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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 885 



water, all indicate that action taken at 

 this juncture should be constructive and 

 developmental rather than definitive. 

 While the relations in equity seem clear, 

 and while the legal relations appear to 

 form a firm foundation for a broader legal 

 structure than has hitherto been attempted, 

 the technical experience needed to guide 

 definitive legislation remains inadequate: 

 it is barely over a decade since electric 

 power transmission began reconstructing 

 industries, since the internal-combustion 

 engine began closing the age of steam 

 (which may reopen under the steam-tur- 

 bine), since steel-concrete construction be- 

 gan revolutionizing the use of resources, 

 since ii'rigation began opening a new era 

 in standards of production; and the con- 

 cepts of even the most advanced jurists and 

 law-makers can hardly be quite abreast 

 with, much less far in advance of, the tech- 

 nical experience attending these industrial 

 developments. Moreover, the concept of 

 water as a common possession in equity of 

 all the people remains novel in many 

 minds, and is bound to result in new and 

 unforseeable interrelations among individ- 

 uals and civic organizations, and espe- 

 cially between states and the federal gov- 

 ernment — interrelations that can be 

 adjusted and regulated in the common 

 welfare only as common experience grows 

 with advancing applications of increasing 

 knowledge. It would no more be practic- 

 able to establish definitive regulations for 

 the use of the natural waters to-day than 

 it would have been to create our magnifi- 

 cent railway system by fiat 80 years ago, 

 to establish our intricate banking system 

 when the Constitution was framed, or to 

 found by a stroke of the pen 20 years ago 

 the Department of Agriculture with its 

 hundreds of scientific experts, made such 

 by long-continued training. The need for 



action presses; but wise action to-day can 

 be no more than preparatory for, and di- 

 rective of, prospective and inevitable de- 

 velopment. 



35. In view of the interstate relations of 

 our natural waters, action by the congress 

 should be framed with special reference to 

 that comity with and among the states 

 best maintained by sharing, rather than by 

 disputing as of old, common interests — a 

 course in which useful experience has been 

 gained in the Mississippi River Commis- 

 sion and Reclamation Service, as also in the 

 Forest Service and other leading bureaus of 

 the Department of Agriculture; and the 

 federal legislation should not merely form 

 a model for states, but should authorize 

 necessary administrative action directly 

 and in conjunction with states. 



36. Since practical experience is a sine 

 qua non for wise legislation, early state and 

 federal enactments should be framed in 

 general terms, entrusting the actual work 

 to administrative agencies under proper 

 restrictions and provisions for reporting 

 progress to the legislative authority, much 

 ■as in the statutory authority for state and 

 federal departments. 



37. While the magnitude and impor- 

 tance of the issue involved in control and 

 utilization of water would warrant the 

 creation of a federal department to meet it, 

 such action at this juncture might be pre- 

 mature — especially since the more pressing 

 requirements may be met through existing 

 departmental facilities. The several con- 

 siderations point toward a presumptively 

 temporary federal administrative agency, 

 created or empowered to make investiga- 

 tions and take action looking toward the 

 progressive control and regulation of the 

 water of the country with respect to all 

 uses, both directly and in cooperation with 

 states and when needful with individuals. 



