Arizona republican., 1899-05-25
AS TO WATER
A Republican COrre respondent DIS.
 cuSSes inc Important Question.


 say how the waters of our rivers shall
 be divided? Who can say what is equity as between the various counties of this territory? Are the counties of the north that have mountains that rear their heads among the clouds gathering snows of winter as reserve to furnish water tC rivers at a time when the hot winds of summer have kissed the foothills and deserts into barren waste entitled to the water they have stored within their bounds.
 The mountains are worthless as source of revenue and the small val leys are deserts without water. TC- gether they are valuable for out of the two can be made homes and happiness. Homes and happiness have been made. Homes have been made year by year. But the people in the southern coun- ties-what of them? They appropri- ated all the waters of the rivers many years ago whose sources arc in these many mountains to the east and the north. What do the revised statutes of Arizona say? Chapter l, 3198, sec tion l: All rivers, creeks and streams of running water in the terri tory of Arizona are hereby declared public and applicable to the purpose of irrigating and mining as hereinafter provided" What provisions were made? Let us see. 3215, section IT: During years when a scarcity of water shall exist owner or owners of fields shall have precedent of the water for irrigation according to the date of their respective titles or their occupation Of the lands, either by themselves or their grantors. The oldest titles shall have precedent all ways" Our first legislators made a law by following the customs they found in the territory, a custom bor- rowed from Spain-"The first in time is the first in right These sections of the revised statutes I have just quoted were not made to govern cCun- ties but the territory.
 I am not a pessimist nor are the things 1 shall say pessimistic dream. I will say truthfully, not egotistically, that I am as well acquainted with what constitutes a miners inch of | water or with everything that pertains to irrigation, it's laws included, as any l other man in the territory. I have in 1 corporated canal companies and built | canals and reclaimed many acres of | land. I have seen a small green spot l
 
 Salt River valley grow into one Cf the | most beautiful valleys in the United | States.
 An azure sky, a sun-kissed land,
 An emerald isle in a sea of sand
 I do not write to scare the timid but | to warn the self-confident. I have travelled in the last thirty days oyer six hundred miles. I have been along many of the branches of the Salt river, on Pinal creek, Upper Salt river from the mouth of TOntO creek, many miles along the Rio Verde ard also some miles along many of the main branches of the Verde I found the same thing wherever I travelled. New ranches, new ditches, new appropria- tions Of water, plenty of water, every one has water, ditches full of water, water running through ditches and away over the desert at their ends. Whose waters are these? Who first appropriated these waters? What |, does the territorial law say? In 1887 more water was appropriated by lands in the Salt River valley than was in the river at that time. Since that lime not less than ten thousand inches of water has been appropriated and -aken from rivers and streams above he Box canyon in Salt river and is
 
 hese? Ten thousand inches of water will irrigate thirty thousand acres of and That land is worth with this s water $75 per acre. Something like 2, ,000, eco. Why should Maricopa { county lose this to enrich some ether \ county?
 Then, again, the people who settled | 'n the various rivers and streams -bove the Box have improved ranches. They are innocent Of any wrong. They Cund water and land and put them to- 'ether and made for themselves lomes- Nc protest was at that time lied nor has there been any since. The Rio Verde reservation has been hrown open to settlement less thantl ne-half dozen years, yet since that | \ lme they have appropriated and are LOW using 1,500 inches of water. Whose water is this? Any engineer Eill admit that if ten thousand inches