Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-28

The two reports made by the majority and
| minority of the Senate irrigation committed
has produced an active controversy. Interest
has been added to the situation by the resolu-
ton offered by Senator Stewart and adopted
calling upon the Secretary of the Interior to
inform the Senate what portion, if any, OF
money appropriated for irrigation had been
diverted and used for topographic surveys.
Senator Stewart is quoted saying that it is
alleged that Maj. Powell. director of the Geo.
logical Survey, has not been satisfied with the
amount appropriated by Congress for the topo-
graphic surveys and that he has used for that
purpose about 100000 appropriated for the
purposes of irrigation. If true this must be
stopped for he certainly had no right to mis-
| apply money voted by Congress for a specific
| purpose. He (Mr. Stewart) was determined
| that money appropriated for irrigation should
/ be applied to that object and should not be
| used by Maj Powell to carry out pet projects
| of his own. 1t was unheard of assumption
of power by an official which should not be
| tolerated.
A TALK WITH MAJOR POWELL.
'The struggle that am at present engaged
| in with relation to the irrigation question"
said Maj. Powell. director of the geological
survey, to q STAR writer yesterday lis fight
against the spectators pure and simple. l am
doing what can TO prevent moneyed sharks
from gobbling up the irrigable lands of the
great arid belt, together with the waters upon
which they will depend for fruitfulness and so
establishing a sort of hydraulic feudal system.
to which American farmers would be helplessly
subject
The last Congress passed a bill appropri-
ating money for the location by survey of irri-
gable tracts and of suitable sites for reservoirs
wherein 10 store water in the wet season for use
during the dry in various parts of this enormous
territory of drought. 1t provided by this
same law that the lands marked out as irri-
gable by the proposed works should be with
drawn from .he operation of the desert land
timber culture and presumption acts, in order
that speculative companies and individuals
should not be able to absorb under those acts
the tracts and sites selected. at the expense of
persons wishing to establish homesteads.
SHARKS on THE QUI vIvE.
"How wise this provision was is even now
being shown by the tremendous efforts which
the spectators. with 5500O00,O 900 to back
them, are making to secure the repeal Of the
law by Congress, in order that they may rush
In and gobble these areas and supply waters,
which the geological survey has recently de-
clared to be SO valuable. The profit i'll their
scheme. if it succeeds, may be surmised when
consideration is given to the fact that the pro-
posed irrigation of the lands selected by the
survey will make 100, 900. 900 now worthless
acre. This Is the sort of opportunity that the
spectators look for i'll their dreams. Once In
possession of the lands-more particularly
of the water rights upon which the value of
those laads altogether depend-they can sell or
rent the broad acres at their own prices and
turn the water on or off they please, SO that
the miserable agrlculturallsts will be little less
than serfs. altogether at the mercy of corpora
tons and monopolists. 1t will be another great
step taken toward what now appears to be the
nj tarri
namely, to be absorbed and held by few
enormous syndicates.
ATTACKS ON THE SURVEY
ut is this project of the spectators that
am trying my best to defeat. They WELD great
influence and they have misled certain honestly
disposed members of Congress into taking
their view of the case. The result is a move in
Congress in favor of repeating the law ana let
ting the spectators have their way. Attacks
have been made upon the survey. and its
adversaries are trying to hand over the irrIga-
ton business to the Department of Agriculture
and to have the photographic division of the
work transferred to the signal service. l have
myself been accused of applying to Topographic
cal work money that was appropriated for ir-
rigatiOn. But how OH earth the survey was to
ascertain the manner in which irrigation was
to be successfully accomplished without pre-
hmlnary mapping out of the regions exhibiting
the problems to be solved, goodness only
vey Is divided into three parts. First comes
the Topographic branch by which catchment
areas. reservoir sites, canal sites and irrigable
lands are discovered. Second is the hydro
graphic branch, by which streams are gagged
and the volume OF water to be controlled by
reservoirs determined. Third Is the engi-
neering branch, by which lines of canals,
reservoirs, sites DC, are surveyed, for the pur-
pose of making plans and reckoning cost All
OF these things the law directs, and therefore
tha hare rafo 70 - OH g.
it.
THE GREAT ARID BELT.
Travelling westward through the United
States you will find after you have passed the
ninety-third meridian a zone of lands that is
only half watered by nature. This extends
from the ninety-third to the one-hundredt
meridian. Beyond this latter line the great
arid belt extends to the Rocky mountains and
beyond-a vast region OF dry areas only need
ing water to render them hugely productive.
Unfortunately there Is only water enough to
irrigate comparatively small portion OF this
region. say 100 100 900 acres, and the geological
survey has made it its task to locate these
lOO.OOO,OOO acres TO the greatest advantage
Naturally, the spectators, AZ quickly as they
found where the irrigable lands lay were
anxious to get hold OF them, but they will not
accomplish their purpose. by the repeal of the
present law, If can help it.
The lands to be irrigated are necessarily
llinlttu III area, owing 10 the limited supplies
OF water. Near the mountains are located the
best of the lands for the purpose because
those at the feet of the hills are the most
fertile and nearest the sources of water supply
Such irrigable lands should be set apart as
such, and the rights to Use water on them
should be controlled by the irrigation districts
into the hands OF which all local regulations of
the sort should be given The irrigation dis
trIcts should be determined by government
surveys and each district should take care of
Its own interests and construct its own reser-
yoirs and works.
NATIONAL PROBLEM.
''Such is the plan that the geological survey
proposes shall be carried out. The lands re-
deemed from the desert and made fertile are
to be for settlers and not for speculative syndi-
Gates and companies. 1t Is necessary that this
problem. by which 100000 900 acres are to be
added to the tiilable area OF this country should
be settled on purely public-spirited basis.
Already conflicting rights to the use of waters
III different states. involving hundreds OF
millions of dollars, are being established, and
bitter conflicts the subject are even now in
progress. International disputes on the same
point actually impending. The general
problem therefore is a national problem"
Mccartney Knocked Him Out.
The announcement that a local aspirant for
fistic honors would contend for the prize of
s25 which Dominick Mccartney offered to any
man who would stay with him four rounds
drew quite q crowd to kernan's Theater last
night The local mans name was Roach