The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-02-23
DEAD AGAINST IT.
Congress Opposed to Amy Irri-
cation Legislation.
AT Least III Seems IneXpedient
Now.
II H R EE IN III ID R ID IS II S.
Chairman Cooper is Placed i'm a
Dilemma.
THREE INTERESTS.

Indiana district IS in the somewhat en-
barrassing condition of having been ap-
pointed to do thing which congress for
the present ct least is determined shall
not be done lie very naturally feels, there
fore, that the interested pu bile ought to
understand the situation and stop bother
ing about it. When the grand irrigators
descended upon congress q few years ago
with the proposition that an the surplus
which then troubled So many statesmen
should be used up in grand irrigating
works, congress named q new committee
on the subject and appointed investiga-
tors The latter, Major Powell, the noted
explorer of the Colorado, being their chief
spokesman, reported in favor of the sys-
tenn, which would have cost, first and last
somewhere between ST GOO O0O, 600 and
81 600 600 GOO. BY the time this was fully
understood. however, the surplus was gone,
and the committee had time to think the
thing over, and now. says Chairman Coop
er IL IS about as certain as anything ia
legislation can be that nothing whatever
viii be done for several years Dit certain
ly viii BE- nothing IS it depends On me.
The Arid Lands.
ssVe have learned this: All those inter
ested in the matter may be divided into
three classes. The first class, and by far
the largest. wants the land all given to the
state in which it IS situated, and their ar
gument is ingenious They say that in
the middle especially Indiana, Hi
nCis and Michigan, after all the avalla BILE
land was sold, congress gave the swamp
land to the states. In our own state. You
know Cmeaning Indianal, nearly the whole
kankakee country Is still in swamp and
the state has never fulfilled the implied
obligation OF draining it. These fellows
use those grants as precedent and say
that nature has simply reversed herself
ont west-vhere we had too much water
they have too little-and by the same rule
the arid lands should belong to- the states
''Tha next class, not so large, but rather
more logical. declare with venemenCe that
the scheme OF reclamation by states is ut
terry lmpractlca bic, as the water is very
often i'm one state and the land to be re-
claimed IT'D another-that is, p great stream
like the Arkansas on Platte has d very
large volume in Colorado, but in the irri-
eating season. or indeed i'm the drieat sea
son before irrigation was established, the
water nearly all disappears before one
reaches the boundary Of the next state east
ward.
Sin fact, there have been seasons when
one might travel for - miles along the
bed Of the South Platte and not see water,
although there was really a great deal
just below the sand surface. Furthermore.
these cannot be called navigable streams
even BY the Naturalization construction
which the supreme court has lately put
interfere with any disposal Of the water
made by the higher states. In short, the
state which has the land about headwa-
ters has the water. and there would be no
help for 1T. Therefore. say these men, con
gress should divide the whole country into
irrigation districts irrespective OF state
lines and provide a general and compre-
henaive system Otherwise there VIII be
an oppressive and really outrageous water
monopoly
ssThere is q third class which you may
call the paternalists- kind Of fellows
who want the government to do every
thing that needs doing and make every
body virtuoua and happy by act of con-
gress These fellows want MS to 60 in and
spend lots Of money, hundreds of millions
of Tito spend money everywhere for
which any UEeteuse can be found under any
clause of the constitution; to bore artesian
wells on all the Indian reservations, to
bore them all along the post roads and
government mail routes and wherever else
the slightest pretense of constitutional
right can BE found for it. TIA short, they
adopt the broadcast construction put forth
bv the old internal revenue men, and want
ali streams canaIized for irrigating pur-
poses, and all the rest of the dry country
fertilized by artesian wells and all at the
expense of the general government. These
men look upon government as a perennial
fountain of benedcenCe and never bother
their heads about how the money is to be
got in before it IS paid out.
Artasian Wells a Failure
'sNow, I hadn E gone into this thing very
far before j became q fourth party-a par
IT, Id ,,,res7f 4 s4--z convinced l,,- f7,.s e.-
i,le.r,C. +i,,+ -r+aafss, 7raIls wore n failure
f i,,.fg-,tse,4s r,4.44qr.e.s a--oart under ~
trer,eIv Favorable ofre4rrls stances. and
didn p think it the business of the govern
t57 Is ,7 r7-es4ft4- f-,- +1,a -,0,-err,r,,-r+ "a
enter mon s.7eb work ana win not be for