Omaha daily bee., 1890-05-20

exec he supply The tendency OF carly
setth IS to get as far away from neighbors
as pc lie and this dispcrsive tendency be-
comes imatcly u serious difficulty. 1t is in
the Sc, stage, or that of multiplied bitches,
that tn lo begins to be felt Many bitches
derivin ,eir water from the same stream
soon COZ into conflict. Priority Of right
works great deal of hardship and quarrels,
and sometimes bloodshed results. The right
OF appropriation is underlined in the law, and
each claimant urges the largest demand.
Laws and ordinances, often of novel and
heroic kind are employed to enforce divis-
ion of the water which shall insure TO one
man an abundance of water in time OF scare
ity and leave another mans crops to wither.
The local legislatures Cndcavor to meet the
difficulty, but their legislation gives no heed
to the future. 1t is framed for tiding over
immediate difficulties and is enacted as If the
second stage were permanent and incapable
of change Rights cf an obstructive and bur
densome character become deeply rooted and
acquire fictitious values.
I'm the third stage in which it becomes
necessary to buy up and wipe out these multi
pie bitches in their conflicting rights, the diff
hcultics eliminate. The older bitches are
wasteful and the use of water is prodigal and
unequal To buy out the prior rights is very
expensive. The owners of them are in
position to demand a high price, not because
their water supply is so valuable for they get
new rights in exchange for old ones, but be
cause it is in their power to Obstruct. This
leads to an increased capitalization to the new
canal company and the farmer must, of
course, pay interest on it. No sooner is a
large and costly canal projected than all the
desert land under it is filed up. Most of the
entries are made by spectators who antici-
pate large profit by the unlawful sale of re
linQuishments. The effects of this
are most pernicious. The lands are
held unimproved awaiting colusive
purchaser and the canal company is deprived
of its legitimate revenue from the sale of
water. The increased value OF the land, which
lntt tgf.
who contribute neither capital nor labor to its
improvement, and the actual farmer must
contract heavy debt in order to secure the
land These two evils, the increased capital
ization and interest paid for the works and
the absortion of the increased value of the
land by outside spectators, contribute to the
greatest evil of all. This is the almost hope
less separation of the ownership of land from
the ownership of water. 1t increases the
capital sum which the farmers must liquidate
before they can own their water supply and
it deprives them of the main resource or fund
from which they can obtain their means. The
separation of the ownership of land from that
of water is not far removed from practical
slavery and every practicable means should
be taken to prevent the western country from
drifting into that condition. Where the two
ownerships are united agriculture always
fiourishes and where they are separated it
languShes.
There is another practice which is rapidly
becoming gigantic evil in some districts.
Settlers who cannot find land and water in
a well settled district frequently go up into
the mountains or high lands and rob the
streams above. The lower the valley, the
better the climate, soil and crops and the
higher the valley, the worse. Thus the val
ley lands are deprived of their rightful
waters and highly productive agriculture
is damaged or even ruined to sustain
wretched and unproductive one Recourse
to the courts is seldom successful owing to
many reaSonS.n
tni in,
fculties and troubles and proceeds to show
that they have their roots in two common
causes. The first is the right of any person
to appropriate water without any limitation
or restriction as to quantity or place, subject
only to prior rights. a most improvid ent law
The second is The right of a man to take up a
large tract Of government land in any locality
irrespective of how it may affect the general
welfare and whether it is good irrigable land
or bad. He sums these up as follows:
"The present law allowing the free appro-
priation of water subject only TO prior rights
leads to the following consequences: TO the
requirement of vested rights which are bur-
densome and unjust to later settlers and OBJ
structive to higher developments of irriga-
ton; to the most Wasteful use of water with
out incentive to economic it; to innumerable
conflicts and litigation; to settlement upon
the poorer lands and to deprive the good
lands of water; to dispersive settlement with
an Improbable agriculture and mutually re-
pellant interests instead of concentrated set
Elements WIN cOnCOruanI ana mutually de-
pendent interests
''The present laws relating to the disposi-
tion of public lands in the arid region lead:
to the diversion of the sudden increase in the
value of land as soon as it becomes irrigabe
into the pockets of the speculative class who
contribute nothing to the improvement, either
in the way of capital or labor, thereby sad
ding the bona tide settler at the outset with
a heavy debt at high interest; to deprive the
capitalist who builds great works of his egiti-
Of from yntpr service
the lands filed upon being unimprovcd, also
depriving him of the legimate security upon
which his investments should rest; to eX-
pandng unnecessarily the cost of the work
and its capitalized debt and increasing its
risks and interest thereon; to maximum
charges for water service and maintenance
in order to secure even the most moderate in
terests; to the almost hopeless separation of
the ownership of land from the ownership of
water.
'The right to appropriate water should
hereafter be strictly limited. The irrigable
lands should be segregated from the nOn-irri-
gable and officially declared, The diversion
of water upon non-irrigable public land for
purposes of irrigation should be prohibited
under penalties. The irrigabe land should
be openedto settlement under new home
stead law limiting the size of the claim TO
eighty acres and the desert land act should
be repealed
Captain Dutton's recommendation is some
what detailed, but in brief it proposes to Sc
leCU Ile ulSIFlcJS III WHICH government febu-
ation is deemed advantageous, survey them,
project the works by which the best results
for irrigation can be secured and make the
right of future appropriations inherent in the
proposed canals and deny future rights to
any others.
The government should supervise the con-
structon of the works; granting fun privi-
lege to use the selected sites and to collect
water rates but reserving to the freeholders
of the district the right to purchase the
works after a certain period at price equal
to the cost of construction and moderate
premium. The homestead instead OF being
given to the settler should be sold 10 him at
price to be paid in annual installments.
This price should be assessed according to
the cost of the works.
After ten years the works may be pur-
chased and the fund accumulated from the
sale of homesteads may be made available as
part or the whole OF the purchase money
This would put stop to desert land specu-
lation. The burden put upon the farmer to
pay tho price of the homestead would be far
less than he generally pays now in interest
and instead of leaving him in debt with no
prospect of ever being able to own his water
supply would give him in ten years an unin-
numbered title to his land and fund in the
treasury nearly or quite sufficient 10 buy the
,Uutnr tVnrlfs Tho cost IN povprumaut