Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-05-13
THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 10, 1897,
THE RIO GRANDE DAMS.

o.all work on the New Mexico dams on
the Rio Grande. the coDfscation of the
property of those engaged in the work
and their criminal prosecution, is more
than likely to prove a boomerang.
That the chief law officer of the gov
eminent has acted hastily aud wholly
upon ex-parte evidence seems most
apparent. New Mexico's citlzsns
have suffered many indignities at the
hands of congress and the federal off,
cials ia Washington, from time to
time, i'll the past, but this blow from
McKenna is one OF the most unpro.
voked, contemplate and upjustifed
upper-cuts that has been aimed at our
poor, d~efenseless heads. 1t is most
surprising that the attorney general, a
man in whom the west especially has
reposed so much confidence rs q safe
and worthy individual for q cabinet
position, should have so completely
flown the tangent as he appears to
have done in this case. Surely some
rival water company's attorney must
have duped McKenna, possibly, also,
the suave and courteous Senior Romero,
who so scrupulously guards the inter-
ests of Mexico at our national capital,
may have hypnotized the California
jurist and sung to him a song Of woe
that played upon his heart strings like
the soft sea breeze that follows a
Pacific coast gale--who knowsP AT
all events, Judge McKenna has involv-
ed himself in o very embarrassing pre-
dicament, if the information thus far
obtainable on a subject Of the gravest
concern to the people Of the southwest
is reasonably reliable.
The idea that the Rio Grande Is o
navigable stream within 200 miles of
Ell Paso, 10 either direction, is simple
nonsense. The fact that the Ell Paso
and Mexico water corporation lawyers
have selected the spring Of the year,
when the May floods are IN, as the
proper time to spring this joke OIL
Judge McKenna, is indeed most signifi-
cant. Ii is o notorious fact that con-
gfess has repeatedly refused to appro-
pirate public funds for improvement of
the Rio Grande because 1t was not a
navigable stream. Then again what
has the Mexican government to do
with American interests located from
100 to 1875 miles north OF the interna.
tional lineP With as much justice and
reason, Gen. McKenna might order the
great irrigation systems in southern
Colorado to cease operations!
BY this piece of stupidity we are to
understand that citizens OF the Terrific
ries are MOTTO be permitted to employ
English and French capitalin establish
ing irrigation enterprises albeit The
vicious alien act is a thing of the past
and only last February congress passed
an act throwing open to entry all the
reservoir sites-there are nineteen ia
New Mexico, which had previously
been surveyed and segregated from the
public domain. Any citizen may now
enter upon and take possession of those
reservoir sites. The one near Fort
Selden was taken up by responsible
citizens of Las Cruces and Ell Paso and
a corporation formed for the expendl-
lure Of $1,000, 900 in giving the people
of the Mesilla valley, Ell Paso valley
and Juarez, Mexico, that for which
they have been praying for years, an
supply of wholesome water.
Tn New Mexico alone, the idea contem.
plates the irrigation Of 200. 600 acres of
the most fruitful land in the west, yet
now comes the mischief makers and
the ob~structionists to place a veto on
all progress. 1t IL a burning shame
and al outrage On justice, deceacy and
good government.
The milk in the %cocoanut appears to
be simply this: Certain Ell Pasoans
and Col. Anson Mills, U. s. engineer,
have a wild-eyed project in hand to
dam the Rio Grand9 near Ell Paso and
establish there q reservoir. It is politely /.
termed the s'~international DAM" but |
The benefits are very much all on one !
side, tven fit should prove practicable, +,
which it probably isn't, for these pos /
'ible benefits will result only in giving t
81 Paso a first-class municipal water 9
ystem Of government expense while : !
'lso providing the inhabitants Of Juarez :
md its environments with very excel D
emit irrigation facilities paid for exclu-
lively by Uncle Sam. Solicitor General !
dcKenna il wrong. He'll probably !,
take water" as gracefully as possible 4
efore he has the last OF his most re. &
lark able aetinn in shsa aAes. I