The record-union., 1899-06-02
IRRIGATION WORKS.
HOW GREAT SYSTEMS MUST
BE BUILT UP.
Why Private Capital Cannot be
Depended on to Construct
Them.

At the session of the Trans Missis-
sippi Congress on May 31st F. H.
Newell, photographer United States
Geological Survey, read paper, en-
titled Water Storage" in which he
said:
The most important problem that
can come to amy body Of public men,
commercial or otherwise, in the West
is that of the increased utilization and
development of the vacant lands both
in public and private ownership. Be-
fore this question most Of the other
matters sink into comparative insig-
nificance. for without an increase in
population and productive capacity the
West cannot continue to furnish a
market for the manufacture or field
of operation for the varied industries
of the country. The utilization of the
vast extent of vacant land is not some
thing which should be left to the farm
er; it is pre-eminently a matter for
the business man, whether concerned
in manufacturing, transportation or In
handling the products of others. In
fact, the farmer, as such, has least
concern with the development of the
varied resources of the vast West. AS
long as he has a market for his pro-
duce it makes little difference to him
whether the vacant lands of an adja-
cent county or State are populated. To
the merchant, however the matter is
entirely different. Continued stagna-
ton or retarded development must in
evitably operate to reduce his chances
of financial success.
"The development of the agricultural
resources of the western half of the
United States has practically come to a
standstill, or at least is going on only
at the average rate of the whole Unit
ed States. There are, of course, local
exceptions, but in comparison with the
conditions existing ten years ago it ap
pears as though development had stag
mated. The reason of this is not diff
cult to give. The greater part of the
lands are arid or semi-arid, and al
though among the richest in the world
will not produce crops except by the
application of water. Irrigation has
been introduced and carried forward
in favored localities all over the West,
and where the bitches have been built
by the land owners the profits or in
creased land values have been enor-
nous. The opportunities for contin-
uing developments in this line have
nearly ceased because of the fact that
these choice spots have been taken.
There still remain great areas to which
water can be brought from rivers of
notable size, but before this can be
done large sums of money must be
invested in the construction of expen
sive works. The experience of the last
ten years has shown that these large
irrigation works do not pay, and prob
ably cannot, as a rule, be made to pay
a fair interest on the investment
while it has been demonstrated that
irrigation investments on a large scale
do not return a fair interest to the per-
sons who furnish the money, yet, on the
other hand, there is no doubt that TAX
ing the community as whole the ben
effts are far beyond the first cost; but,
unfortunately, these benefits do not re-
dound to the advantage Of the men who
have furnished the capital and have
taken all the risk and trouble of man.
aging a large enterprise. These facts,
although recognized for some years,
have been so unpalatab to the pro-
motors Of the country that the
men who have had the courage to state
them have been continually as
sailed and the correctness Of their
statements called into account. The