Evening star., 1901-11-23
State Officials Want to Disburse Ma
tional Appropriations.
IRRIGATION OF ARID LANDS
Why Appropriations Should Pass
Through National Channels.
MANY MILLIONS INVOLVED
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

works to reclaim the arid public domain is
the stake now being played for by certain
well-known western interests.
1t Is not believed they will be success
full, however, with President Roosevelt or
In Congress The well-understood attitude
of the President in favor of the civil serv-
ice and utilization of expert brains and
labor in the carrying on of public business
Is counted as certain to lead him to advo-
cate nationalized forest reserves and ma
tlonaiized irrigation works. 1t is not to be
believed he will consiuer for a moment the
turning over of magnificent tracts of valua-
BILE timber, vast areas of public land or
great sums of the nations money to be
juggled with by rings of state politicians
whose object has been proved in so many
instances to be solely that of loot or self
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
The irrigationsts practically combined in
their support of the Newland's bill at the
last session of Congress. This bill proposed
to set aside the net proceeds of the sale
OF publlc lands in the arid states and thus
create reclamation fund. The Secretary
OF the Interior was to be authorized to ex-
pend the money for the purpose of creating
a water supply for arid public domain by
means OF dams, reservoirs, main line canals
| or wells at such points as the government
engineers might recommend as being most
desirable The cost of the works was to be
charged to the homeSteaders upon the land
benef1ted and repaid into the reclamation
fund in annual installments, covering such
period as to make it easy for the settler
IN the NeWlands bill 1t was provided that
all the work should be done and the COM
pleted plants operated by the national gov
ernment under rules and regulations made
by the Secretary of the Interior to carry
Ihese provisions met the approval of all
national irrigation experts and were in
dorsed by public sentiment throughout the
country.
Playing for a Big Stake
lhose who desired to secure the handling
of the public domain, its forests and its
water supply, and who saw great political
and other possibilities in the expenditure
OK the fund derived from the sale of pub
lie lands, which would range from a little
over $1,000 in the case Of Nevada to over
S60O,OOO in the case of Oklahoma, recos-
nlzed in the Newlands bill a death blow to
their hopes
Congress finally adjourned without adopt-
ing any measure and since that time the
state cesslonlstS have been actively at work
to further their schemes. They are assist
ed by certain local political influences in
such states as expect to benefit therefrom
by the big cattle interests which know
they can increase their already strong
hold upon the range if the land and water
are given over to local state control and
by few people who honestly advocate,
through some peculiar course of reasoning
the hurried disposal of all public lands
regardless of possibly undesirable private
ownership.
The state control people are playing for
a big stake. They take the high moral
ground that a part of the people are as
honest as the whole.
They say that state officials are more
familiar with local needs than the officials
OF the general government would be. They
assert also that there would be conflict be-
tween state and federal authority if the
United States carried on the work of in
"a Sitcr hn ryotp N,,1,r
sionists gave up the fight for the outright
transfer Of the arid lands to the various
states because of the overwhelming pub
lie sentiment made manifest against such
move. They are now trying to bring
about the same results, however, BY advo-
eating a scheme for state administration of
federal property.
State and National Control
Chief Justice Marshall laid down the gen.
eral principle that the states should not
and do not have any rights in the national
public domain. The United States occupies
the simple relation of great land owner
to this vast trust. The government of
these lands by the national government
would bring Uncle Sam into each state upon
the same basis and with the same local
righSs as an individual land owner whose
status is not in controversy. If a private
owner or corporation can advantageouSly
improve property in arid state, which
is admitted, the United States government
can do the same by accepting the existing
laws as found in each locality.
The public land, however, belongs to the
eighty million people of the United States
and not 70 the people of the arid states
alone. The question of the Improvement
of this land will, in many cases, become an
interstate problem. The public domain is
under the. care and administration of the
Interior Department.. which views the coun-
try as a whole, according to the local
needs, rather than by political subdivisions
the political systems Of the whole country
especially from the western point of view,
and they are controlled more or less easily
by local influences. By reason of this same
insignificance they are unable to control ma
tional legislation. Practically every land
trust which has been reposed in a state by
Congress has been shamefully abused,
either wllfully or through ignorance and
inexperience On the other hand, every bill
which has been presented to Congress of
late years, with the stealing of public land
for Its purpose has been defeated No
better illustration could be given of the
contrast between state and national con-
troll than to cite the cases Of Oklahoma
and Nevada. In Oklahoma the land was
thrown open to settlement under the home
stead act, and in ten years a state has
been created with a population of ,OOO,
In Nevada, Congress gave the distribution
of lands into the hands of the state Off
cials, and by the skillful manipulation of
a two million acre grant the state officials
succeeded in monopolizing the water supply
for e few cattlemen. Over "a per cent of
the area of Nevada is still public land and
still, or even losing ground.
Substitute Bill.
The state control people apparently make
their headquarters in Wyoming In June
a meeting was held at Cheyenne to which
all western senators and representatives
were invited. One senator. Senator Warren
of Wyoming who lives at Chevenne apd 6,,.