110 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



"IS NEWELL TRYING TO MAKE SERFS 



OUT OF THE WATER USERS ?" 



"Is Newell trying to 

 make serfs out of the 

 Water Users on the Fed- 

 eral irrigation projects? 

 Are the great reclama- 

 tion projects to be dedi- 

 cated as temples to 

 Mammon, god of the 

 lust for gold? Is all the 

 individuality of the men 

 and women who are try- 

 ing to create homes in 

 the desert west to be de- 

 stroyed in order that 

 Newell and his army of 

 retainers may go on sell- 

 ing us 'short' on wa- 

 ter?" 



It was Fulton H. 

 Sears of Fallon, Nev., a 

 homesteader on the 

 Truckee-Carson project, 

 who asked these ques- 

 tions. Sears had just 

 finished a careful study 

 of the doctrines of "Ben- 

 eficial Use" and "Eco- 

 nomic Use" as enun- 

 ciated in resolutions, 

 passed at a meeting of 

 project managers and 

 water masters in Salt 

 Lake City. F. H. New- 

 ell, director, presided at 

 this meeting, and I. D. 

 O'Donnell, who was 

 named as supervisor of 

 irrigation, in the reor- 

 ganization of the service, 

 was an active partici- 

 pant. Both Newell and 

 O'Donnell are members 

 of the Reclamation Com- 

 mission of five members, 

 which now controls fed- 

 eral irrigation. 



Sears is a tall, well 

 knitted man, with face 

 tanned by Nevada's sun- 

 shine and the square jaw 

 of a fighter. He is typ- 

 ical of the men who are 

 giving the best that is in 

 them of brain and brawn 



in developing the "land 

 that God forgot." For 

 years he practiced law in Chicago. He was success- 

 ful, but he was not satisfied. He wanted a piece of 

 land, a place where his children could breathe clear, 

 clean country air, have plenty of sunshine and learn 

 the beauties and benefits of nature in nature's own 

 school. He took up a homestead on the Truckee- 



Rcsolutions adopted at a meeting of Federal proj- 

 ect officials in Salt Lake C'it\: 



BENEFICIAL USE OF WATER A water user 

 with a vested right limited to beneficial use is entitled to 

 that amount of water that will render him a reasonable 

 maximum amount of good with a reasonably economic 

 handling of the water. Since he has acquired his vested 

 right from the laws of his state, he is entitled to protec- 

 tion of that right by the state; but it is his duty to the 

 state, and the state has the right to demand of him that 

 he use every reasonable method to reduce the amount of 

 water required to a minimum. This demand requires the 

 water user to make reasonable preparation of the ground 

 surface for irrigation; to use good judgment in selecting 

 appropriate methods of applying the water to the ground; 

 to prepare reasonably efficient dikes, ditches and struc- 

 tures to get the water over the land in such a way as to 

 reduce the underground losses to a minimum, to irrigate 

 the ground with such a head and at such intervals as to 

 require a minimum use of water for proper irrigation; 

 to cultivate the irrigated ground when practicable to pre- 

 vent undue losses from evaporation; in some cases possi- 

 bly to govern the character of crops to be grown. It is 

 evident that the reasonable degree of perfection of each 

 of these requirements will vary with the locality and with 

 different and changing conditions in each locality, so 

 that the beneficial use of water is variable. 



ECONOMICAL USE OF WATER Since the water 

 supply available for irrigation in the western states is ade- 

 quate for only a relatively small percentage of the entire 

 irrigable acreage, the fundamental standard of economical 

 use must be the financial results accomplished per acre- 

 foot of water applied rather than the yield per acre irri- 

 gated. It, therefore, becomes both necessary and desir- 

 able to impress irrigators with the fact that in general the 

 largest net profits per acre-foot of water applied are ob- 

 tained, not from using excessive quantities, but from more 

 careful use of relatively small quantities. In developing 

 a more economical standard for the use of water, it should 

 not be presumed that established rights can be limited 

 to less water than they would carry under the accepted 

 rule of beneficial use; yet by constantly bearing in mind 

 that the ideal ultimately necessary must be the highest 

 net profit per unit of water applied, irrigators may grad- 

 ually be induced in many instances to obtain for them- 

 selves those results, and those undertaking the construc- 

 tion of new projects may be induced to so design their 

 systems as to provide a liberal water supply during the 

 development period with a view to ultimate development 

 based on economic use. 



In the history of irrigation in this country, there 

 has been evident a gradual but very definite evolution in 

 the ideas of what constitutes proper use of water. While 

 the use of water for irrigation was at first a relatively un- 

 important one, its importance now overshadows all other 

 uses, save that of domestic supply. In the course of this 

 evolution, the doctrine of beneficial use has become estab- 

 lished, but in future development this doctrine must in 

 many cases merge into, or be supplemented by that of 

 economic use. The doctrine of beneficial use looks to in- 

 dividual interest; that of economic use to the general wel- 

 fare of society as a whole. So far as possible, water 

 charges, systems of distribution, and regulations should 

 be so adjusted as to make the interest of the individual 

 water user coincide with this public interest. 



Carson project five years 

 ago. He has one of the 

 best developed farms in 

 that district today, but 

 he has still many strug- 

 gles ahead of him, and 

 the settlers about him, at 

 least those who were not 

 as well fixed financially 

 as was Sears when they 

 started in to homestead, 

 have even greater strug- 

 gles and problems. 



These problems 

 largely concern dealings 

 with the United States 

 government, and with 

 the Federal Reclamation 

 Service. That was why 

 Sears entered heartily 

 into the organization of 

 the National Federation 

 of Water Users' Asso- 

 ciations ; that was why 

 he has since served as a 

 member of its executive 

 committee. 



Sears turned again 

 to the Irrigation Age, in 

 which he had been read- 

 ing the new water "doc- 

 trines" of the Federal 

 reclamation officials. 



"Those resolutions 

 sound good on paper ; no 

 doubt they have cost the 

 water users several 

 thousands of dollars ; 

 you know the expenses 

 of all such gatherings as 

 this one of the water 

 masters are charged to 

 us fellows," continued 

 Sears, "but they are 

 wholly impracticable, if 

 the interests of the set- 

 tlers are to be at all con- 

 sidered. 



"If it wasn't that we 

 project settlers face the 

 serious fact that the 

 highly - theoretical and 

 impractical men, . sent 

 out from Washington 

 and other great centers 



of irrigation in the east, 

 will try to enforce these 'doctrines' as the law of the 

 projects, the resolution would simply be exceedingly 

 amusing. At least they aptly illustrate the prob- 

 lems which the real settlers meet in dealing with 

 these civil-service-fortified high-brow gentlemen, 

 who ride in automobiles for which we are paying. 



