THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



73 



schools, contentment in his home, and 

 happiness in his heart. No govern- 

 ment built and operated scheme can 

 ever, proximately, rival this result. 



There is another section where lie 

 400,000 acres of fertile land, depend- 

 ent upon a single source of water 

 supply. This plan is feasible from 

 every viewpoint, notwithstanding 

 some difficult and daring engineering 

 features, and can be put through at 

 moderate cost by private corporation 

 or district corporation, and this will 

 be done. But I can see, with great 

 clarity of vision, that if the federal 

 government should ever assume to ap- 

 propriate the water supply and build 

 works for the reclamation of this great 

 territory a principality in extent and 

 promise of wealth then its future will 

 be clouded, its development retarded, 

 and its future settlers compelled to 

 struggle with project obligations. 



Dr. Elwood Mead, who took part in 

 the discussion at this congress a year 

 ago, bore eloquent testimony to what 

 I have stated about these project ob- 

 ligations, and during the course of 

 that discussion he said, "I have said 

 that the conditions of the settlers about 

 these works called for relief. On one 

 project the average indebtedness of 

 each of the settlers is $1,000; they have 

 exhausted their capital, reached the 

 limit of their crop, and have no way 

 to complete the improvement of their 

 farms. On another project, three- 

 fourths of the settlers must lose the 

 fruits of years of effort and all the 

 capital spent in the development if it 

 is not soon forthcoming. On another 

 project, 85 per cent of the farms are 

 mortgaged, and the mortgage debt 

 averages $50 per acre over the whole 

 area, exclusive of project obligations. 

 On another project, one farm has been 

 sold, abandoned, and resold five 

 times." 



Those are not my figures; they are 

 not Judge King's figures, or, at least, 

 he did not favor us with them. Per- 

 haps he did not have them. But those 

 are the facts, as testified to by Dr. 

 Mead. 



We may say that as to drainage 

 work that there is a uniform district 

 drainage law in the middle west. Six 

 states, I think, have the same act. The 

 act originated in Missouri, and the 

 states of Missouri, Florida, Missis- 

 sippi, Ohio, Indiana, and Connecticut 

 now have this law. Modified forms of 

 the same act exist in Kentucky and 

 other states. Let me say to you that 

 Missouri alone has eighteen millions 

 of bonds and finds a ready market for 

 them at from 5 to 5]/ 2 per cent inter- 

 est. 



Why should government authority 

 invade a privately operated drainage 

 district such as they have there at 

 those prices? 



I want to turn to the question of 

 the policy of government activity, and 

 in doing so we must take higher 

 ground and obtain a broader view. 

 We must pass from questions of mere 

 expediency to matters of national pol- 

 ity and the basic facts upon which 

 rest our peculiar institutions. I am 

 an old fashioned believer in the Con- 

 stitution and the principles upon 

 which it is founded. I do not favor 



following the streams of authority and 

 precedent into somber forests of the 

 past, but I do adhere to the construc- 

 tion given the great charter of our 

 government by the writings of Ham- 

 ilton and Madison, by the arguments 

 of Webster and the decisions of Mar- 

 shall. That great instrument was de- 

 signed to and will, if preserved, pro- 

 tect those rights which were wrested 

 in times past from the ruthless and 

 reluctant hands of power, and which 

 come down to us through the throes 

 of revolution and the fierce fires of 

 rebellion. The freedom of the indi- 

 vidual and the liberty of a nation are 

 generally lost or impaired by insidi- 

 ous and not well recognized ap- 

 proaches. 



Those holding positions of power 

 are not always to be blamed for their 

 aggrandizement of that power. They 

 may be mistaken or be the creatures 

 of the system by which' they find 

 themselves surrounded. Officers 

 come and officers go, but the system, 

 organization, bureau and department 

 ever live, and if they are not confined 

 in their proper channels they ever 

 widen their power and influence. The 

 insistence of the people themselves 

 that matters of great moment the 

 great projects for instance shall be 

 waived in favor of temporary de- 

 mands, in the past, has led to the 

 weakening of many vital public safe- 

 guards. The liberty of a people, like 

 the virtue of the individual, must be 

 guarded not alone from assaults from 

 without, but must also be protected 

 from its own impulse to yield to the 

 lust of power. 



