830 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 



make a law a success or a failure. It sets up a few large aud impor- 

 tant safeguards, and says in effect to the Secretary of the Interior, 

 "Here is this money; take it and spend it for this purpose; get it back 

 in the Treasury and do the best you can with it.'' That is unquestion- 

 ably the ideal condition, and the men who are working under it must 

 make it a success. They have no excuse for a failure. Congress has 

 been liberal, has given the Secretary wide discretion, and we have no 

 apparent excuse for not obtaining the l^est results which the conditions 

 will permit. 



1 have spoken of two or three of the large safeguards imposed, 

 namely, the putting of the land into the hands of small owners who 

 will live on it and ciUtivate it, and the refunding of the money to the 

 Treasury, the money to be used over and over again in a I'evolving 

 fund. When the law was passed the matter did not seem very impor- 

 tant. Th(> amount of money involved did not seem large and the 

 opponents of the bill liad little appreciation of the situation. It cov- 

 ered into the Treasury funds for the year 1901 and succeeding years, 

 as follows: For 1901, $3,o»»0,000; for 1902, $1,000,000 more, and for 

 l9o;> about $8,000,000; in all, now about |15,00o,0OO. The fund at the 

 present time is increasing rapidl}'. 



THE RECLAMATION SERVICE. 



The Secretary of the Interior, to whom the whole matter is com- 

 mitted, in commencing the work, decided to put it in the hands of a 

 man and an organization in whom he had and has confidence. Hon. 

 Charles D. Walcott, Director of the United States Geological Survey, 

 is the man whom the Secretary holds responsible for this work. He 

 in turn is assisted by several men who since 1888 have been measuring 

 the streams of the West, studying the water supply, and making an 

 examination to ascertain how the lands can be reclaimed by irrigation. 



The Geological Survey has for years been making a topographic 

 map of the United States, and on that map are shown the streams, the 

 reservoir sites in or near the mountains, and many other facts which 

 are essential to a practical knowledge of the su))ject. 

 ~ In addition to the topographic branch, the hydrographic division 

 has been measuring the waters which may be used or stored in these 

 reservoirs. It was practicable at the beginning of the work to take 

 experienced men out of the corps existing in the Geological Survey 

 and to add to these from time to time, through civil-service examina- 

 tions, men who are experienced in the actual construction and opera- 

 tion of irrigation systems. Now, there is an engineer corps of a])out 

 200 men, mostly young and active. A few have obtained age and 

 maturity of judgment and will hold these younger men in check. The 

 men are grouped in districts. At the head of each district is a man of 

 experience who has been State engineer, as in the case of Idaho, or 



