Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-09-03
WtTEE.

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rs might have D2en expected, eastern
journals, and specially democratic jour
nails, are AGAINST the reclamation OF arid
lands in the west and southwest We
qucte from the New York Sun:
Our esteemed contemporary, the San
Francisco EXaunner, fixes its eagle eye
upon the treasury vaults and TRANQUILITY
rem lrl;s that there is no way i'll which
the national government can do so much
for agriculture as in creating q national
syst IN OF irrigation.'
The DIST congress and succeeding con-
crosses are likely to hear Il good deal
about the need of a national system OF
irrigation The new states and the re-
aiming territories will cry aloud for
irrigation, and spare not They have got
to have water. AMI seeing the govern
ment fill up rivers and harbors with APP
preparations, they naturally think that
the government should put more money
into water for their benefit. Yet private
enterprise could build up systems of irrl-
gajiOn more chPaplv and effectively than
the government, whose work is usually
more expensive than work done by pr
vato contract, and OF inferior quality,
Private irrigation companies would be
profitable; or. ii not, the results OF irriga
ton would not increase the value OF land
enough to justify irrigation by the govern
ment even il it were the government
part to do something for agriculture
What business has The government to
construct storage reservoirs and dig
bitches and urtesian wells TO increase the
Valne OF land or to encourage agriculture
in a state? For appropriations for rivers
and harbors there is the Justification that
these subserve the general use and are
the highways of national commerce. But
where is the warrant for improving the
land of state at the cost OF all the
htales?
Yet the irrigationsts will try hard to
have their way. There is mauia lor
paternal government, and wish to see
the surplus turned into q deficiency.
Millions for water might be poured out
like water. Who knows?
What is sauce for the goose ought to be
sauce for the gander. What business has
the government to improve New York
harbor and the Hudson river, and why
should it increase the value Of land i'll
New York city or New York state, where
the government practically does not own
any land and why should it not do so in
New Mexico, Arizona and California,
where the United States owns nine
tenths Of the land, millions upon millions
OF acres? Where is the warrant for i'm
proving the lands of state-sav along
the Mississippi river-by levees, canals
and dikes? Wherever that warrant exists
there surely exists the same warrant for
improving the lands along the Santa Fe
river by system OF reservoirs at govern
ment expense. If the people OF New
York state and OF the state of Maryland,
or OF the state OF Delaware, or of the
state OF Florida, can have hundreds of
thousands of dollars spent within their
borders and be benefited greatly by the
Improvement OF their rivers, creeks and
waterways, why, pray, cannot the same
be done for the people Of Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Dakota?
Within the next six months the people of
the west, southwest and the Pacific states
and territories v i'll have eight moY1 Uni
tea States senators and six more members
Of the house to help procure for their sec
tons Of country what belongs TO them ny
right and to what they are fairly and
Justly entitled Ii $20,000,00 of the
money Of the people can be expended
yearly for river and l.arGor improvements
III the north and south, surely S2,000,O0U
or IS ,00J 900 year can be expended in
the southwest aud in the Pacific states
and territories for the reclamation Of arid
government I'm Is in order to provide
homesteads for the thousands that will
seei there within the next few wears
People and newspapers in the east and
south might just as well know that "west-
ward the star Of empire Wends its way, :"
and that the west and the Pacific coast
will have its Just dues and proper recogni-
ton, and that right soon.