The ordinary citizen is bewildered 

 by the increase in the activities and 

 powers of his general government. 

 He is familiar with the policy and 

 spirit of our institutions, rightfully 

 declared by the fathers and carried 

 into the Constitution, that our gen- 

 eral federal government can not and 

 should not be a democracy that the 

 exercise of those democratic powers 

 were reserved for state and local 

 communities; but he still believed 

 that this government was republican 

 and representative in fact as well as 

 in form. He is gradually coming to 

 realize that there is also a passing 

 away of our republican or representa- 

 tive form of general government, and 

 that a return is being made to powers 

 and methods in which he has no voice 

 and over which his representatives 

 exercise no control. He may well 

 stand aghast as he views the increas- 

 ing numbers of departments, bureaus, 

 boards, and commissions, and the 

 great army of officers and employees 

 which the widening powers and ac- 

 tivities conferred upon the admin- 

 istrative division of our general gov- 

 ernment have called into being. Not 

 only is the number of these offices 

 and officers being added to, but in a 

 geometrical ratio their importance 

 and influence upon the lives and af- 

 fairs of the people of the nation are 

 increased. If one would seek the 

 senator or congressman from his own 

 state in the nation's capitol he dis- 

 covers that such a representative is 

 not only difficult to find in that vvorld 

 of officialdom, but that also his influ- 



ence is in a descending ratio, and 

 that even the still small voice of the 

 judiciary the third great department 

 of our Constitution is almost lost 

 in the swelling chorus of administra- 

 tive officers, who assume to exert ju- 

 dicial as well as administrative and 

 legislative functions. 



It may seem that I have wandered 

 far afield, but such is not the inten- 

 tion and is not the fact. We are dis- 

 cussing questions of policy now and 

 not of law, and I desire to empha- 

 size the point that if we once open 

 the door for encroachment of federal 

 authority we shall let in a multitude 

 of evils. Once admit the principle 

 that the general government may 

 deal with and supervise the affairs of 

 the citizen on his social and business 

 side, and you have taken a long step 

 towards official autocracy which 

 points toward that absolutism and 

 paternal powers in government which 

 we must ever abhor. I know of no 

 more absolute grant of power than 

 to grant to the federal government 

 the authority to withdraw and se- 

 quester all sources of water supply in 

 this great West, to build all work for 

 reclamation, to supervise all distribu- 

 tion of water and to make such 

 charge for the service as may be de- 

 signed and computed at Washington. 

 Such a course is tantamount to re- 

 ducing communities to a condition of 

 tenantry, stifling all individual initia- 

 tive, and making each person af- 

 fected a dependent upon the gratuity 

 of a bureau of the government. The 

 slavish portion of the reclamation act, 

 requiring residence on or near a very 

 limited tract, has driven many a set- 

 tler from the proposed project, and 

 fitly characterizes what further laws 

 and regulations will be imposed if 

 private enterprise is forever exiled 

 from this work and government oc- 

 cupation acceded to. Why condemn 

 the feudal lord who refused his vas- 

 sal the privilege of leaving the ba- 

 ronial lands and villages and denied 

 him the privilege of earning more 

 than a bare existence for himself? 



No, we can not afford in this west- 

 ern country to tie ourselves to gov- 

 ernment control. It is through the 

 individual and the community that de- 

 velopment must be made. One-half 

 of the territory of the United States 

 is wholly or in part dependent upon 

 irrigation of the soil for successful 

 agriculture, and any man who gives 

 his energy, his time, his efforts, and 

 his best thought to building up the 

 irrigation systems and irrigation laws 

 of this vast West, lends himself and 

 connects himself in name, fame, and 

 character with that which is and must 

 be not only as durable as our form of 

 government, but probably as lasting 

 as the frame of human society. 



I thank you. [Applause.] 



Closing Argument by Judge King 



Judge King: Mr. Chairman, ladies, 

 and gentlemen, none of you has list- 

 ened with more intense interest than 

 have I to the distinguished orator 

 who has just addressed this congress, 

 and I assure you that I have been 

 much entertained by the glowing 

 scenes reflected upon our debating 



