Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-06-08
Water Storage and Irriga-
tion.
Silver Belt).

The storage of water in section.
 where the rainfall is inadequate to in
 sure crop, has become a question o
 much moment, and in the arid west
 much rich land belonging to the govern
 ment is and has been fallow since the
 dawn of creation, yielding no support
 to either the government or multitude
 of people who otherwise reclaim it and
 and accociate the idea of plentiful har-
 vest garnished with golden fruit
 The cultiI ation of the soil according
 to Vattel ''is an obligation imposed by nature on mankind" and every nation, according to the same authority, lis obli- ged by the law of nature to cultivate the ground that has fallen to its share" But how is that to be done in country | like Arizona ''where thirsty earth drinks up the rain and drinks and gapes for drink again" unless the general govern ment assists in providing water storage, which she can easily afford to do by dition is uninhabitable and not worth | SllNtI. VI VIII OlIO SON6I Sblll pcI- sist in it's supine policy towards western possessions, which even begrudges pioneers, (who emphasize their presence. by their thrift, in an Indian country) that assistance which their surroundings demand.
 The total area of the United States is 3603,S84 square miles, for which was paid s63, 100000, and which was acquired 1f ~ nrs4 Texas and Russia, and not an inch by discovery, which goes to prove that our boasted governmental enterprise is simply mythical, and that the push and energy which clears the forests, by swamp aud stream, frightens the hoot- ing owl, rears the log school house, creates history and opens the way for the formation of additional States be- long not to the class who figure ''in my ladies chamber" or posture before a looking glass, but to those whose ener- gies have carried them to where they find showroom, and who are now i'm ploring assistance from Rip Van Win kle Congress to render newly acquired possessions habitable by assisting in husbanding the water which now runs to waste without refreshing the soil. In Esop's fable of the dog in the manager, the hay and the OK illustrates the fed eral governments position on the ques- tion of water storage.
 While water storage is a secondary consideration to Congressional legisla- tors, they, no doubt, knit their brows. occasioned by profound thought of how to solve the Indian question, without having logically entertained the idea that the question of irrigation might prove helpful adjunct to the army in it's efforts to extend the blessings of civ ilization to where Indian superstition now, through the influence of their med icine men, leads whole tribes to believe that antagonism to the whites is com manded of them by the great spirit. The effect of a supply of water in the arid West, easily obtained by the means of reservoirs, would attract immigration, which would speedily surround our ex- pensive, troublesome and dangerous uo- mads with the influence 'of Christian purity, in which hallowed influence no guilty thought can live" and also with the certain knowledge that ''the way of the trangressor is hard, and under these circumstances would not the Indians also, like the white man, become thew CTS of wood and drawers af water" and if they will not profit by association, tell them of the fate of the Pequods who were in 1887, almost wholly extermi- mated by the English, and the few who escaped were given to the Naragansetts for adoption.