Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-24
IRRIGATION.
Bill for the Irrigation of the Arid
Lands of the Rio Grande Valley.
Senator Reagan's Argument in Favor of the
Bill - The Relief to be Obtained by
Building Dam Near Ell Paso.
Correspondence of the Gazette.

FluluS LOT the irrigation or tne aria IauuS
of the Rio GraGde valley yesterday, but
objection being made, he was unable to
do so. He explained the provisions of
the bill, however, and gave some very
pertinent reasons why the measure
should be passed. In the course of his
remarks Senator Reagan said:
Mr.. President-The Rio Grande river
forms the boundary between the
United States and Mexico for some
1900 miles. At FL Paso, where that
stream passes out of the territory of the
United States and forms the boundary
there is on each side of the river a city.
On the Mexican side there is the city of
JuareZ, formerly called Paso del Norte
On the American side is the city of FL
Paso. The city of Juarez has now about
20 600 inhabitants. It is a city that has
been occupied by the Mexicans for more
than 100 years.
They depend upon irrigation for their
cultivation, and the taking cut of the
water by irrigation in Colorado and New
Mexico has made that river, during the
dry season and during the season when
crops are made, dry for about 500 miles,
that place being about the center, the
dividing point of these 500 miles. The
river, by the accumulation of SHOWS
in the winter and rain in the spring, in
its erosional flow from April to July, fire.
quently makes very great floods, and
changes, as this report shows, the chan
mel of the river for many miles, invOlv-
ing questions that will be better under
stood if the senate will bear with me
until read one or two pages of the re-
port, showing the necessity for action
and how it arises.
In the report of the troubles on the Rio
Grande, transmitted TO the house of rep
resentatives by the secretary of war in
1873, Executive Document No. 81 Forty
fifth congress, second session, Col. Hatch
says, among other things:
One (trouble) which must be looked
for sooner or later is IN connection with
the water taken from the Rio Grande for
irrigation, as soon as the attempt is made
to largely extend cultivation in this val
ley (there will not be enough water for
ALL and both sides have an equal right
From this troubles are certain to arise
sooner OF later which may involve the
two countries seriously.
In the report of the board of officers
(Ex. Doc. No. 50, Forty-fifth congress,
second SESSION. March Is, 1878, is to be
found the following statement:
The Rio Grande, at this season of the
year even an insignificant stream, its
channel often shifting and always err
ratio, but during the heats of summer
sometimes dry, affords, by beng direct
ed into acequias on either bank, a scant
and variable supply of water to the peo-
pie of both nationalities, but is utterly
insufficient to irrigate this extensive val
ley, where the yearly rainfall measures
but few inches. As time progresses
and the country is opened by accessions
to its population, sure to come-fOr it is
a most fertile region and gloriously re-
wards the labor spent in irrigation-tbe
question must grow in Importance and
may occasion trouble beyond the reach
of diplomacy to settle.
Then, in the report of General Stan
ley of last year to the secretary of war,
he uses this language:
Our relations with our Mexican neigh
bors upon the long line of the Rio Grande
have been kindly, although they are a
good deal excited over what they deem
the violation of their riparian rights
through our people taking all the water of
the Rio GTande for the irrigation of the
Grande a dry bed for 500 miles. The
question is one that must be settled by
the state department, aud thus far there
has been no call for military force.
The remedy for this water famine and |
ruin to the inhabitants of the
Rio Grande valley must be found in
storage reservoirs, so easy of construc- |
ton, one in the canon opposite Taos and !
the other in the canon near and north of |
Ell Paso.
In the report of the committee this |
statement is made:
These floods have sometimes become |
devastating torrents, inundating the |
whole valleys for miles, cutting new /
channels and sweeping everything before |
them. In 1912, in the FL Paso valley, |
the river changed its bed for distance /
of thirty miles, and in some places seven |
miles laterally. Hundreds of smaller |
changes have been made since. In 1884 |
it began moving back from the Mexican
side at this point, and in a few months
carried away fifteen miles of the South
ern Pacific railroad. and threw q single
body of over 5000 acres of land on the
south side of the river, although it is
still claimed to be within the domain of
Texas This land was just above the
l.
the river left the town for miles, its peo-
pie were compelled to take canal from
the river where it Is entirely in Texas
and carry it for more than three miles
over Texas soil 60 irrigate their land and
for domestic purposes. The situation is
further we'll described in sn able report
submitted in the last congress by Hon.
Mr.. Hit Of the committee on foreign
affairs, as follows:
cit (the Rio Grsnde) has shifted its
channels so often and so far, in some
cases gradually, in others abruptly and |
oy cut-offs, that no man knows ac-
where the boundary is to-day. |
Sometimes the stream will suddenly cut
1 new channel, abandoning the old ones
and in q single day, by a cut
,ff, a tract or sbanco' OF a hundred acres
will be found TO be on the other side of
he river. These causes have produced
as to the boundary, and this
smuggling, which is always
carried on more or less on the border.
When a man smuggles from 'banco' it
s almost impossible to catch and convict
lin. No surveys are made nor Official
'ecords kept of the time and place Of cut
III changes, and no one can tell with ao-
'uracy the extent of q cutoff. The bed