WYOMING, LAW-GIVER OF ARID REGION 



difference between success and failure between plenty 

 and starvation. Under these conditions it becomes a 

 matter of the highest possible moment to provide for the 

 just distribution and the economical and proper use of 

 so much water as may be available. In the arid region 

 as a whole there is at least five times as much land as 

 water for its reclamation. There are certain valleys 

 where the water supply is more than sufficient for the 

 amount of land it can command, but these are rare ex- 

 ceptions. 



It would bo natural to suppose that the first object of 

 western statesmanship would have been to provide laws 

 and methods of administration calculated to conserve 

 and protect the water supply, to the end that it might bo 

 used for the greatest good of the greatest number. No 

 perfection of laws which a State may confer upon its citi- 

 zens in any other respect can make amends for any in- 

 justice it may inflict, by acts either of commission or 

 omission, in connection with this most precious of all 

 natural gifts. Of land, minerals, timber, sunshine, and 

 air there is plenty and to spare ; of water there is lit- 

 tle enough, even in the early stages of settlement, and its 

 value must increase with the gain in population. It is 

 true public policy aye, the very measure of the growth 

 and wealth of communities to have the water so granted 

 and so applied that it may serve for the permanent rec- 

 lamation of the utmost acre of land ; for the building 

 of the utmost home; for the sustenance of the utmost 

 family. 



Our statesmanship failed almost entirely to take into 

 account this most vital concern of western civiliza- 

 tion. It imposed upon the arid region the common laws 



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