100 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



beneficial to the western states, it is argued,. and by 

 stabilizing the market for irrigation and drainage 

 securities. The measures provide in a federal way 

 what the legislation proposed by recent state credits 

 conferences proposed in a state way. 



The Smith bill is closely related to the Jones 

 bill. It would make government lands capable of 

 reclamation within any improvement district sub- 

 ject to lien, the same as privately owned lands. 

 One drawback now is that government land is ex- 

 empt from liens, thus retarding many needed dis- 

 trict improvements. 



The belief now is that Congress will pass one 

 of these measures. 



"Beneficial 

 Use" of 

 Water Now 

 Good Law 



The decision of Judge Lockwood, 

 of the Superior Court of Arizona, 

 which has been "hatching" for 

 nearly two years, is epoch- 

 making in its effect on the irri- 

 gated west. It is in full accord with the legislation 

 in California and in other western states which in- 

 sists on the "beneficial use" of water as against the 

 "speculative use." The creation of the Water Com- 

 mission in California a year ago made it clear that 

 water was for "use" and not for "abuse." Judge 

 Lockwood's decision makes it clear that an appro- 

 priation of water means putting the same to a bene- 

 ficial use and that a lapse of five years would con- 

 stitute abandonment of an appropriation. He also 

 applied the doctrine of relation in cases where an 

 appropriator owning a large body of land and ap- 

 plied only a small quantity of water at first, 'but 

 used reasonable diligence in bringing the balance of 

 his land into cultivation. 



Said Judge Lockwood : "It is not fair to the 

 public nor to future generations that a settler, once 

 having initiated a water right, can fail to use the 

 water, and making no effort to recover it, even 

 though the initial failure was not his fault, sit idly 

 by and by mere declarations of intention, and a 

 hope of future water supply, hold a right which 

 would necessarily debar other actual settlers from 

 coming in and making improvements and develop- 

 ing the country." 



Owing to the crowded condition 

 of the columns of THE IRRIGATION- 

 AGE, the report of the meeting at 

 Orland-Mead /-. , , , , , . , T . 



'Hand, held during March, and 



which was omitted from the April 

 issue, appears in this number. Since the meeting 

 there have been important developments which prac- 

 tically assure the experiment. Secretary Lane's visit 

 to the Pacific Coast was made the occasion of a con- 

 ference at which the Orland experimental rural 



credit plan received his unqualified endorsement. 



The Interior Department is thoroughly conver- 

 sant, it was brought out at the conference, with the 

 conditions at Orland, with the proposed remedy and 

 with the possibilities of putting an appropriation 

 through Congress at this session. In fact, the de- 

 partment is now working on a scheme of financing 

 the proposition, which, of course, must be looked 

 at by them with all the reclamation projects ulti- 

 mately under the scheme, so that the proposed bonds 

 will not prove a drain on the general funds. It is 

 possible that the reclamation construction work will 

 be used as security for the bonds issued in each 

 project. 



The conference was in the nature of an informal 

 talk, each offering ideas or details for what they 

 were worth. There was no doubt left that Mr. Lane 

 is not only in favor of the Mead plan, but that the 

 Orland project shall be one of the first in which 

 the proposed rural credits and land settlement proj- 

 ect plan shall be tried out. 



California's 

 Water Board 

 Doing Some 

 Fine Work 



California's new Water Commis- 

 sion is to be congratulated on the 

 method in which it is making ef- 

 fective the intent of the new law 

 that the sole use of water is for 

 "beneficial" ends. 



On the approval of an application by the com- 

 mission, a permit is issued, which assures to the 

 applicant his right to the use of the waters involved 

 and to none other. l>ut no license is issued to him 

 as proof of his water-right until he has complied 

 with all the provisions of the permit that is, has 

 done all those things which he set forth in his ap- 

 plication that he would do, and contingent on which 

 his license issues. 



Prior appropriators on a stream are notified of 

 the new application. They may protest on one or 

 many grounds, for instance : That the natural flow 

 of the stream is already used by prior appropriation 

 or that the application may cover other rights. All 

 these matters are heard and a determination 

 reached only after all possible facts have been ad- 

 duced. It is just as important to the applicant that 

 his application be denied, if there is any question 

 as to its legality, as it is to the protestant, both of 

 whom are protected thereby from useless expense 

 and perhaps costly and interminable litigation. 



The Water Commission is, therefore, a clearing 

 house of information for the intending appropriator 

 and others, aiding and assisting them in divers ways. 

 Reverting to the all-important doctrine of "bene- 

 ficial use," the appropriator must continue to apply 

 the waters to such "beneficial use," or same will re- 

 vert to the state. 



