The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-14
WITH ONE STONE
Senator Carter Would Kill Two
Birds.
Scheme to Supply Water For
Irrigating Arid Lands
AND STOP OVERFLOWS.
Advocates the Construction of
Immense Reservoirs
To Hold the Surplus Of Our
Great Rivers.

Washington, D. c., Feb IA new and
distinct policy is being strongly advocat-
ed for giving to the arid states and ter
ritories which have no harbors or great
navigable rivers their proportion of the
expenditures under the river and harbor
bill.
The senate committee on commerce has
just heard arguments in favor of the con-
struction of a comprehensive system of
| storage reservoirs in the arid west as a
part of the established national policy of
internal improvements, urged by the
national irrigation congress and recon-
mended in a report of Colonel H. M. Chit
tenden of the engineer corps, on reser-
yoirs in Colorado and Wyoming.
Senator Carter of Montana addressed the
committee in behalf of his proposed
| amendment appropriating 81, 900, 0cO for the
cons tructiOn of such a system OF reSer-
VoirS, this being the proportion or the en-
tire rlH9f a1d harbor apProprfiatlGhm Wn6 6a
DEVOTED to this purpose; .,.---
The senator urged that such a policy
would store at the headwaters of the Mis-,
souri, and its tributaries in great natural
go down to do. destruction on the rivers
far below. Then the reserve couid pc
ed in the dry season for Irrigation and
navigation, and so, besides preventing ire
flow by floods, would raise the water for
navigation and irrigate and reclaim vast
Such a policy" he said. would vastly
benefit all sections of the country. A
manufactures in these western communi-
ties and the agricultural productions of
competition, with those of the. east, but
would be absorbed by the rapidly grow
ing demands of the ASiatic trade for west
Senator. Warren Of Wyoming. through
made, argued in favor of the project, stat
ing that he had submitted an amendment
to the river and harbor bill providing Spe
officially for the construction of reservoirs
in Wyoming and Colorado, but that he
oar 1aCfl oAX ed he adj of he
broad policy Of the construction of a COM
prehensive system of reservoirs in all the
arid states and territories, believing that
it would be a sound national policy and
resgt in enormous natio4ar 6 Sa cold
would not only thickly settle great areas
STOCK Re ranges OF deserfs BUT It Would do
vastly more. The great west is now add
national wealth each year, but there are
great mineral deposits which as yet have
lack of transportation facilities and the
high cost of living in many of the mining
by making the waters available for irri-
Compel transportation facilities, with the
result that there would be enormous in
would be exchanged for supplies of manu-
featured articles from eastern factories
representing the National Irrigation Con-
gress, was also heard in advocacy of the
was, whether the great region known as
arid America, which would, if reclaimed,
sustain a greater population than there is
now in the whole United States should
remain a desert forever, or if it should be
transformed into prosperous communities
by conserving the Hood waters for bene-
fetal use.
Mr.. Maxwell showed that the experience
of irrigated countries has been that where
the waters were taken out of the streams
and carried through a system of irrigating
canals, the soil, after period of years,
becomes saturated with water permanent
ly, and very large proportion of the
water SO used finds its way back into the
natural stream channels The result of
this condition would be that the enorm-
Gus quantities of water stored in winter
under the proposed policy would flow back
cation, and raise the water for navigation
at the time most needed for that purpose.
In other words, this storage of water
would, in addition to furnishing irrigation,
act as a rfver-regulator, preventing floods
in winter and low water in summer
The great flood of 1881 the Missouri
could have been controlled, Mr. Maxwell
stated. as shown by the government re-
ports, by a storage reservoir capacity Sc
square miles in area and 81 feet deep. The
Chittenden reservoirs provide for At
square miles, 81 feet deep, at cost of
Storage of water in Colorado, on the
headwaters of the Arkansas river, would
restore to Kansas the water diverted by
Colorado appropria tors, over which inter-
state litigation is threatening, and storage
on the Platte river would prevent the
Nebraska irrigators that stream from
losing their supply from diversions in Col
orado and Wyoming.