The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-12-03

| ured articles will stimulate industrial
production, while wider home markets
! and the trade of Asia will consume the
| larger food supplies and effectually
prevent Western competition. with East
| ern agriculture.
Indeed, the products Of irrigation will
he consumed chiefly in upbuilding local
centers of mining and other industries,
which would otherwise not come into
existence at all.
Our people as whole will profit for
successful ome-making is but another
name for the upbuilding of the nation.
The necessary foundation has already
been laid for the Inauguration of the
policy just described.
1t would be unwise to begin by doing
too much, for a great zeal will doubt
less be learned, both as to what can
and what cannot be safely attempted,
by the early efforts, which must Of ne
cessity be partly experimental in char
acter.
At the very beginning the govern
ment should make clear, beyond a
shadow of doubt its intention to pursue
this policy on lines of the broadcast pub
lie interest
Not for Personal interests.
No reservoir or canal should ever be
built to satisfy selfish personal or local
interests; but only in accordance with
the advice of trained experts, after long
investigation has shown the locality
where all the conditions combine to
make, the work most needed and fraught
with the greatest usefulness to the COM
munity as a whole.
There should be no extravaganza, and
the believers in the need of irrigation
will most benefit their cause by seeing
to 1t that it is free rom the least faint
of excessive or reckless expenditure of
the public moneys.
Whatever the nation does for the ex-
tension of irrigation should harmoniZe
with. and tend to improve, the condition
of those now living on irrigated land.
We are not at the starting point of
this development Over 5000, 100000 of
private capital has already been ex-
pended in the construction of irrigation
works, and many million acres of arid
land reclaimed.
Enterprise and Ability.
A high degree of enterprise and ability
has been shown in the work itself; but
as much cannot he said in reference to
the laws relating thereto.
The security and value of the homes
created depend largely on the stability
of titles to water: but the majority OF
these rest on the uncertain foundation
of court decisions rendered in ordinary
suits at law.
With a few creditable exceptions, the
arid states have failed to provide for the
certain and just division OF streams
in times of scarcity.
Lax and uncertain laws have made 1t
possible to establish rights to water in
excess of actual uses or necessities and
many streams have already passed into
private ownership, or a control equiVa-
lent to ownership.
Whoever controls a stream practically
controls the land it renders productive,
and the doctrine of private ownership
of water apart from land cannot prevail
without causing enduring wrong.
More Lig.-, Needed.
The recognition of such ownership,
which has been permitted to grow up in
the arid regions. should give way to
more enlightened and larger recognition
of the rights of the public n the control
and disposal of the public water sup
plies.
Laws founded upon conditions obtain
ing in humid regions, where water Is too
abundant to justify boarding 1T, have
no proper application in a dry country.
In the arid states the only right to
water which should be recognized is that
of use. In irrigation this right should
attach to the land reclaimed and be in
separable therefrom.
Granting perpetual water rights to
others than users, without compensa-
ton to the public, is open to all the OBJ
jections which apply to giving away
franchises to the public utili-
ties of cities.
A few of the western states have al
ready recognized this, and have incor-
in their constitutions the doc
trne of perpetual state ownership of
water.
Nations Aid Justified.
The benefits which have followed the
unaided development Of the past justify
the nations aid and cooperation in the
more difficult and important work yet
to be accomplished.
Laws so vitality affecting homes as
those which control the water supply
will only be effective when they have
the sanction of the irrigators; reforms
can only be final and satisfactory when
they come through the enlightenment
Of the people most concerned.
The larger development which national
aid insures should, however, awaken in
every arid state the determination to
make it's irrigation system equal in JUS
tice and effectiveness that of any coun-
try in the civilized world.
Nothing could be more unwise than for
isolated communities to continue to
learn everything experimentaliy. instead
of profiting by what is already known
elsewhere. |
We are dealing with new and mo-
question, in the pregnant years
while institutions are forming, and
X X ;: X X X x x X X X =: X X X y: X X X X
:: X
x The forest and water problems X
X are perhaps the most vital inter- X