El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-21
In the Elephant Butte Dam
Case At Las Cruces
Today
THE LONG ARGUMENT
Of Jugde Burch Was Con-
tinued This Morning And
Is Going On This
Afternoon.

Speci al Dispatch to the HERALD.
| LAS CRUCES, Dec. 21.-Judge Burch
continued this morning his argument
in the Elephant Butte dam case. He
consumed the entire morning and will
conclude his argument this afternoon.
There is great interest among the at
torneys md persons interested in the
| C ase as to whether the court will rem
der decision this afternoon or take
the matter under advisement. No in
| timation has been given as to when the
| court will render its decision.
Interest has never tagged durip g
the argument. The attorneys on both
| sides have done their best to marshal
the mass of testimony, much of IL con-
| sisting of ta bulated statistical inform
alton, so as to convince the court that
| there was only one reasonable view to
take of it. Figures won't lie. Meth er
will attorneys. But it's mighty curl
Gus what different stories the 50 m me
side of the case or the other has the
floor.
And then what becomes of those big
floods that sweep past Ell Paso? Tie
government attorneys say the torrent
rushes down through valleys and
canyons for thirteen or fourteen hun
dred miles till it can perform the one
mission for which it exists, namely, to
bear the queenly Bessie upon its swell
ing bosom. On the other hand, the de-
fendant's attorneys maintain that the
boisterous sire only puts on airs
till 1t gets out of town. and then begins
to crawl into'the sand, ard by the
time the flood reaches the Conchos
nothing can be seen of it above ground
but it's spinal column and the tip of its
tail.
The plaintiff does, indeed, admit tina
sometimes the flood is SO wasted away
by the time it reaches the Conchos
that it has to depend on its own loco
motive power Or it would never beabie
to make the port of Rio Grande City.
But the plaintiff AYERS that in such
cases the weary little fooo from El
Paso just crawls up on the big stout
flood from the Conchos and rides all
the way down; and thus no matter how
small aud insignificant the Ell Paso
flood may be when it reaches the Con-
cbos. it always substantially increases
the navigability of the Rio Grande a
thousand miles farther down. Where
fore plaintiff is entitled to the relief
70 i, ~
The plaintiffs attorneys are not quite
agreed as to the scope of the courts
and duty. Judge Burch had
q whole lot to say about public policy
and the duty of the court to safeguard
the people against a threatened wafer
United States Attorney w.
B. Childers, who held the boards yes
terday morning in behalf of
the plaintiff, said the court
couldn't consider public policy J
IN the matter but was bound to |
enforce the law as he found .it; which |
g the view of the defendants attor-
,eys. Both sidessagree that in law !
;he river is navigable from Rio Grande
City to Brownsville because the
nlted States supreme court said so:
ihough in fact, as testified rby nearly |
avery witness on either side, naviga-
iion is now aud for years past has been
/ Failure" aud some say "fsrce.''
Mr.. Childers contended that mas
much as the government Lhas shown
hat the waters of the Rio Grande pass
81 Paso, that there Is an open channel
% the mouth OF the Concho, and that
rips by boat have been made from Ell
2aso to the Conchos, the burden of
proof is thus shifted from plaintiff to
defendant, because it is to be presumed
hat the water will run down hill till
t reaches Rio G-ande City. The de-
ense insists that the government must
'uild its case on facts alone, not on a
MIXTURE of facts and presumptions.
Referring to the fact that the gov
rnment had not Introduced experts,
dr.. Childers said that experts would