The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-07
PARED DOWN.
Irrigation Bureau ApprOpria-
tiOn for Which Chester Long
Worked So Hard in the House,
Almost Knocked Out.
ON REACHING SENATE
Cut Down to a Paltry $4,000
in That Body.
Senator Baker Fails to Come to
to the Rescue.

From the State Journals Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON, March THE appro-
priation of $4,000 for the bureau of ir-
rigation inquiry which Congressman
Long worked SO hard to get into the
agricultural appropriation bill in the
house was cut to $4,000 in the senate.
Senator Baker of Kansas did not protest.
The bureau has been of considerable
value in the past and would have been of
more value to at least half the state of
Kansas. Senator PETER is absent and
Senator Baker didn't consider it worth
while to rise in his place and utter
word against the reduction.
When the item of $4,000 which Mr..
Long got inserted in the bill in the house
over the recommendation of the COM
mIttee went to the senate il was cut down
in the senate committee to $4,000. When
the bill came before the senate Senator
Warren of Wyoming moved to restore
the amount TO $4,000 and change the
department under which it should be ex-
pended from the agricultural to the in
terror department This was objected
to on the grounds that it would be irregu-
lar to appropriate for the interior depart
ment in an agricultural bill. Senator
Warren was the only cham
plOu Vi bH0 P1OsOUO dm0nOn6uL
and had finally to be contented with an
item of $4,000 'to enable the director of
the geological survey to continue guag
ing the streams and determining the
water supply of the United States in
Guiding the investigations of under
ground currents and artesian wells in
arid and semi-rid regions"
He had to take this insignificant ap-
preparation and accept the promise that
lar JafI hn dn
when the sundry civil appropriation bill
came up. Everyone knows what pro-
mises of that kind amount to. When the
sundry civil bill comes up there will be
other excuses urged and doubtless no
appropriation made at all.
1t was a little odd to see senator from
another state championing a measure
which Kansas men had fought for in the
bouse while the senator from Kansas sat
idly by. In such a case the advice of
the prophet Elijah to the priests of Baal
is not unapplica bic to the people of Kan
sas if they expect their junior senator 10
do anything for them: ''Cry
aloud; for he is a god, either he
is talking, or he is pursuing.
or he is in a journey, or peradventure
he sleepeth and must be awakened"
Or peradventure Senator Baker be-
lieved with Secretary ]. Sterling Morton
that there are too many farms already,
and that everything should be done
which could be to prevent the creation
of competing farms. This opinion of
Secretary Morton, which was used for all
it could be agains. the appropriation for
a board of irrigation inquiry, says:
"Mr. G. w. Irish, chief of the Office of
irrigation inquiry, has devoted much
time to the further personal examination
and investigation of the different meth
ods of irrigation practiced in Utah, Ne
vada, Nebraska, and some of the arid
and subhumid regions. He has not yet
completed his report; but considera BILE
progress has been made with it, and it is
believed that the department will speed
lily be in position to render important
didectic service to that large and in
creasing body of agriculturists who are
farming irrigated lands.
Enquiries are received from time to
time as to the best methods of overcom-
ing the various difficulties that are en-
countered in the artificial application of
water to soil under the widely varying
conditions which obtain in the far west,
and most reliable information in the pos =
tession of the department is promptly af-
forded to the thousands who seok it, The
secretary of agriculture realizes that only
-by irrigation can many OF the richest
soils of the United States ever be sue.
cessfully brought under cultivation, but
he strongly deprecates any appropriation
of the public money or any alienation of
the public domain as subsidy for the
attempted solution of irrigation prob
lens, which are, in his opinion, pressed
upon the country years before their time
and years before the best interests of the
country can be served by their considera-
ton and determination.
"With almost superabundance of ag
riculturar products in our home markets
at reasonably lowprices, public funds out
of taxes gathered largely from existing
farms and farmers can not justly be ap-
propriated from the treasury of the
United States to create competing
FARMS"
Later.
2:30 p. m.-The house today refused to
concur on the senate amendment to agri-
cultural appropriation bill which struck
out the SIS, 1000 for irrigation inquiry
Curtis. Long and Blue all urged non
concurrence and the retention of the
original house item of $4,000.