Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-05-29
Government irrigation Work.

AS NtSl dS nave pCCl PupllS IllIplpNC-
ments made by the national govern
ment of the United States, they do not
compare, in many respects, with i'm
provements made by much poorer Eu-
ropean governments, or even those
made by the ancient Egyptians or Ro-
mans. In Europe it is a self-assumed
task of governments to construct good
roads, and, in consequence, Europe has
a magnificent system of good highways;
in Europe, governments construct rail-
roads between places where it would
not pay private enterprise to do so;
they construct reservoirs, canals, aque-
ducts, and reclaim swamp and arid
lands, or, as in the case of Holland,
part of the sea, for the purpose of Gull
tivation.
In America enterprises Of that nature
are left to private capital, and owing to
the immense natural wealth of this
country, the nation has p~rospered and
progressed despite the failure of the
government to do what by every other
nation is regarded as a public duty.
Private capital has picked out the most
promising fields for investment and in
cidental improvement, for a capitalist
will not invest OF improve unless he
sees immediate returns for his invest
ment. In consequence there remain vast
fields in America where public improve
ment would add vastly to the wealth
of the nation and indirectly to it's
nue.. There are millions of acres of lane
in the west hat is fertile, and needs
only the touch of the water that is an
nually running to waste to make it the
home of a large population. No other
nation would year after year allow bill
lions of dollars worth of water to run
idle that could support a population Of
100, 900, 900, and that, if cultivated, would
double the present revenue of the ma
ton.
Over ten years ago the United States
congress appropriated 500, 900 for inves-
| tigating this great annual waste, and
from time to time sums have been ap-
propriated to select and survey sites
for reservoirs, bitches and canals. This
work has progressed so far that con-
struction of such reservoirs could COM
mence at once. These Investigations
have shown that a great proportion of
the arid lands can not by private enter
prise be reclaimed at a profit. But with
government construction demanding
no immediate dividends on the invested
capital, the western deserts could be
made to bloom like a garden, and even
tually repay the government for re-
claiming them.
Such reservoirs and irrigation sys-
TENS could be built to reclaim land in
California, Colorado, in New Mexico,
Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Ida
no, Montana, the Dakotas, Oregon and
| other states. 1t would not be more of
a sectional measure to spend SIS, 00O, 900
| to construct the first fourteen reser-
| voirs, the sites for which surveys have
| thus far been made (three in New Mex
| ico) than it is to aid the shipping inter-
ests of the nation, when the majority
of the states have no seashore. The
| next congress should set aside at least
| IS, 900, 900, and each succeeding congress
| a like sun for the purpose of reclaim
| ing the arid regions of the west. Com
| pared to what is spent for river and
harbor improvements elsewhere, or
| what is wasted in warfare. S.. 900, 900 is
a modest demand, especially when the
/ immense benefit the expenditure of such
| a sum would be to the United States is
considered.