carrier of this seepage water so caught in his ditch. 



AN ANALYSIS OF THE "BIG LOST RIVER" 

 SITUATION 



To the Editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago. 



Sir: His Excellency, Governor John M. 

 Haines, of Idaho, in the November number of your 

 publication, replying to the "Upen Letter" addressed 

 to him by me, appearing in your October issue, has 

 taken me to task upon the broad general grounds of 

 "unfairness." In the issue containing the Gov- 

 ernor's reply you have, editorially, extended to his 

 Excellency and to myself, the courtesy of further 

 use of your columns. 



Since the point of ethics may be raised, permit 

 me, in advance, to offer that in my opinion the 

 Governor's communication calls for a reply as pub- 

 lic as the previous correspondence not because it 

 is at all essential that your readers should be bur- 

 dened with any attempted vindication of myself 

 from the charges and insinuations of the Governor, 

 but because the broad questions at stake appeal to 

 me as transcending the limits of any personal con- 

 troversy. 



Of tremendous public importance is the cor- 

 rect solution of the Big Lost River- the issues pre- 

 sented within the project itself are grave enough, 

 and I approach their discussion with a full measure 

 of appreciation of the fact but in its broader as- 

 pects, is it too much to say that the entire funda- 

 mental subject of reclamation under the "Carey 

 Act," through the intervention of private capital is 

 upon trial? There are not wanting critics men 

 whose utterances we listened to with respect, and 

 who from their official connections, would be pre- 

 sumed to resent any reflections upon the ability of 

 the states to cope with their problems who are 

 ready to pronounce the "Carey Act", measured by 

 past achievements, a failure. 



Under the circumstances, I feel justified in ad- 

 dressing this communication to yourself, and 

 through you to the general public. I trust that in 

 so doing, I will not appear to be acting in disregard 

 of the conventions and that His Excellency will 

 accept my explanation as sufficient grounds for so 

 acting. 



Although this question should be approached 

 from the standpoint of public policy and interest, I 

 find myself unable to frame an apparently fitting 

 reply to the Governor's communication without a 

 free intermingling of references of both "public" 

 and private nature. I am loath to do this, but see 

 no way to avoid it, as there is no time at my dis- 

 posal for the production of a finished document. In 

 the high esteem in which I hold the high office oc- 

 cupied by his Excellency, I yield to no man, and 

 nothing is further from my intention than to make 

 a public issue of a private controversy. The Gov- 

 ernor, through his personal references, however, 

 calls into question the sincerity not only of myself, 

 but of practically all the great number who, from 

 interest in the project or from the standpoint of 

 principle, have protested against the apparent inert- 

 ness of the state officials. 



I would say to the Governor that I have a deep 

 appreciation of the difficulties attaching to his of- 

 ficial position as Governor and chairman of the 

 State Board of Land Commissioners. I realize bet- 

 ter than the average reader, perhaps, the difficulties 



