Winning the West 



83 



tured people, concerning' whose fate his- 

 tory brings us no word. In these palaces 

 and in many miles of canals we may al- 

 most read the story of another Egypt — 

 a people toiling under the burning sun of 

 the desert, wearily and painfully execut- 

 ing the commands of an American Pha- 

 roah. 



Coming down to a period less remote 

 and only slightly less interesting, we mark 

 the first page of our own written history. 

 Here in the sixteenth century Coronado, 

 the first great American explorer, swept 

 up the Rio Grande Valley and journeyed 

 as far north as Kansas. In New Mexico 

 he found a pastoral race dwelling in 

 pueblos and practicing the gentle art of 

 irrigation as had their forefathers, per- 

 haps as far back as in the days of Abra- 

 ham. Certainly their agricultural methods 

 were in no wise different from those 

 which prevailed in the days of the 

 prophets. Even unto this day their grain 

 is gathered in great willow baskets, is 

 threshed by the trampling of sheep and 

 goats and winnowed by the winds. Fields 

 which were cultivated three centuries ago 

 are still producing crops each year. 



Some of these thoughts came to the 

 government engineers as they ran their 

 lines of levels in the valley of Salt River 

 in Arizona, and it seemed to them a 

 proper task for the greatest nation on 

 earth to restore once more the oases of 

 verdure which the desert had long ago 

 obliterated. 



AN AREA EQUAL TO MASSACHUSETTS HAS 

 BEEN WRESTED FROM THE DESERT 



During the last quarter of a century a 

 crop-producing area of 10,000,000 acres, 

 or another state of Massachusetts, has 

 been wrested from the desert. Irriga- 

 tion canals long enough to span the earth 

 twice and representing an outlay of 

 $90,000,000 have been built. Every year 

 this area returns a harvest valued at 

 more than $150,000,000, and 2,000,000 

 people dwell in prosperity and content 

 where only a short time ago the wilder- 

 ness reigned. 



Uncle Sam is today the largest owner 

 of the Great American Desert, no doubt 

 because it was not considered worth 

 stealing. For many years the sentiment 

 has been growing that the government 

 should make habitable this vast empire 

 which is so great potentially. This senti- 

 ment crystallized into a law on June 17, 

 1902, when President Roosevelt affixed 

 his signature to the national irrigation 

 act. The principal features of this law 

 are briefly : 



THE PROVISIONS OF THE RECLAMATION 

 LAW 



First. A reclamation fund in the 

 Treasury, consisting of the proceeds 

 from the sales of public lands in the 16 

 arid and semi-arid states and territories. 



Second. A Reclamation Service in the 

 U. S. Geological Survey to investigate 

 and report on the irrigation projects for 

 the approval of the Secretary of the In- 

 terior, who may authorize construction 

 and let contracts, providing the money is 

 available in the fund. 



Third. The return to the fund of the 

 actual cost of each project by the sale of 

 water rights, payments to be made in a 

 series of installments running over a 

 period of ten years. 



Fourth. The holding of public lands 

 for actual settlers under the homestead 

 act, in small farm units sufficient to sup- 

 port a family ; no commutation to be per- 

 mitted. 



Fifth. The sale of water rights to pri- 

 vate land owners, but not for more than 

 160 acres, making land monopoly impos- 

 sible and forcing the division of large 

 estates. 



Sixth. The ulitmate turning over to 

 the people of the irrigation works, ex- 

 cept the reservoirs, to be operated and 

 managed by them under a system of 

 home rule. The actual users of the water 

 in ten years after the completion of the 

 works will have repaid to the government 

 the amount of its loan without interest. 

 The money so returned may again and 

 again be expended on other works. 



