Milford chronicle., 1896-08-07
MExICO'S BOUNDARY.
Tho Mexicans Claim the United
States Is Trespassing.
Heavy Damages Arc Claimed There
for = The circumstances Upon
which tho Claim Is
Based.


Along no inconsiderable portion o.
Its course the Rio Grande constitute:
the international boundary between
the United States and Mexico. Until
within a few years the Rio Grande
served the purposes Of boundary line
very creditably and satisfactorily, but
recently the settlers in Colorado and
New Mexico (away up stream) have
taken SO much water out of the river
for the purposes of irrigation that the
old boundary line becomes obliterated
during the dry season, and this has
made 50 much trouble for the Mexicans
that their government claims of the
United States So, 600, 900 damages.
4,he circumstances upon which they
base this heavy claim for damages may
be briefly summed up as follows:
From the neighborhood of FL Paso, eS-
tending about 80 miles down the river,
there is a valley about IS miles wide,
and since the river has got into the
habit Of going dry every summer it has
cut many different and widely diverg-
ing channels with the advent of flood
water. In this way the international
boundary has been practically oblit-
GRATED as far as this valley, IS miles
wide and 90 miles long, is concerned.
This has led to endless complications az
to national jurisdiction, and finally to
q condition of utter lawlessness. In
addition to this, the Mexicans claim that
for some 200 years they have Jeen Gull
tiVating the lands of this valley on their
side of the boundary which We're made
very fertile and productive by irriga-
ton from the waters of the Rio Grhnde,
but since the river has been systemat-
ically and continuously robbed of its
waters by the American settlers of Col
orado and New Mexico just at the sea
son when the water was needed for
irrigation, this valley below El Paso
has become a sterile desert, absolutely
worthless for agricultural purposes.
They claim that the Mexicans have a
prior claim to the water of the Rio
Grande, as they were using it for pur-
poses of irrigation 200 years ago, but
now they have been robbed not only |
Of the water, but Of the international
boundary line, and, indirectly, of Law |
and order 10 the valley referred to.
In view OF all this they set up claim
for So, OOO,O 600 damages, but they also
propose the terms of a compromise.
cse proposal is that the United States
should build what has lately figured in
the news of the day as the information
Il dam" This dam will (if bnilD be
ocated about two and one-half miles
above FL Paso, where the heights which
nclose the canyon-like valley of the
Rio Grande just above Ell Paso converge
10 nearly that dam 600 feet long will
connect them. This dam, to serve the
purpose for which it has been designed,
ihould be 600 feet long and about 20
eet high, and will, when completed,
,ost about 81 100000 Such dam will
t Is estimated, create an immense
eservoir IS miles long by four miles
vide, or about four times as large as
ny artificial reservoir now in the ex-
stence. This will hold all the sur
lus water of the Rio Grande at flood
ime, and this accumulation will not
My be ample for irrigation of the arid
ands in the valley below it on both
ldes of the boundary, but furnish
upply Of water sufficient to hold the
hannel Of the river by moderate but
ontinuous flow all through the dry {
sason. In this way the demands of the
Iexicans for damages can be satisfied,
be international boundary maintained, {
wv and order restored in that valley !
allow FL Paso, and the lands on the
merican as we'll as the Mexican side !
[ the valley furnished with an ample
ipply of water for purposes Of irriga-
Express. {.