Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1896-03-07

and purposes, and when it is completed
1t will be forty-fiye miles in length.
Said Peoples Canal and Irrigation
Company has been organized by actual
settlers on the public domain and is
being constructed by them for the pur-
pose of reclaiming arid lands lying un-
der said canal and thereby furnishing
homes for home-6eekers. Some 200
families have settled upon said lands
and as result Of this canal so desert
and 125 homestead entries have been
made under the United States land
laws on lands lying under this canal.
The interests of a people in an arid re-
gion demand that the owner of the soil
shall likewise own the right to the use
OF the water which irrigates it. The
purposes of the sCarey Act' were not
to interfere with works already in OPP
Grafton or construction and with the
rights of settlers ON that public do
main, but it was intended TO be means
whereby vacant arid lands, totally un-
| improved and unreclaimed might be
redeemed and brought into a state Of
cultivation. In that direction its prac-
tical application can be of great bene-
| fit TO the people in the arid West, but
we submit that in the case of this ap-
plication in question, it will work a
manifest injustice and hardship to the
people whose rights have already in
tervened. If this segregation is per-
mitted, all of the vacant lands under
the s'People's Canal above referred to
viii be separated from the public do
main and will become dependent upon
and tributary to the said american
Falls Canal and Power Company" 1t
would be manifestly unfair and unjust
10 the people whose labor and industry
have constructed the Peoples Canal'
for distance of twenty-five miles un-
der great hardships and privations, to
be denied the legitimate fruits Of their
toll by this segregation. Such segre-
cation would practically ruin the s.Peo-
Piles Canal because it would sub
ject large area of the lands lying inn
inediately Hereunder to irrigation
from another system which was not
contemplated or even suggested when
the peoples Canal. was commenced.
Moreover the American Falls Canal
Company is foreign corporation, is
not organized on the cooperative plan,
and has less than three miles of works
constructed, with no possibility of irri-
eating any land during the coming sea-
son.
4 We believe that the land under the
"People's Canaln is in contemplation
OF the Carey Act practically reclaim
ed now, because it only needs the dis
tribution of the water on the different
Subdivisions and the extension of the
canal on which eighty home-seekers
are now laboring. The "Carey Act
was intended to assist rather than re.
tard settlement and reclamation of the
public domain. If this segregation is
permitted. it will be used to defeat the
J very purposes and objects of its orig
! inators.
The foregoing representations are
made to us by large number of repre-
, sentative citizens directly interested il
/ this matter, and we believe that tht
statements are absolutely true. w,
therefore ask that no segregation b.
made or any action taken by the De
parrment on the application of tn,
: American Falls Company until the pee
Pile directly interested shall have a
opportunity to enter protest.
Very respectfully,
FRED I. DUBOIS.
EDGAR WILSON.