The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-07-27
A TRIUMPH OF LAND MONOPOLY.

a TRIUMPH OF LAND MONOPOLY.
The decision Of Judge Ross which strikes
down the Irrigation District system of
California is notable triumph for land
monopoly. The essence of the decision,
Invested Of all technical obscurity. is to
the general effect that an Irrigation Dis
trict is not public corporation, notwith-
standing 1t was erected by Legislative
enactment. and it's oonstitutionality
passed upon by the Supreme Court of
the State. the best qualified and most
directly authorized body to interpret the
State Constitution.
Having declared that the Irrigation
District is not q public corporation az a
county or municipality, the Judge very
easily finds that taxation for the purpose
of developing an Irrigation District is IL
legal, since the enforcement Of taxation
can be proceeded with only by selling
the property, or taking such property for
the use of the District. Municipalities,
being public corporations, have right to
tax the owners Of vacant and unproduc-
tive property for the improvement Of
streets and the construction of sewers.
All these proceedings are in the direction
of making vacant property more valu-
able. 1t Is a method of improvement,
ia IF Mt RI
has no recourse against such improve
ment. The construction of lsvee to
protect the city against overflow i'm
proves the value of property. and yet
such Ievess are constructed by munich
palities.
If an Irrigation District under the
Wright law is not a public corporation,
but is a private corporation, then Judge
Ross is right. But the position that it is
State of California has a right to create
counties or parishes-to divide up for the
purpose OF local legislation and local self
government the territory of the State into
districts. The State creates school dis
tricts, townships and counties. To de-
clare that the authority of the Legisla-
turs under the Constitution of the State
does not extend to the creation of pub
lie corporation known as an Irrigation
Ross may be lawyer, but he has evil
IDENTITY forgotten a great many things
which people who are not lawyers know
quite as well az Judge Ross. and one of
these things is that the State OF California
has proceeded with the reclamation Of its
swamp land by the creation OF Swamp
Land Districts. and the legality OF such
proceeding has never been questioned.
Within the Districts there has been local
regulation relating to swamp lands. and
assessments have been levied and lands
have been sold to satisfy such assess
ments.
The large landholder, however, has
uniformly opposed the Wright irrigation
law. Irrigation relates to small, diligent
and intensified cultivation. Our large
landed system was a legacy from the
semi-barbaric system of land holding de-
rived from Mexico and belonging to the
sheep raising demanded in this country
with it's arid summer large grazing areas.
The grasses produced by the wet season
are cured on the ground by the dry sea-
son. The quantity of forage thus sup
piled is not increased during the seven
months Of summer. For this reason,
large grazing areas were necessary to sue
cessful cattle husbandry. The new order
of things came in with irrigation and Gull
tivation.
The common law Of any country Is
derived from the common necessities of
it's people. Common law is an evolution
airy regulation which comes into exist
ence by that wisdom derived from ex-
perience. We have tried every system
of reclamation in the way of irrigation,
and we have found that the best was that
which welded the application Of water
and the cost of its application to the own
ership of the land, making the two in
separable. The large land-hoider, how
ever. who desires to devote his areas to
dry-land farming and grazing does not
wish It assessed for the purpose Of de-