New-York tribune., 1900-01-21
IRRIGATION PROBLEMS.
II.
METHODS TO BE ADOPTED TO SECURE
THE BEST RESULTS.


Sir: In my letter OF December 80 discussed
Colonel Chittenden's work in examining reser-
vor sites for irrigation purposes and the re-
rnarkable results promised.
In considering the issues involved in the prac-
tical step Of extending the river and har-
Dor improvement policy to that of water con-
servation for beneficial purposes we must
bear always in mind that 1t is the Improvement
of the National domain over which sovereign
ty runs and merely the business administration
of public wealth known in law the Public
land domain" that has always been held In
view. This concept has become obscured as to
the arid States and the question of water con-
servation therein by the fact that, anxious to
have something done the Western men have
been agitating for the transfer of land and
water surfaces the latter being not over 10 per
cent of the total area. Within these borders
too, are all the sources and tributaries OF the
upper Missouri and some of the upper Mis-
sissippi. The Columbia, Rio Grande and Rio Col
rado rise within them The great arid basin
which marks the continental interior is supplied,
If at all. from these sources. There remains of
the public land domain over SO0000000 acres, of
which at least 560,000,000 are open to the set
tier. farmer, miner or grazer. During the
last ten years this policy has compelled
its advocates to assume also
complished legal fact that the admission into
the Union OF several States-Colorado Wyo-
ming etc. with provisions declaring that the said
States owned all natural waters within their
boundaries. precluded the general Government
from considering at all the question of inter-
state water sources and courses. 1t is dictum
or an attempt which. it is beginning to be most
clearly seen, involves a surrender of National
sovereignty itself.
INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES.
The State of Colorado, for example, wherein
this claim has been most vigorously asserted,
has within it's boundaries the sources. parts
thereof, of two great streams that are of an in
ternational boundary character These are the
Rio Grande and the Rio Colorado, both bound
aries in part between Mexico and the United
States. Has the latter no power over them?
1t also contains some of the principal sources
of the greatest interior and navigable waters
of the continent. The agricultural and COM
rnerciaI conditions of fourteen States and
Territories, containing at least a score of mill
Ion people, are in whole or large part to be di-
rectIy affected by the manner in which the
waters Of the Rockies, their foothills and related
plains region, running eastward finally to
be conserved and administered in storage basins
and distributing bitches. The Columbia and its
great or small tributaries control the ultimate
well being of Western Montana, Idaho parts of
but the coast of Washington and Oregon The
Colorado affects the future of all the great ia
terror basin region from Yellowstone Park, the
western slopes of the central Rockies or snowy
range, clear through the centre of Utah and the
southeast of Nevada, down the western flank
OF the Colorado, while skirting on the east the
desert areas OF Southern California until it de-
bouches into the gulf first named after Cortez.
ANCIENT AND MODERN WATER LAWS.
Not alone upon the supreme right of sover-
eighty, which the American people vest in the
general Government, does this matter of control
OF interstate and international water sources
rest, but the treaty obligations of the United
States play also a potential role. The pruden-
tial consideration nf ''Wi it pay?" has practical
ly been settled by the remarkable results already
achieved helter-skelter the way of accom-
plishment has been. That the analogy for Ma
tional action is sound seems to be sufficiently
plain from the references made by Colonel Chit
tenden to the river and harbor policy and it's
suits. Plainly the transfer of interstate waters
TO State control, because land title a declar-
alton Of obvious protective principle over the use
of water has been made in State constitutions,
would result in dangerous disputes.
THE COMMON RIGHT TO WATER.
There is another reason for National Iegisla-
tive and administrative control Water is
not property, but public wealth. It is never
identihable. It's atoms evaporating and
changing, flowing or moving away In
arid regions the safety of life creates
that common law which overmasters all
others. Hence the Mexican says access to
stream spring shall never be barred to man
or domestic animal Hence an American Con-
gress has recognized as law the miners and
pioneers claim to prior right in appropriations
of water, and made that custom part of the
Federal statutes. 1t did not thereby abnegate
National he
same to q State by admitting 1t to the Union
with that doctrine embodied in it's constitution.
It is because of this need that courts as we'll
as legislatures are recognizing the equities in
volved in wedding land and water together or
in emitting the right Of priority of use by the
needs Of life that affect all others in the COM
munity.
But there is another and distinct reservation
of rights, such as when we reach it all
jurisprudents Will sustain, because they must
disobey the Constitution. That power lies in
the fact that the vast proportion of our arid
America ceded to the United States by
sovereignties that recognize only the old Ro-
law of water.
Arid America was bought or obtained from
France, Spain and Mexico. 1t got, too
with Pueblo customs and equities. Treaties
were ratified which the major part Of the
far Western domain, left intact all rights Gus
toms and equities to water, salt licks and land
commonalties. And these have been enforced
against American citizens when land grabbers
have tried over and over again to convey Pueblo
springs TO their own use, or divert other
waters from their natural channels to the loss
of Indian users. These treaty rights override
ali other claims. They are back of and
strengthen too, the right and duty of the gem
eral Government to conserve permanently in
storage basins the run off, which makes up
the Western sources Of the Father of Waters" 1"
FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION NOT PROPOSED
The expedient and polite proposition of Colo
mel Chittenden has for its basis also the funda-
mental principles of equity on which law must
rest II is not an argument designed TO show or
advocate that the administration or distribution