Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-05-21
TELLS A Flew INSIDE FACTS
Concluded from First page. !

q LdA ~ kSbOANptA WIG III uGO WOItu,
at Elephant Butte in the bed of the Rio
Grande, just west of Engle, intending to
store water therein during the food and
non irrigating season and let the same
down the stream to the company's canals
and the private bitches of others during
the time the river is dry, generally from
June until September. For several years
this company could only secure sufficient
funds to prosecute the surveys necessary
to determine the principal features of the
plan and the probable cost of carrying
the same out. Ia the early spring of
1895 this company applied to the score
tary of the interior for an approval of its
selected reservoir site at Elephant Butte,
filing in his office the proofs and maps re-
quired by law. Under the act of con-
gress of 1891, section 10, chapter SCI, this
company by filing maps designating the
location of this reservoir and proofs of
its corporate character, with an epplica-
ton that the same be set aside to it for
such purpose had right to have the
secretary approve these maps, in 80 far
as the public domain covered thereby
was concerned, and his approval carries
with it the right to construct the reser-
voir within five years thereafter. Secre-
tary Smith approved these maps just
as he has approved maps for dozens
of other reservoirs in the Rio Grande.
The following is the law under which this
right was acquired.
Section Is, chapter 561, acts of 1891.
"That the right-of-way through the public
lands and reservations of the United
States is hereby granted to any canal or
ditch company formed for the purpose of
irrigation and duly organized under the
laws of any state or territory, which shall
have filed, or may hereafter file, with the
secretary of the interior copy of it's
articles of incorporation, and due proofs
of its organization under the same, to
the extent of the ground occupied by the
water of the reservoir and of the canal
and its laterals, and SO feet on each side
of the marginal limits thereof"
Section 10, That any canal or ditch
company desiring to secure the benefits
of this act shall, within u months after
the the location of ten miles of it's canal
if the same be upon surveyed lands, and
if upon unsurveyed lands, within Il
months after the survey thereof by the
United States, file with the register of the
land Office for the district where such land
is located map of its canal and ditch
and reservoir; and upon the approval
thereof by the secretary of the interior
the same shall be noted upon the plats in
said office, and thereafter all such lands
over which such rights-ofway shall pass
shall be disposed of subject to such right
of-way."
Shortly after this approval the money
for the construction of part of these
works was obtained, partly at home and
partly abroad, and last January the con.
| tractor commenced the construction of
part of the system, which included d.
verting dam and small canal leading
therefrom, it being contemplated by the
company to commence the construction
of the Elephant Butte reservoir upon the
completion of this diverting dam, the
latter being used to divert the water
which the company intended to store at
Elephant Butte and let down the river to
this point. AS soon as this construction
commenced, the promoters of the inter-
national dam in Ell Paso and Juarez COM
menced to agitate Colonel Mills, then
lobbying with the departments at Wash
ington, with kilograms and letters advis-
ing that something must be done to stop
the construction going on above or the
interests of their scheme would suffer,
and this gentleman having the entree of
The state department., secured from the
then secretary of state an official COM
munlcation to the secretary of the in
terror, d. R. Francis, preferring and in
dorsing request from Colonel Mills that
the secretary of the interior suspend all
applications for reservoir sites on the Rio
Grande and any of it's tributaries in New
Mexico and Colorado until the fate of
the international dam could be determ-
ined. The secretary of the interior COM
piled with this order and the same is still
in force and am told irrigation, placer
and other reservoir enterprises in Colo
RADIO and New Mexico are being held up,
greatly to the detriment of public enter
prise, by virtue of the kindly interest
thus displayed by Colonel Mills. How
ever, the company constructing this par
ticular dam proceeded with it's work on
the ground that this order in no way af-
fected them, and then came the complaint
that under the treaty of Guadalupe Hi.
dalgo, the Rio Grande was navigable al.
though not 30 in fact, and, by request of
the state department again, the secretary
of the interior referred to the attorney
general the two questions, whether under
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the Rio
Grande could be considered navigable and
whether the erection of this dam could
be considered violation of such treaty,
also whether the secretary had the power
to revoke his approval previously given
such company and thus prevent further
construction. A formal hearing was
given the company's attorneys with the
result that the attorney general gave it
as his opinion that the secretary could
not revoke the former action of his pre-.
decessor and also that the construc-
tion of such dam did not constitute
of the treaty of Guadalupe Hi
dalgo. The promoters of the interna-
tional dem were in despair. They pressed
their scheme hard before retiring ad.
for treaty, and assert, in
Ell Paso, that it was only the struggle the
was making before the
senate to get the English arbitration
treaty ratified that prevented Olney from
sending in treaty with Mexico to the
senate agreeing to build the international
dam and making it unlawful to divert
water in New Mexico or Colorado from
the Rio Grande or any of its tributaries
and compelling US to allow the same to
flow down to be used from this dam at Ell
Paso.
The new administration, II seems now,
has hit upon new theory. That is that
while the Rio Grande is not declared
An New Mexico by the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, yet that it is so navi-
gable in fact, and, in a copy Of letter
written by the secretary of state to the
secretary of the interior, is the following
which must be startling to
New Mexicans and citizens Of Colorado: