The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-29
MR.. ALIENS SPEECH.
Unfair Discrimination Against
State Of Washington.
IRRIGATION OF ARID LANDS.
The State VIII Carefully Guard the Pub
lilo Interest, and Corporations
Are Ruled by Law.

Arc Ruled by Law.
Speech of Hon. John B. Allen in the
Senate of the United States. Friday, July
Is, 1890, on the amendments of the COM
mittee on appropriations, relative to the
appropriation for the geological survey. in
the bill (H. r. 10,SS4) making appropria-
tons for sundry civil expenses of the gov
eminent for the fiscal year ending June 80.
1891, and for other purposes. Mr.. Allen
said:
Mr. President: 1t is because the pending
measure so directly and disastrously affects the
state which in part represent, that feel i'm
PEELED at this late hour to ask the indulgence of
the Senate for at least few moments in hearing
me in favor of the repeal of this provision in the
statute.
The earnestness with which the senator from
Texas MT. Reaganl has pressed the opposite
view upon the attention of the Senate has
made me feel that 1t was not out of place for me
to give some reasons. if I were able to do
So why the policy which he advocates
should not prevail
Mr. President, no man so welcomes tho
shadow of q great rock as he upon whose head
the fierce heat OF the desert sun has burned. No
man so appreciates the sparkle of the water. no
and to none is its taste so nectarne as to him
who has trodden YEARLY and thirstily the paths
OF the desert. To no man does the verdure of
the oasis seem 30 living and so green; to no one
Is the fragrance of its flowers so sweet or its
fruits 80 delicious as TO the man who has hun
gered in the wastes of the desert.
Now, my distinguished friend from Texas
having made the piIgrimsges which he has
graphically described over the arid regions OF
the United States; having gone across the great
desert plains traversed by rivers carrying their
idle waters down to the sea, or losing them in
the sands of the desert; having stood upon the
mountains--as he no doubt has-and looking
across the great expenses, seen the store houses
OF the streams in the SHOWS OF the mountains;
and then, having passed down into the valleys
and there heheld the wonderful transformation
brought about by irrigation, when moist
ure, the only needed element was
added to the richness and fertility Of the
desert land-I say il is no wonder that he enter
tains such views az he has here expressed. They
are worthy of q patriotic man. They are benev-
olent and humane. can well understand how,
occupying some such mountain height; stand
ing, as 1t were, upon some mount of transfgura-
ton and looking down upon these great wastes;
seeing the waters OF the rivers utilized. the ex-
tinct lakes OF mountains again refilled with
their abundant supplies and their waters by
winding viaducis led down TO and wisely dis
tributed through the valleys. that he has in his
minds eye seen the universal waste converted
into countless fields and gardens of teeming fer
hllty, the happy homes of millions OF prosper
Gus people. I concede that the redemption of
such waste to blooming beauty aud useful
production is worthy of the ambition and en-
thusiasm and earnest thought Of any patriotic
man.
attribute these motives to the senator from
the state of Texas. attribute the same gener-
ous impulses to Major Powell. man Of genius
and vast learning. whose mind has dweit upon
such scenes: whose Imagination has lowered
over them, and who has witnessed in certain
narrow valleys development which he has ac-
copied 40 but an earnest of what may be made
universal in the entire arid region. And yet
Mr. President to bring about the desired result
under the theories evolved and the policy de-
termined upon we are asked to turn our backs
upon the rules Of property, upon the principles
of law and conduct that have controlled as In
all of our civilization, and in the execution of
this magnificent scheme we have been suddenly
brought face to face with q radical change in
the course Of life of the American people for the
lsst two centuries, since the landing of the May
flower upon the American continent
Perhaps fifty years ago, actuated by the search
for gold, moved by the love of novelty and the
spirit of adventure, or controlled by that pur-
pose which induces the American mind to over
come the forces Of nature, the hardy pioneer
pressed out into this unknown region. He went
in advance of the land laws of the United
States; he went in advance Of the statute laws Of
the United States; he went in advance Of organ
lied municipal governments; he went forth
into this great region . law unto him.
self, and yet being the American that
he was, he carried and imported law
with him, IS our ancestors in their
migration from Great Britain brought 1t to our
Eastern shore. He did not carry the common
Law OF immemorial usage and custom or OF an
- 49, ft~f~ IT,
growing, expanding, altering, and changing to
meet the new order of things and his changed
situation. What did he dof In the absence Of
law, in the absence of statute, In the absence
of municipal government. what could he
do? He organized provisional government
In the absence Of judges and jurors and execu-
tors of law, what did he do? He improvised
methods fcu,ded in right, founded in justice,
founded in equity not capricious equity, bat
that broad equity which restrained the strong
and exalted the humble, and placed them upon
common plane.
So. when later on in the tardy race the laws OF
the United States came, when the land laws OF
the United States came, and when organized
territorial government was extended over these
regions, they found an organized society In ad-
vance of them.
Iwish to say this in regard to the settlement
of that country: Going in advance of all these
thingr, this love of order, this sense OF right
dictated to those men, VINO tecnnicdily were al
trespassers upon the domain Of the United
States, that their individual interests should be
respected among themselves, that their separate
possessions should be protected, SO that each
man could take his own land, each his mining
claim, ard that possession was recognized and
protected as efectually ss in any community.
Now, as have said, In going to this unknown
region. these pioneers carried with them the law
| of their country and they carried il with them
| as Adjustable to their new situation. When they
| depioyed themselves over the valleys and In re-
| eions that could be cultivated IS the lands
| which they had left could be cultivated, they
| conforned to the old methods; and when they
| went into different regions they applied new
| rules or modified the old ones 30 that the man
| who took gold out OF the mountains led the
| waters away from their natural and accus-
| toned channels.
| IL had been taught them the water was
| but an incident to the land through which IL
/ flowed as the timber and the stone, and could
| only be used al II flowed by bot 70 be useful in
| this region IL must be separately appropriated.
/ So they conducted 1t away from its appurtenant
| land for the purposes OF mining; they sppre-
/ pristed 1t, and made quasi-personal property, If
you please. OF 1t.
| The farmer coming along after the miner to
4 raise vegetables and fruits and grain to sustain
| him in the mountains also Led the
/ water from the streams and utilized
| IL in irrigeting the valleys. and each
| man. according to the useful and beuedcent
| use he made OF this water, and 70 the extent of
| that use for which he diverted 1t, and TO that
extent alone acquired title. So ia the use oil