Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-02-22
Councilman Richardson's Memorial
to Congress Requesting Federal
Aid in Building Reservoirs.
GREAT BENEFIT WILLRESULT
New Mexico Contains 900 Acres of
Land Which Gan Be Converted Into
Blossoming, Productive Homes for
Thousands of People.

ardSon is keeping abreast Of the time
on matters pending in the national con-
gress. The memorial asks that $5,000,-
600 be appropriated to New Mexico and
shows that millions of acres of land will
be reclaimed by the millions of cubic
feet of water which comes from the melt
ing SHOWS and is wasted each year, and
that millions of homes can be acquired
by the people needing the same, thus
making OF New Mexico one of the
grandest agricultural states in the I'm
ion. The relation of New Mexico with
eastern cities and commerce is touched
on, and it is shown that millions of
dollars now uncoined will be placed in
circulation under the new condition
proposed, and that other sections will
receive benefits in addition to New
Mexico. One of the best things in the
memorial, and one which will have de-
cided weight in influencing congress, is
the portion showing that a great saving
could be made in the river and harbor
appropriation for caring for the flood
waters of the large rivers. AT present
the amounts appropriated for rivers and
| harbors 90 for taking care of the
/ WuuclS WHICH dlc uUooluuClN WuouCus
| and which the sections in the
| arid regions derive no benefit from.
| These waters create havoc in the matter
of changing the courses OF rivers,
sweeping away crops. inundating re-
gions and annually running thousands
of fertile tracts of land. BY applying a
portion of the river and harbor appro-
priation to the construction of storage
reservoirs. ETC., near the heads of the
rivers. a great proportion of the injury
and devastation would be done away
with, and the government would also
have the credit of opening a new region
for homcseekers. The public lands Of
the west have for the past century
served as the safety valve for the dis
content of the American public. Con-
stantly increasing immigration has dis
posed of a majority of the available
land, and the time is not far distant
when it will be impossible to say to the
disgruntled citizen of a free govern
ment: ''You can make a living and
build up a home for yourself, on the gov
eminent lands of the west," unless some
means are provided for procuring new
lands.
When the memorial was introduced.
Hon. T. B. Catron made a few remarks
on the subject, calling attention to the
fact that New Mexico had over 3O,O00,-
600 acres of arid land which would be-
come available for homeseekers if IT.
rigated-a larger acreage than that
included in the whole state of Illinois.
He pointed to the matter of the cession
/ ~ L. -, Il 4> H. ,t,+o, ~ 800 <1 nrst H., ~, N, n~l
| thought that it would be no trouble
when the lands were granted. to draw
the attention of capitalists to the de-
stability of irrigation enterprises as
investments. Mr.. Richardson thinks
that the cession of government lands is
a new memorial to consider.
The passage of the memorial will be
prolific of great good. Senator Carter,
Of Montana, has asked for an appro-
priation of SIS. 600, 900 for that state for
the same purposes asked in the memorial
for New Mexico. The Senators from
Wyoming and Colorado will also ask for
similar appropriations.
In Washington various senators are
advocating the new and distinct policy
of giving to the arid states and terri
tories which have no harbors or great
navigable rivers, their proportion of the
expenditures under the river and harbor
bill. This memorial will have a ten
dency to help out the matter and give
the territory a claim so soon as a bill
has been drafted and passes congress.
The senate committee on congress has
just heard arguments in favor of the
storage reservoir system, as a part of
the established national policy of in
ternal improvements. The system has
been urged by the national irrigation
congress. 1t is proposed to store, in
natural reservoir sites Of great size, the
waters which now 20 down to do des.
truction on the rivers far below. The
reserve waters can be drawn from these
reservoirs, when needed, in the dry
season, for irrigation and navigation,
and so, besides preventing tremendous
damage from erosion and overflow by
floods, would raise the water for navi-
lands, now arid.
Senator Carter, of Montana, thinks
that such a policy would vastly benefit
all sections of the country. A new
market would be created for eastern
manufacturers in these western COM
munities, and the agricultural produc-
tions of the western lands would not
come into competition with those of the
east, but would be absorbed by the
rapidly growing demands of the Asiatic
trade for western farm products.
Senator Warren, Of Wyoming, who
has been more or less connected with
every scheme for the irrigation of arid
lands in Wyoming and Colorado and who
first advocated the cession of arid lands
to the states in order that the states
could offer inducements to capital to
undertake the work of constructing re-
servoirs. has submitted an amendment
to the river and harbor bill providing
specifically for the construction of re-
servoirs in Colorado and Wyoming, but
Is in favor Of the adoption of o broad
policy, for the construction of a compre-
hensive system of reservoirs in all the
arid states and territories, believing that
it would be a sound national policy. The
senator was responsible for the Chit
tenden investigation and report, which
has recommended the adoption of the
new system. Before the senate com
mittee on commerce, the senator said:
Such a system would not only thickly
settle the great areas of the west, where
now are nothing but stock ranges or
deserts, but it would do vastly more.
The great west is now adding untold
millions from her mines to the national
wealth each year, but there are great
mineral deposits which as yet have not
been profitably worked because Of the
4 r. q! --1 Al.