Arizona republican., 1899-12-30

In Salt Lake City, Utah, in September, 1891. The first issue of Ghe Irrigation Age, for a considerable time the most
 influential exponent of the movement, was dated April 15, 1881. Its initial announcement is: This newspaper
 the first of it's kind in the world comes to fill a large and growing field" The promise of rapid progress and the splendid possibilities of magnificent re- suits, inflamed the imaginations of en- thusiastic men all over the land.
 Statesmen and philanthropists, finan- ciers and engineers, promoters and az riculturalists became deeply interested in the new subject.
 About this time, too. the demagogue was abroad in the land. Many of the undertakings which received attention and support were of considerable mag nitude, and were organized in corpo- rate form. These efforts promised large profits, and socialistic instinct suggest ed that all the profits ought to inure to the benefit of the owners of the irri- gated land. This notion grew apace. The specific form this novel epidemic assumed was the notion that no irri- gation organization was equitable except that wherein the irri- gation works should be built and operated and controlled by the owners of the land to be watered by them, and that the necessary funds should be contributed by imposing a lien upon the Hands. unwilling owners to be compelled to bear their propor- tiOn. In other words, the irrigation district system was the only method of organization to which advanced irri- gation thinkers or writers would listen or assent. This one idea dominated those interested in the movement so com pletely that one could hardly suggest caution or hint that the idea was not of universal application, without running the risk of having his motives ques- toned.
 The fever had its run. Irrigation dis tricts were organized by the score. Delicate engineering and financial prob lens were solved after some fashion by persons without a single qualification for the work. The public for once had absolute control of it's water service. It is entirely unnecessary to recite the the lamentable outcome. Ruin and re- pudiation tell the story. What was done was in many cases with the best intentions. No doubt fraud and dis honesty were present in considerable degree in some cases, but without them the results would have been practically the same. The normal fruit of ignor- ance and prejudice when allowed full sway Is ruin and destruction. The i'm portant lesson is the danger that turks in the dominance of one idea in irriga- ton matters.
 The failure of the irrigation districts is in large measure responsible for the present undiscriminating unpopularity of irrigation investments in the financial centers. Injudicious generalization is responsible for many a business blum der, whether it's effect be miscellaneous acceptance or indiscriminate declina- tiOn. The causes of the failure of the irrigation district bonds lie upon the surface. In case of every other promi- neut irrigation fiasco, it is easy in each instance to place the responsibility both as to persons and as to methods The failures can all be counted on ones fingers and in each case was from the inception a foregone conclusion. A sound irrigation investment is as free from risk as the very safest investment that can be made. There is nothing in which profit and safety are more per fectly combined. It is comparatively a simple matter to difrerentiate the good from the worthless
 The cause Of irrigation is now in dan ger from the exploitation of another "one idea Its prominent opponents are gentlemen of infinite zeal, a large of ability and the purest mo- tives. Its inherent defect is akin to that of the irrigation district concep- tion, and its potent motive has the same Darentage. Its leading advocates have reached the same goal through varying experiences and by diverse courses of reasoning.
 Some of them see the thousands of landless poor in the great cities, and in the great west square leagues of land of limitless natural fertiI- ity, and flowing wasted to the sea, ample available water for the irrigation of these lands which if irrigated by the water, could so well support the poor and the land less. With their warm hearts and fer vid imaginations, these modern alche- mists, from the zinc of a great patriot ism and the copper of a magnificent altruism, would originate an electric current which, through the positive wire of congressional enactment and the negative wire of governmental con- struction of reservoirs, would combine the people and the water and the land into that magnificent creatiou-A Uto- plan community.
 Others of them have seen common wealths with a domain of magnificent eXpanse in a semi-humid region. The land is fertile, but in a climate where