Arizona republican., 1901-03-30

have been clamoring for years for fed
 eral aid for water stor- THE age. We have argued OTHER so fervently and elo- SIDE. quently for the proposi-
 tion that we have come to believe that there was but one side to 1t. We clip an article from the San Francisco Call. showing that there is another side:
 Tt Is we'll far the whole country to examine the policy for which Senator Carter spoke thirteen hours without stopping. It is proposed to ask federal appropriations to build irrigation works in the arid region. in order that soil now barren for lack of moisture may be made fertile.
 Leaving out of the question the er- ratio nature of such appropriations, their wasteful expenditure, and forget ting such experiences as the venerable proposition to make a harbor in Oak land, western man may well put him. self in the place of the eastern farmer and taxpayer. That distant but good fellow citizen of ours has had no help and reaped and gathered into barns, while the government has been indif- ferent to his rainfall or the fertility of his fields. Outside the public land states that taxpayer had to put up a high price for his land, and acquired 1t by no such cheap and easy method as the pre-emption or homestead law. He feels taxation, and the burden wears upon him. He gets tired and rests one leg while he stands on the other. Sem ator Carter desires to tax him to aid homestead law can get land for noth- ing, provided the government will water 1t for them. at the expense of the unaided eastern farmer, for whom the government does nothing. Is it any wonder that heads are shaken and discontent is voiced in those eastern farmhouses?
 Again. the eastern farmer Is a citi- zen of the republic and part owner of the public domain. He used to keep sheep on his farm. under fence. and found them profitable farm stock. That part of his business Is broken up. On his property, the public domain. out GhAH a aA xxsft axri, him anything for what they eat. To raise them costs nothing in comparison with the expense of raising them on his inelosed farm. He cannot compete. He has parted with one valuable means of diversifying his industry and turning an easier penny. and he sees his rival getting rich rapidly on pasture that does not cost a mill. So these two western visions disquiet him. The property of which he Is part owner is used without rental. and its use is de- stroying it's sole value. and he is called on to pay taxes to water another mans land. Honor bright. Is such a situa- tion just to our hard handed fellow citizen, and Is it credftable to Ameri- can statesmanship?
 What would an individual business man do under such circumstances? He would solve both problems at once He would make the stock grazier pay rent for the public property he pastures and would devote the proceeds to irrigation works. The arid ranges. under lease- hold control. would yield nearly slO,- 100000 a year"
 The Call then presents tables giving the area of arid land in the states of the Pacific slope, and shows that the slo,o0O.OOO equally divided among cali fornia. Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Mon- tana, Idaho and Wyoming would give each N.42S,571. If each then were given a percentage of this latter sum equal to its percentage of public land to it's whole area, the several states and for