The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-09
HANsRRouGH.s IRRIGATION BILL.


friends and promoters of a national ir-
rigation system to the promised lana.
Moreover 1t seems that the coveted goal
win be reached without the forty years
Hansbrough, of North Dakota, is the
new Moses, and the stan which he pro-
poses to employ will cause abundant
water to gush from the barren rocks of
the ''Unwatered Empire of the West.
The bill introduced by Senator Hans
brough in the senate, and which has
been the subject of favorable report
from the committee of public lands, pro-
vldes that the money received from the
sale of lands in the arid and semi-arid
regions shall constitute a special fund
out of which the expense. of building
reservoirs, canals and other necessary
works in carrying out a national system
of irrigation win be paid.
This bill. We think, will solve the prob
lem. and place the irrigation system be-
yond the reach of congressional caprice,
by furnishing a steady and ever IN
creasing fund to be used for that special
purpose. As the / o b has heretofore
suggested, the sale of government lands
at the enhanced price due to irrigation
facilities will in due time pay all ex-
pense and leave a margin.
This bill, providing as 1t does for one
hand of this enterprise to wash the other,
will receive the support of the Eastern
representatives who have heretofore been
opposed to direct appropriations for ir-
Tigation purposes because, as they con-
tended, a national system would entail
large and ever increasing appropriations
from the treasury for a purpose which
their constituents.
While this bill is not what the Ma
tional Irrigation association has been
trying to secure. yet it, in many respects,
IS better than an appropriation for expert
menta, purposes. Under the old system
the fight for appropriations would have
to be made at every session of congress,
at a great waste Of energy. Under the
Hansbrough measure there will be a
permanent fund, which is capable of an
increase in a geometrical ratio if prop
erly handled. The geological survey has
taken upon itself the engineering part of
the question, thus placing the work on a
purely scientific basis
Senator Hansbrough will be able to
confer an unmeasured blessing upon his
state by converting the Missouri slope"
into valley of the Nile" Nearly every
Bquare mile Of North Dakota surface is
tilla6e-all that is needed is means to
store the spring waters of her rivers for
use In the dry season.
1t might be we'll to remark here that
the local bill to appropriate a sum to be
used to drain the low fiat lands in the
Red river valley should contain pro
vision for the storage CT that water fer
used in case of drought.
+ 1t is important that this bill should be-
come law this session Naturally it
will take some time to accumulate a
fund sufficient to begin the work, but
when that work is once begun the land
adjacent if thrown into the market will
10 taken without delay.
The land laws should be so modified
that all government holdings within an
irrigation district shall be sold to actual
occupants alone and in tracts not larger
that $50 acres. Actual settlement and not
speculation is what the public lands are
intended for.
To inaugurate the irrigation system at
once there should be a loan of 81, 600, 900
made to the fund established by the
Hansbroush bill to be returned within
ten years. Such an amendment ought to
satisfy all parties and all interests