435 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



COURTS UPHOLD OREGON WATER CODE 



BOTH State and Federal courts have upheld the 

 Oregon water code. 



Until in 1909, when the water code, considered 

 a model of its kind, designed to meet the needs of 

 a growing state by establishing and protecting all 

 appropriations for irrigation, power, domestic or 

 other purposes, was enacted, water rights were in 

 a chaotic condition in Oregon, and continual litiga- 

 tion was the rule on a majority of the streams of 

 the state. The state water board was created by 

 this law for the purpose of denning and establish- 

 ing all of the early water rights, most of which had 

 never been recorded in any way. When a request 

 for the determination of water rights on a certain 

 stream is made, the board, if it sees fit, may compel 

 every water user on such stream to submit state- 

 ment and proof of his claim. If any of these claims 

 are contested, informal hearings are had before the 

 division superintendent. The findings of the board 

 are submitted to the circuit court for confirmation 

 or rejection and appeal may be taken from the deci- 

 sion of the circuit court in the usual way. After the 

 circuit court of Malheur county had modified the 

 findings of the state water board in re Willow 

 Creek, an appeal was taken to the supreme court by 

 the Eastern Oregon Land Company, Lower Willow 

 Creek Water Users' Association, and others, it be- 

 ing alleged that the water code was unconstitu- 

 tional, in that it attempted to confer judicial power 

 on an executive board, and authorized the confisca- 

 tion of private property without due process of law. 



In writing the opinion, Judge Bean, of the state 

 court, stated that the enactment of the water code 

 was a lawful exercise of the police power of the 

 state to "accelerate the development of the state, 

 to promote peace and good order, to minimize the 

 danger of vexatious controversies wherein the 

 shovel was often used as an instrument of warfare, 

 and to provide a convenient way for the adjust- 

 ment and recording of the rights of the various 

 claimants to the use of the water of a stream or 

 other source of supply at a reasonable expense." 



ATTACKS RECLAMATION SERVICE 



Gov. E. M. Ammons of Colorado stirred the 

 recent conference of governors at Madison, Wis., 

 by a spirited attack on the United States Reclama- 

 tion Service. He charged that the Reclamation 

 Service had disobeyed the orders of Presidents 

 Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson in refusing to allow the 

 state of Colorado the use of public lands for the 

 building of a reservoir to develop adjacent lands. 



Gov. Ammons also charged that eastern con- 

 servationists had been so unfair as to deny the west- 

 ern states the opportunity to state their side of the 

 case in the magazines. He charged that a magazine 

 which printed conservation articles on Colorado was 

 filled with misrepresentation and has refused to 

 print the other side. By way of indicating the de- 

 gree of misrepresentation, he said that the maga- 

 zine had printed the statement that Rockefeller 



owned practically all the coal lands in Colorado, 

 while, as a matter of fact, the Rockefeller interests 

 owned but 800 of the 472,000 acres of coal lands 

 under lease. 



ASK SACRAMENTO RECEIVERS 



Two suits have been filed in the United States 

 District Court at San Francisco, demanding an ac- 

 counting, the appointment of receivers and order 

 for sale of all the property and assets of the Sacra- 

 mento Valley Irrigation Company, which in 1909 

 floated a $10,000,000 development project, covering 

 200,000 acres in Glenn and Colusa counties, in Cali- 

 fornia. 



The project was financed by the Kuhns of 

 Pittsburgh, who failed some time ago. 



The Equitable Trust Company of New York, 

 as trustee for the bondholders, is plaintiff in one of 

 the suits, and Merle B. Moon of Detroit, chairman 

 of an organization of creditors known as the Sacra- 

 mento Valley Committee, is plaintiff in the other. 

 The amount of $5,046,944.01 is alleged to be due for 

 money advanced by the American Water Works & 

 Guarantee Company, and by Moon as chairman of 

 the creditors' committee. 



TEXAS WATER LAW ATTACKED 



Because the constitutionality of the act creat- 

 ing the State Board of Water Engineers of Texas 

 is involved, the board has requested the attorney 

 general's department to assign one of the members 

 to assist the city attorney of Corpus Christi in de- 

 fending the suit styled the Nueces Irrigation Com- 

 pany vs. the City of Corpus Christi. 



The State Board of Water Engineers, following 

 a hearing, allowed the city of Corpus Christi addi- 

 tional water appropriation from the Nueces River 

 for municipal and domestic purposes, and refused 

 to increase the amount of water for which applica- 

 tion had been made by the Nueces Irrigation Com- 

 pany and others who were riparian owners and 

 water users from the river. 



The suit instituted contests the right of the 

 board to allow appropriation of the water and the 

 constitutionality of the act creating the board, al- 

 leging illegal delegation of power by the legisla- 

 ture. 



CANALIZE PROJECT RIVERS 



Cheap transportation for the market products 

 raised on irrigation projects is provided by the 

 Australian Government before farmers are asked to 

 settle in such districts. This cheap transportation 

 is established by canalization of the rivers and the 

 building of railroads. Such roads, necessarily oper- 

 ated at a loss during their first few years, are said 

 to be now earning 6 per cent on money borrowed 

 at 4 per cent. 



