The Florence tribune., 1899-03-11
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 occurred in the Senate on the question as to whether the Warren amendment appropriating $215, ,0O0 for building re- servoirs in Wyoming, according to the Chittenden surveys, and 52,000 ad- ditional to survey new reservoir sites in every arid and semi-arid States, should be inserted in the River and Harbor bill. This amendment was re- ported favorably by the Senate Com merce Committee after very full hear ing from Senators Carter and Warren, and George H. Maxwell, representing the National Irrigation Congress. The vote which the amendment finally re- eeived in the Senate shows the great gain which the question of Western l irrigation has made in the East during the past year or two, and the U. S. Senate having fayorably committed itself, this policy may now be con sidered as having established for itself national standing.
 It is proposed by this amendment to follow the lines of the ChitteDden re- port, which states that the purpose of these reservoirs is simply to enlarge and reinforce the natural resources of the streams, lea ving the use of the waters to be dispose d of exactly as at present, and that the use of the water so stored shall be absolutely free to the people fore yer, just as the canals, harbors, and other public works are free for general use, without toll or levy of any kind.
 There has been considerable opposi- tiol to the policy of developing irriga- bic lands in the West, and this cropped out in the discussion in the Senate chamber. Senator Spooner, of Wis consin, brought down upon himself torrent of parliamentary abuse by raising the objection to the amendment that if these reservoirs were built in Wyoming, other arid States would want like appropriations, and the policy would involve very large ex- penditure in the end, and that it would result in more farms to compete with the farms of the East.
 VIGOROUSLY DENOUNCED.
 One after another the Western Sena- tors refuted this charge as not only narrow and un-American, but in fact fallacious. Senator Carter, of Montana, said:
 "There are markets for the surplus products of the farms of the arid re- gions and they will never come into competition with the Eastern product. The trade with the Orient which we have recently opened will absorb all our productions. Within the last year we have shipped 6O0,0OO barrels of flour to Yokohama and Hongkong to supply market that had never before been heard of in the experience of man as wheat-consuming market; and we would have shipped much more if we had had the vessels. There are 700,- COG, ,000 people in the Asiatic country.
 The farmer of Pennsylvania. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois cannot make the shipment of his wheat to the Pacific Coast to be transported thence to the Orient, because the railroad rate will devour the profit before the car reaches the tide-water of the Pacific. But we people who live on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and beyond, can produce the wheat to supply Oriental markets, thus adding to our own wealth and to the country's gen. eral progress, without taking anght from any man or any community.
 ''The Senator from Wisconsin sug- gests that the ado ption of this policy may result in over-production, because, forsooth, the arid lands when quick ened by the touch of water are wonder fully productive. I am astonished sh at atthe close of the Nineteenth Ger. tury man can be found in the Senate Chamber who will insist that we may in the U nited States produce too many things to sell 10 our neighbors in the Orient and in Europe as well. If this theory had been consulted and had been permitted to acta the controlling factor in national pol icy, this country would tod ay be limited on the west by the Allegheny Mountains have no patience with the pr oposition that this amendment should be defeated because its enactment might result in increasing the store of national treasure and our power to produce.
 BOLD FRONT ON THE QUESTION.
 "Let it be distinctly understood, }" continued Senator Carter warmly, 'tthat this is the beginning of new policy-a policy that will result in staying the tide of destruction iu the lower Mississippi in the season of flood, and will incidentally and with 1 out additional cost to the Government