El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-11-05

would suffer, and this gentleman hav-
ing the entree of the state department,
secured from the then secretary of state
an offic al commune alton to the secre-
tary of the interior, d. Il Francis, pre-
ferriug and indOrsinc request from
Colonel Mills that the secretary OF the
interior suspend ali applications for
reservoir sites on the RIO Grande and
any of its tributaries in New Mexico
and Colorado until the fate of the inter-
national dam could be determined. The
secretary of the interior complied with
this order and the same is still in
force and L am told irrigation, plac er
and other reservoir enterprises in Col
orado and New Mexico are bling held
up, greatly to the detriment of public
enterprise, by virtue of the kindly in
terest thus displayed by Colonel Mills.
However, the com Dany constructing
this particular .m proceeded with it's
work on the groued that this order in
no way affected them, and then came
the complaint that under the treaty of
Guadalupe H dalgo, the RIO Grande
| was navle able although not so in fact,
and. by the request Of the state depart
ment again, the secretary of the inte-
rlOr referred To tue encouragement
| the two questions, whether under the
| treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the RIO
| Grande could be considered navigable
and w neither the erection of this dam
could b considered violation of such
treaty: also whether the secretary had
the power to revoke his approval previ-
ously given such company ard thus
prevent further construction. A for
| NAL hearing was given the com pany s
| attorneys with the result that the at
| tgrney general gave it as his opinion
that the secretary could not revoke the
former action of his predecessor and
| also that the construction of such dam
| did not constitute d violation of the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The
promoters of the international dam
were in despair. They pressed their
scheme hard before a retiring admins
tration for treaty, aud assert, in FL
Paso, that 1t was only the struggle the
ADM nistration was making fore
the senate to get the English arbitra-
ton treaty ratiti d that prevented Oh
ney from sending in ID treaty with Mex
| !cO to the senate q agreeing to build the
| n.ernaf iOnal dam and making it uu-
| lawful u divert water in New Mexico
or CJl, RADIO from the Rio Grande or
any OF its tributaries and compelling
us to allow the same to flow down to be
used from this M at FL Paso.
| The new administration, it seems
| now, has hit upon Il new theory. That
is that while the Rio Grande is not de-
| ctarGu naVlGaDIe IN New MEX co by the
| treaty OF Guadalupe Hid algO, yet that
| it is so nav; gable in fact, and, in a copy
of letter written by the secretary Of
state to the secretary of the interior, Is
| the following Information, which must
be STARTLING 20 New MeXicans aud citi-
Zen5 of olordGo. \ part Of this letter
| is as follows:
In your letter of December 10, 1896
you informed me you had in
compliance with my suggestion of n J.
vem Der 80, 1896. directed the comm. s.
| siOner of the general land Office to sus-
pend acton on any and all applications
for ri g ht-of-way through public lands
for the purpose Of irrigation by using
the waters of the Rio Grande river or
any OF its tributaries in the state OF
Colorado or in the territory of New
Mexico until further instructions from
you. The request of this department
upon which your order was based was
made al the suggestion OF Colonel An
son Mills by letter dated October 30
1896. have information
" ich indicates that the Rio Grande
river in some parts above the lntcrna-
,ional boundary line is and has been
used as u waterway for navigation BE-
tween the United States and Mexico
and possibly between the state of Col
OradO and the territory Of New Mexico.
L
December -, 1895, (2l0 o. pa held
That the river was not navigabie above
the boundary in the sense Of the treaty
between the UHited States and Mexico,
but the question hare is whether it is
nsvigaole within the meaning of the
laws of the United States. = It
must be observed that the obstruction
to navigation may result not from the
Intervention of the dam across the riv-
or. ht1r oil ha u 0f a.
waters, leaving an insufficient quantity
below the dam for the purpose of navi-
CATION"
After this letter was written the de-
partments were sealed to the corpora
tion's attorneys at Washington on This
question and they could not ascertain
what was being done. Now the ques-
ton energies from this secrecy with
the decision OF the new attorney-gener-
al, according to the Associated Press,
of day or TWO since, that the Rio
Grande is navigable stream in New
Mexico and those who construct or
maintain dams therein for purposes of
irrigation are liable to have their dams
destroyed and he Grimm ally prosecuted
and ordering procedure to that effect
against the Rio Grande Dam s. Irriga-
ton company. Tie decision is an alb
surd one, if made as reported, and
court must be resorted to in the en-
forcement thereof and the government
compelled to produce in broad ds yliR t
Its evidence that the river is naviga-
bic one: but whether enforceable or
Lot, the mere a osurd contention of the
government to that effect will be sutfi-
Gent, dou btless, to scare off all the cap
ltal which has been so planning for
New MeXicO's development. The gray
lty Of this contention cannot be too
greatly magniied. The danger of this
claim Is not limited, if granted, to the |
destruction of all the irrigation sys-
TENS located on the Rio Graude in !
New Mexico and Colorado, but to every
such located on any of its tributaries as |
well, under the contention of the Sec
retary's letter as quoted above, that lit |
must be observed that the obstruction |
to navigation may result not only from |
the Intervention OF the dam across the |
river, but also Fl ON the div zrsion of its |
waters leaving an insufficient quantity |
below the dam for the purpose of nayi-
CATION"