The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-02-17
My SOLVE ITSELF
Mr.. French on the Arkansas
River Difficulty.
TO BE WATER FOR ALL
Eventually the Stream Mil
Fill Up Again.

Mr. F. R. French of Lakin was in the
city Yesterday and to a reporter of the
Eagle he said in regard to the waters OF
the Arkansas river:
The farmers along the lower Arkansas
seem to forget that in asking the legisla-
ture TO pass a Jaw empowering them TO
tax themselves in order TO push lawsuit
that their fight is not strictly against the
ditch builders and irTigationists Of Col
orado but the first persons 10 feel the
! evil effects of the law will be their stru~-
/ Cling brother farmers Of western Kansas.
/ To some extent the farmers in the extreme
west end of the state realize that duriE--
a shortage of snow in the mountains and
/ a scarcity of water in the river that their
| rights are ignored in the appropriation of
water, but as such conditions are of rare
occurrence, they have learned to overlook
such deficiencies. knowing and believing
| that it would be but temporary. For with
one exception-that of 1896-there has been
! little complaint about the supply of water,
and that year was total failure so far
as providing a flow of water in the river
| he'd.
We look upon the Babb law as foolish
attempt TO carry out theory first con-
! cetved and agitated at a Populist meeting
| in Reno county some three or four years
! ago, during the draught period, and for
that reason our people condemn it on gen.
eral principles. But leaving out that view
| of it, even if the lower counties are de-
| prived TO some extent, of seeing a large
flow of water in the Arkansas, we cannot
/ believe the people in their better moments
| will consent TO enforce the law should it
! be passed, when they realize the vast in
| jury they will infict upon the hundreds of
/ farmers in the upper Arkansas valley.
| Water is essential to our salvation in the
| counties bordering along the river, where
| thousands of acres of alfalfa are grown
| for feeding stock that are now being fed
| in that section, not to say anything about
/ the hundreds of acres of fruit that will
! be grown on other acres, besides other
! crops. It is not a part of your question.
/ still I would like to pause right here for a
moment and tell your readers that the
/ upper Arkansas is destined to be the fruit
| growing part Of this great fruit state. But
| our people are not pleading with the farm
ers below us for mercy or favor in this
| question of water For twelve years we
! have been using this water to a great adj
vantage to the state as well as great
! pecuniary benefit TO ourselves, and we feel
! that we have rights, jointly as it were,
! with Colorado in the further use of this
water that annually goes to waste, and
| these rights must be conceded and should
| be respected; but if not. they will
be amply protected. in defending their in
! terests in the highest courts. Aside from
! that, the canals in western Kansas-or at
! least some of them-have a priority right
over Colorado bitches, and eminent law
yers here expressed the opinion that even
under the peculiar rights granted Colorado
| in admission to the Union, the western
Kansas bitches could, under the law, pro-
! coed against them, and demand first ser
! vice in case of a scarcity of water to ap-
| propriate. I mention this to show what
a complicated legal case our agricultural
! friends have undertaken when they go to
| the Kansas legislature for a law to tax
| themselves before engaging in a lawsuit
that vii extend over more years than that
! os the celebrated Hillmon case, and infest
| the minds of the rising generation with
! fa.se theory as to the injurious effects of
| using surplus water in the arid belt of
! western Kansas
"Of the constitutionality or legality of
| the Babb law 1 do not feel at liberty 20
say anything in this connection, as 1 am
| not lawyer, but there is another view of
| the quetsion entertained by our people IN
! the west. We fatter ourselves that to
| some extent we are your protectors and
| that some day, sooner than the people of
/ Wichita and the farmers along the river
/ think. probably, you viii be crying out in
| thunder tones: Save US, Cassius.' and
turn the water in your ditches,' that the
/ floods may subside. Wichita has been
/ flooded once in her history and. like the
| people along the Mississippi, another flood
is liable to occur whenever the mountains
are filled, as they now are, with great
/ quantities of snow, and these bitches may
/ be your salvation from the horrors of a
fleod when you least expect it.
AN argument that you thought had no
/ connection whatever with the using of
water for irrigation purposes is founded on
correct, scientific principles, that are read
I lily demonstrated and time Will prove the
/ correctness of the statement.
1T may be that our people are too hope
ful about the water question in western
Kansas, but we md that our water is
gradually showing itself nearer the sur
face and that We are using less water 10
the acre than formerly, and we believe
that in a few years. when the ground be
comes more thoroughly saturated with
moisture. that the rainfall viii be more
evenly distributed and the people below US
will reap only benefit where they looked
/ only for evil
The state Of Kansas. as well as every
Kansan, should lend his aid and encour-
/ agement TO irrigation in its broadest pans,
/ AZ it means good and only good TO the
great stock and grain-raising state"
Death of Mrs. Forker.
F The Fairfax (Mo) Forum has the fol-
/ lowing:
I Died. February l. 1899 a. the residence
/ Of her sister, Mrs. T. J. Barkley. in Atch-