The record-union., 1899-11-25
THE GOVERNMENT
WILL NOT ACT.
(From the San Francisco Post)

y
Call has manifested high degree of
intelligence concerning the practical
phases of the questions which confront
the people of California in their efforts
| to secure the storage of the storm
waters, now perceived to be so indis-
pensable to the future growth of the
State. 1t has tempered zeal with judg-
ment. 1t should not at the same time
be forgotten that while radicalism al
ways arrogates to itself monopoly of
honesty and zeal in any movement,
radicalism is about as dangerous to the
success of any movement as open hos
tility.
The Call" of this morning quotes
from the Baltimore American one
of the most influential papers published
on the Atlantic Coast, and presents
the expressions of it's Eastern contem-
porary as clearly indicating the drift of
public sentiment outside of the arid
West. We take the liberty of repro
ducing from the columns of the Balti-
more American" the quotation, as fol-
lows:
mo matter has been more carefully
worked up than this irrigation crusade.
Congress has managed thus far to re-
sist the onslaught upon the treasury,
but these men are very persistent. They
are we'll organized all through the arid
West and Southwest, and in some parts
that are not arid. They ask that the
Government shall build water works
at an enormous expense to irrigate
large desert tracts and convert them
into productive farms. No proposition
like 1t has been made to any Govern
ment in modern times. The people who
settled the East and made it blossom
as rose never thought of asking the
Government to grub up the stumps or
put up fencing or to do any other thing
that would contribute to the profit or
security of farming, nor did the people
who went from the East TO settle the
mighty West ask their Government to
stake them.''
The Post" has never for a moment
entertained the opinion that the Gov
ernment of the United States would
impound the flood waters of California;
nor does it entertain a very high re-
spect for that species of credulity,
sometimes mistaken for intelligence,
which would give welcome to a belief
or an opinion that this result will ever
actually be achieved.
The argument which might be de-
pended upon to prevail in bringing about
the impounding of flood waters in the
arid West at Government expense for
the purpose of reclaiming arid lands
would be equally cogent. in producing
like expenditure from the public
treasury in the reclamation of swamp
lands. The wasted fertility of the
|
Arkansas and Southern Illinois is of far
greater Importance to the nation than
the undeveloped fertility of the arid
lands of New Mexico or Arizona. When
the Government enters upon a policy of
reclaiming one from aridity. it will be
confronted with the inevta BILE logic Of
reclaiming the other from swamp condi-
ton.
The argument based upon the conser-
walton of navigation possibilities of the
San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers by
the Storage of storm waters for the
purpose of equalizing the flow in the
channels of those streams throughout
the year applies with much greater
force to the Mississippi, the Ohio, the
Tennessee, the Cumberland or the
Missouri, and when the Government of
the United States, from its treasury,
undertakes to equalize winter with
summer conditions in the channels of
navigable rivers in California, it will be
only when it undertakes this as relates
to all the rivers of the country.
The advocacy of the storage of flood
waters at the cost of all the people of
the United States for the purpose of
creating a permanent supply of water
power for the development of me-
chanical power by transmission, as re-
lates to the streams of California or
any other State, classified as the arid
West, would acquire augmented CO.
gency when applied to the waters of
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsyl-
vania or Ohio, because these States
abound in the raw materials which con-
stltute the basis of manufactures.
Hence the opinion that the Govern
ment of the United States will expend
a common fund in the interest of a
particular section of the nation, and
exclude from the benefits of it's policy
9o per cent. of the inhabitants of the
country, will be entertained by only
very loose-thinking people.
What the Government may be rea-
sonably depended upon to do is this
First, through the geological survey
and through inquiries instituted by the
Agricultural Department at Washing
ton, it will prosecute surveys relating
to the project, from which it's practica-
bility or impracticability may be de-
termined with reasonable certainty.
In the second instance, the Govern
ment may be induced to consent to the
leasing of the grazing areas of the
West and the expenditure Of the reve-
nues obtained therefrom for impound-
ing of storage waters, thus creating, as
it We're, water in the arid regions for
application to irrigable areas.
The two things enumerated are some
what within the scope of practical
thought and practical achievement 1t
may be claimed for the arid West that
the leasing of the grazing ranges is
new source of income to the Govern
ment; that they are now being used by
methods which will rapidly destroy
them and the rent value residing in
their use is inuring to individual citi-
zens of those regions. In this way in
dividuals are enjoying public property
for private gain.
There Is, therefore, no argument
which can prevail against the plan Of
covering the rent value of these lands
into the treasury of the United States
1t is at this point that the continuity of
the parallel between the arid and the
Eastern States is broken. The bound
aries of the Eastern States embrace no
public property which might he rented