THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



201 



the settler who is struggling to make 

 a home upon a land should be called 

 upon to bear the entire burden of 

 such disappointments. On the con- 

 trary, we believe that this situation 

 should be met by the Government in 

 a spirit of the broadest fairness and 

 justice; that legislation should be en- 

 acted looking to a proper reduction 

 to the land owners in the cost of con- 

 struction where such cost is excessive 

 as reported by the Board of Cost 

 Review. 



As one means of effecting the de- 

 sired end, we recommend that legis- 

 lation be enacted to authorize admin- 

 istrative officials to charge off of the 

 construction cost such main works 

 and structures, including dams, lev- 

 ees and other works primarily de- 

 signed or serving as useful adjuncts 

 to flood control, and therefore prop- 

 erly to be retained under permanent 

 government charge and jurisdiction, 

 or the extension of payments for such 

 works over a long term of years with- 

 out interest. We believe the recla- 

 mation fund should be reimbursed for 



States, and providing proper safe- 

 guards for the United States upon 

 its guarantee. 



Underground Waters 



Since there are millions of acres of 

 valuable land which can only be re- 

 claimed by means of pumping water 

 for irrigation, a phase of the industry 

 which has not as yet received any 

 encouragement by the government, 

 and since it seems only just that the 

 policy of storage and distribution of 

 water should be supplemented by 

 adequate development of underground 

 supplies, we recommend that the 

 president of this Congress appoint one 

 man from each arid and semi-arid 

 state in the West for the purpose of 

 a conference looking to united action 

 in obtaining federal aid for this pur- 

 pose. 



Interstate Streams 



Important and troublesome prob- 

 lems have arisen involving the use of 

 waters from interstate streams or the 

 use of waters from interstate streams 

 in states outside of the state whence 

 flows the supply. We recommend 



of the people of Arizona, Washington 

 and Montana to the singular fact that 

 they have thus far failed to enact any 

 state water code at all. 



Diversion of Flood Waters 

 The investigation of the Mississippi 

 River Commission having shown that 

 the top one-third of the floods on that 

 stream are the source of the greatest 

 damage by such floods, and that this 

 flood water comes from the western 

 tributaries of the Mississippi; and ex- 

 periments extending over a period of 

 eight years having demonstrated that 

 there are large areas of semi-arid 

 land in the states of North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, 

 Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas which 

 can successfully grow crops with a 

 single irrigation during flood season, 

 we would urge that the Congress of 

 the United States should provide for 

 the diversion of these flood waters on 

 the semi-arid lands, at least to the 

 extent to which such diversion will 

 decrease the expenditures necessary 

 for flood protection on the lower Mis- 

 sissippi River. 



the cost of such works by direct ap- 

 propriation, as is done in the case of 

 all other public works, and we would 

 also earnestly suggest the elimina- 

 tion of general overhead charges in- 

 volved in reclamation work from the 

 price which settlers pay for water. 



Irrigation Districts 

 This Congress endorses the general 

 principles and objects of legislation 

 having for its purpose the reclama- 

 tion of arid, semi-arid, swamp and 

 overflow lands through direct organi- 

 zations, and providing federal aid 

 therefor through guarantee of inter- 

 est upon district bonds by the United 



Diversified Farming in Colorado 



that a federal commission be pro- 

 vided to pass upon and determine 

 the issues thus presented. 



Uniform State Laws 

 It is essential in the working out of 

 a general system for efficient water 

 service, particularly in view of fed- 

 eral interest therein, that our state 

 irrigation -district laws and water 

 commission acts shall be made as 

 nearly uniform as their diverse situ- 

 ations may permit. We, therefore, 

 recommend that the various irrigation 

 states inaugurate at once a co-opera- 

 tive plan for the codification of their 

 water laws, and we call the attention 



Eastern Forest Reserves 



We recommend that the Congress 

 of the United States continue the pol- 

 icy expressed in existing federal laws 

 towards the acquisition and estab- 

 lishment of forest reserves within the 

 Eastern States, and support it with 

 adequate appropriations. 



Duty of Water 



We recommend that the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the state uni- 

 versities in the irrigated area of the 

 United States and the governmental 

 agencies in the countries represented 

 by this Congress inaugurate a com- 

 (Continued on page 205) 



