Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-09-11

claim it. An Oklahoma stampede would
follow the opening to settlement Of ev-
cry tract so reclaimed.
Money paid by the government for
labor would come back to pay for land.
Men wanting homes would seek this
employment to get money to buy the
land.
2. Federal storage reservoirs to save
the waters which now go to waste and
do damage and destruction below
should be built as a part of the estab-
lished national policy of internal i'm
provements, the use of the water so
stored to be free to the people forever,
without toll or charge of any kind, and
to be distributed under the laws of the
states, as recommended in the report Of
Colonel Hiram M. C%hittenden on reser-
voir sites. and urged by the resolutions
of the irrigation congress.
The share which ought to go to the
arid states and territories out of the
aggregate disbursements from the ma
tional treasury for internal improve
ASthtD oAk0aio w ~ SiiC buIlu-
ing Of these storage reservoirs within
their borders. Why should the arid west
not have it's share of the vast sums Of
money expended for Internal improve
ments? What reason Is there why the
west should continue contributing to
build internal improvements for the
east and the south, unless the west is
given an equitable proportion of all
moneys expended for such purposes?
3. Forests should be preserved and
reservoirs and sources of water supply;
and the public grazing lands should be
leased and the revenues derived there
from used to build large irrigation
works, such as reservoirs, main canals,
and GREAT dams or diversion works,
which would be beyond the scope of the
resources of the and owners. Such
works should be maintained, controlled
and operated by the states, just as they
are by the British government in India.
4. Systems for the distribution and
delivery of water to irrigators. after the
water supplies have been made avail
able to them through the adoption Of
the policy above set forth. should be
organized as cooperative water COM
panies, with the stock perpetually APP
purtenant to the land, 81 that farmers
could build the canals and bitches
themselves, as was done by the early
l Mcrnnp caftlprc on6 fh1Ic pat jf.pi,ra-
ton without debt, and share the bur-
dens and benefits of the water system in
the proportion Of their respective acre
age holdings.
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.
The above is a broad statement Of the
only way this problem Of the settlement
of the arid region can be solved. 1t is
not a question of choice of ways. There
is no choice of ways. There is but one
way, and this is that way. Whether it
Is accomplished in a few years or in
many depends entirely on the amount
of public interest aroused in 1t. There
are few who realize how important the
problem is, and how serious and wide
spread are the evil conditions which ok
ist to-day all through the arid west,
and which will, so long as they con-
tinue to exist, prevent any full tide Of
immigration from again coming to that
region.
Every interest which would be bene-
flied by the rapid development and per-
manent prosperity of the west should
favor this policy. 1t would benefit al
legitimate investments heretofore made
in irrigation enterprises. Those under
the water-right system with unsold
lands could be gradually adapted to the
cooperative system, and the restora-
ton of confidence in general conditions
in the arid region would make COLOMBIA
ton Of those lands possible where it is
now utterly impossible.
The only ones who could object to the
proposed policy would be promoters
and spectators who still hope to make
fortunes out of the labor of future gen.
erations of farmers, by inducing capital
to invest in schemes for arid land recla-
nation under the water right system,
This system has been a delusion and a
and it would be a great public benefit
if the fact could be everywhere known
and recognized that the investment OF
capital in irrigation enterprises car be
made absolutely safe under the cooper
ative system, and that 1t is an utter
impossibility to make it safe under a
water-right system, or under any plan
for the investment of private capital
for the storage and sale of water.
IRRIGATION LAWS AND INSTITU-
TIONS.
AS was said in the last report Of the
secretary Of ~agriculture: 1T Is clear
that a crisis has been reached in the
life Of the communities in which agri-
culture is dependent upon irrigation fol-
its success. The laws and institutions
relating to irrigation, which have
grown up in these communities, have In
many ways proved so inadequate and
unsatisfactory that there is a wide
spread feeling that radical and imme-
diate action is demanded for their ref.
ormation."
All that is needed to remove these
wrong conditions and start a strong tide
Of emigration to the west, which will
grow in volume year by year until ev'
cry available acre Of irrigable land |:
reclaimed and settled, is the carrying
out OF a comprehensive, judicious, Wig
orous and effective campaign Of educa'
ton, SO that the people themselves will
learn and know what should be done
Then they will do for themselves al
that Is necessary to be done.
STATE AND NATIONAL POLICY
ADVOCATED.
The Irrigation congress movement hal
adnntnd fhia nnlicy and stood bv It 70