El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-29

gress, For q Fair AppOrtiOnment
Of RiveraAnd HarbOr Appropria-
lions.
The people of the west are beginning
to realize that they have, at various
times, through congress, been used as
q cats paw to further the sectional in
terests of the east, and at the same
time have been denied an equal or just
division of public money to develop
their own region. Western represen-
tatives in congress have always waged
an uphill fight to get recognition for
their vast territory and this was more
than ever apparent in the closing days
of the congress just adjourned, when
the item in the river aud hsrbOr bill
providing for the construction OF west
ern reservoirs. agreed to by the senate
after gallant fight by the western
senators, was finally killed in confer
ence by the action of the members of
the house of representatives.
Western men are beginning to see
clearly that irrigation will not w-n it's
own battle against eastern opposition,
and bh at the only hope of their secur-
ing Just recognition is by united action.
They did unite in the session just
closed, and they made a grand fight
for the west, and they almost won the
tinued to be successful. Western men
are organizing, even now, to carry the
war into Africa during the coming con-
gress, and they propose TO not only de-
mand but to secure just proportion OF
government money for the develop
ment OF their section of the Union.
Arid-land irrigation has, however,
won many friends in the east, and 1t
was only through the most bitter and
It's enemies that its it's interests were
defeated in 1899.
A NARROW SELFISH POLICY.
The appropriation inserted by the
Senate in the river and HarbOr Bill
for the construction of Storage Reser-
voirs on the headwaters of the Mis-
sour, and for the survey Of sites in
every arid and semi-arid state, was
forced out in the Conference commit
tee, chiefly through the narrow, sec
tional and selfish opposition of Repre-
preventative Burton, of Ohio, the
Chairman of the House Committee on
rivers and harbors. AS was charged
on the floor of the house by Mr.. Tongue
of Oregon when the bill came up there
for passage, Mr.. Burton. of Ohio, had
succeeded in putting together river
state 81, $50, 500, and for improving the
Ohio river from head to mouth, various
additional sums aggregating So OILS, 900
"a bill which gave 1874 ,O62, S79. 40 to
the fifteen states represented upon the
cor,mittee on rivers aad harbors and
only S4,578, 1892 Is to all the other
states.
Mr.. Burton saw no objection to the
appropriation of $4,000 made by the
bill for the repair of reservoirs at the
head of the Mississippi river, nor to
building of levees on the Missouri for
flood protection, nor to the expenditure
of millions of dollars for this purpose
on the Mississippi which saved the Mis-
sissippi valley farmer from destruction
by flood; but he objected bitterly to re-
moving the cause of these great evils,
to control which millions are expended
annually. He objected to reservoiring
the flood-wsters at the head of the Mis-
souri, in Wyoming, because, perchsnce,
some drouth-stricken farmer OF the
West might get some benefit from it by
using some of the waters to irrigate his
parched fields.
UNITED ACTION NECESSARY.
The western senators made great
fipht to hold the reservoir appropria-
ton, consuming nearly the whole of
the last night of the session, and had it