December 13, 1901,] 



SCIENCE, 



911 



The reclamation and settlement of the 

 arid lands will enrich every portion of our 

 country, just as the settlement of the Ohio 

 and Mississippi valleys brought prosperity 

 to the Atlantic States. The increased de- 

 mand for manufactured articles will stim- 

 ulate industrial production, while wider 

 home markets and the trade of Asia will 

 consume the larger food supplies and ef- 

 fectually prevent western competition with 

 eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products 

 of irrigation will be consumed chiefly in 

 upbuilding local centers of raining and 

 other industries, which would otherwise 

 not come into existence at all. Our people 

 as a whole will profit, for successful home- 

 making is but another name for the up- 

 building of the nation. 



The necessary foundation has already 

 been laid for the inauguration of the policy 

 just described. It would be unwise to be- 

 gin by doing too much, for a great deal 

 will doubtless be learned, both as to what 

 can and what cannot be safely attempted 

 by the early eflbrts, which must of necessity 

 be partly experimental in character. At 

 the very beginning the Government should 

 make clear, beyond shadow of doubt, its 

 intention to pursue this policy on lines of 

 the broadest public interest. No reservoir 

 or canal should ever be built to satisfy sel- 

 fish personal or local interests ; but only in 

 accordance with the advice of trained ex- 

 perts, after long investigation has shown 

 the locality where all the conditions com- 

 bine to make the work most needed and 

 fraught with the greatest usefulness to the 

 community as a whole. There should be 

 no extravagance, and the believers in the 

 need of irrigation will most benefit their 

 cause by seeing to it that it is free from the 

 least taint of excessive or reckless expendi- 

 ture of the public moneys. 



Whatever the nation does for the exten- 

 sion of irrigation should harmonize with, 

 and tend to improve, the condition of those 



now living on irrigated land. We are not 

 at the starting point of this development. 

 Over two hundred millions of private capi- 

 tal has already been expended in the con- 

 struction of irrigation works, and many 

 million acres of arid land reclaimed. A 

 high degree of enterprise and ability has 

 been shown in the work itself ; but as much 

 cannot be said in reference to the laws re- 

 lating thereto. The security and value of 

 the homes created depend largely on the sta- 

 bility of titles to water ; but the majority of 

 these rest on the uncertain foundation of 

 court decisions rendered in ordinary suits 

 at law. With a few creditable exceptions, 

 the arid states have failed to provide for 

 the certain and just division of streams in 

 times of scarcity. Lax and uncertain laws 

 have made it possible to establish rights to 

 water in excess of actual uses or necessities, 

 and many streams have already passed into 

 private ownership, or a control equivalent 

 to ownership. 



Whoever controls a stream practically 

 controls the land it renders productive, 

 and the doctrine of private ownership of 

 water apart from land cannot prevail with- 

 out causing enduring wrong. The recog- 

 nition of such ownership, which has been 

 permitted to grow up in the arid regions, 

 should give way to a more enlightened and 

 larger recognition of the rights of the 

 public in the control and disposal of the 

 public water supplies. Laws founded upon 

 conditions obtaining in humid regions, 

 where water is too abundant to justify 

 hoarding it, have no proper application in a 

 drj^ country. In the arid states the only 

 right to water which should be recognized 

 is that of use. In irrigation this right 

 should attach to the land reclaimed and 

 be inseparable therefrom. Granting per- 

 petual water rights to others than users, 

 without compensation to the public, is open 

 to all the objections which apply to giving 

 away perpetual franchises to the public 



