Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-07-12
The oucslinn or Arid Lnnds.

purposes, and all lands made susceptible , or irrigation by such reservoirs, ditches or canals. General O'Neill says that this Is working great injury to Ari- { zona, and that he thinks the Chronicle . has made mistake in opposing bill for the repeal or modification of the act re- ferred to-
 Our correspondent is doubtless familiar with the workings of the law ill Arizona, and his statements may be accepted on that point without hesitation; but he has mistaken the attitude of this paper on the arid lands question, as few words will show. The Chronicle favored the pas sage of the act of 1888 for two reasons first because it believed that its passage committed Congress to the speedy adop- ton of some general and comprehensive system of reclamation of the public lands; and second, because without some such restrictive measure the arid lands would all have been seized upon by speculators, in view of the prospective reclamation, and the government would have found it. self eXpending millions of dollars of the peoples money not for the benefit of the people, but for the enrichment and az grandizement of a syndicate of land bar ons.
 For the same reasons the Chronicle op- | posed the attack made on the law of 1888 | very shortly after it's passage It adyo- | cated giving a reasonable time for Con- | gress to plan and formulate a scheme of | storage and irrigation, knowing that the | undertaking would be gigantic one, in- | volvinG much time. labor and money.
 The assault is now renewed on the act | of October ?, 1888, and we see no reason | to alter our position, at least until it is clearly demonstrated that Congress in | tends to take no action in the matter of the arid lands. No doubt, in Arizona. as l elsewhere, the tying up of these lands has caused some individual hardship, but it is rather to the general good that the few should suffer than the many. The Unit ed States has heretofore been so liberal with the public lands that even delay in disposing of them seems to many sort of fraud on the people.
 Our correspondent should bear in mind this contingency. that if the reservation net of 1888 should be repealed and the arid lands be sold tO individuals, and then Congress should adopt a general scheme of irrigation, it would be practically i'm | possible to carry it into effect except un- der proceedings for condemnation, which would be very tedious and very costly. | The government would have to buy back | the arid land at eXorbitant figures, which would certainly kill any general scheme of irrigation.
 Congress cannot be defended in its procrastination of this very important subject; but the question is, Is it not bet ter for the people to bear with the delay i than to insist on measures which would render reclamation of the arid lands an | impossibility? We must think of the flu | ture as well as of the present, and think of these lands not as arid and useless, but as irrigated and cultivable, the home of generations of American citizens yet unborn.
 The foregoing from the San Francisco Chronicle is, perhaps, correct in the ab- stract, but the most essential practical
 feature of the law has been overlooked.
 By its interpretation by the Attorney General all lands in the arid regions are
 withdrawn from entry, including those
 under existing irrigating canals. No en-
 try, even under the homested a
 laws. can be made under any canal
 in Arizona with a certainty that it will be
 allowed by the department. This is the
 feature of the act that is especially ob-
 noxious to tue people of Arizona, and it
 is one that at once palsies the hand of
 progress.
 A modification of another feature of
 this law Is also desired whereby upon
 application of private capital for perlnis-
 sion to construct storage reservoirs, and
 with proper guaranties that the work will
 be prosecuted to immediate completion,
 provision should be make for the Presi-
 dent, in his discretion, to waive govern
 mental control and permit the work to go
 on. In this valley we are confronted by
 a state of affairs that are peculiarly affect
 ed by this law. The Florence Canal
 Company has constructed at great ex-
 pense large canal, capable of supplying more than one hundred thousand acres
 of fertile but arid land A portion oi their system includes the erection of (
 dam across the Gila river at the Buttes and the creation of a huge reservoir This is an essential part of their system
 and is relied upon to tide over the dry
 summer season. Settlers have taken III
 lands along this canal with the expecta
 ton that their water supply would be in
 sured by the building of this reservoir but the government now distinctly forbidl {, it's dedication to such purpose until som,
 indefinite time in the distant future whel
 the slow progress of the geological sur !
 vey shall reach this locality and the stil 4 more distant report upon it shall but
 and blossom from the dusty archives O
 that controlling bureau. Now this is al
 oppressive state of affairs and it would . be better, far better, for the government :, and the people, if the doors were throwl i open and interruptions speculators wer
 permitted to have all the arid lands A They would, at least, in self protection
 be compelled tO make them habitable an,
 then to colonize them in order to realiz 1 upon their investment.
 t The people of Arizona do not want no .. ask the government to spend a cent uI /. on it's arid lands in this territory The q T the reclamation of these lands so aus s piciously begun by private enterprise II They want to be permitted to expen 1 their own money and muscle in the dc 70 velopment of the country and in buildin up homes they may call their own whe ;4 the result of their labors Is shown i | values creaed out of nothing. Tn
 munifcence of our government in tn
 matter will eventually present balanc
 sheet closely resembling that of the in d' mortal "Jinks' baby" wherein the e1 III penses of helping along the people, wi absorb the full amount of the funds al 'o propriated
 v -=-------------- 'e THE reasons set forth for the maintel IS ance of a military post at Fort Thomi l. seem to be sufficiently conclu to pr W vent the dismantling of that post. i'd stands between the treacherous Apach,