110 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



STATE AND NATIONAL, "WORKS. 



The most popular method of reclaiming these arid lands would be to have the 

 National Government do the work and foot the bill. The theory that "a national 

 debt is a national blessing" still widely prevails and is especially popular in the 

 locality where it is proposed to expend the proceeds of the debt. If the policy of 

 national works is to be adopted — and it must be admitted that it has gathered strength 

 rapidly in recent years — it might well be applied to . Honey Lake Basin. Even if 

 goodly appropriations should be inaugurated at an earh' day, many beautiful valleys 

 would have to wait long for their turn to come. Hone}- Lake Basin, hidden away in 

 the pockets of the Sierras and off the line of transcontinental travel, might be expected 

 to wait indefinitely. 



State works of reclamation are quite as feasible as national works. So far as 

 this localit\" is concerned, it is to be feared thej' are also quite as remote. Taxation 

 of the entire State for the benefit of particular neighborhoods would meet with 

 severe opposition. There is no doubt that it could be justified on the highest public 

 grounds, but it requires ft broad view to see that this is so, and broad views on this 

 subject are not likely to be entertained in a State having so large a percentage of its 

 population dwelling in localities only indirectly benefited by irrigation. State 

 appropriations for storage enterprises, if realized at all, are likely to be expended in 

 localities immediately tributary to important towns and transportation lines and not 

 at the back door of the Sierra Nevada passes. 



The conclusion is that Honey Lake Basin can only be reclaimed at an early day — 

 say within ten or twenty years — as the result of laws which shall make investment 

 safe and profitable, or which shall permit the people to tax themselves intelligently 

 and effectively for their own benefit. 



HOPE IN THE DISTRICT SYSTEM. 



There has been no more notable failure in the history of California development 

 than that of the irrigation-district system. It is perhaps also true that there is no 

 better hope of salvation for many localities than the district system, if it be perfected 

 in the light of experience. This brave effort to water the fertile lands of California 

 and make them ready for a future population failed because of its administrative 

 weakness and the difliculty encountered in raising promptly, and on favorable terms, 

 the very large sums of capital required. It is perfectly feasible to eliminate both of 

 these difiiculties. A competent State engineer and board of control could pass 

 intelligently on the need of works in a given locality and determine what should be 

 their character and what their reasonable cost. The same official body could exert 

 its influence and power in supervising the details of administration in each local 

 district. It would be equally easy to surmount the financial difliculty. The State 

 could well afford to pledge its own credit in support of the disti-ict bonds. It could 

 sell its own bonds readily at 3 per cent interest, depositing in its treasury the 5 per 

 cent Ijonds of the district and making the difference in interest pay all the expenses 

 of administration. It would then be no longer necessary for the district financial 

 agents to hawk their securities in the money markets of the world, selling them at 

 all sorts of prices or exchanging them with contractors for doubtful consideration. 



