The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-06

Western Hemisphere within radius
OF five miles," he says, 81 saw every
product Of the temperate and sem1-trop-
1cal zones which I could call to mind .,
and continuing, he observes that there
are more acres of irrigable land in the
San Joaquin valley than are now watered
IN Egypt from the Nile, where agriculture
alone supports over 5000, 900 people. Tne
irrigated lands along the Nile, he SAYS.
support 54S persons to the square mile,
WhHe on thirty-fiVe- mile drive in the
sacramento valley, over what is peten-
TALLY one Of the most fertile and produc-
tive agricultural districts or this CONT
nent, he saw only two school houses. at
tending which were only fifteen chiIdper
just before taking this ride he had been
LOT distance of fifteen miles through
an irrigated district in Utah, where there
was not farm of over thirty acres ,rhe
average population of the Utah district
is over 300 to the square mile, that of the
advantage is with California; he con-
tlnues, but the Utah district is irrigat-
ed, the other is not
The laxity of the California irrieatior,
laws could not be shown more forcibIv
than by the working of the law of an
preparation, by which water may be
diverted from its natural channel and
USED Tor irrigation on lands away from
the streams. This is fully covered in the
report The law places absolutely no
limit upon the amount of water itTlaFranyy
! individual may claim, ard as a result
more water is claimed from the nine
streams studied than could be found in all
the streams of the entire arid West In
Honey Lake Basin, where the ordinary
spring flow of all the streams is only
about 10000 inches, the enormous amount
of SGO0,000 inches is claimed. which on
the present duty of water in this region.
is enough to irrigate over 100000. 600 acres
OF land. On Cache creek, where the sum
mer flow is under 10000 inches in addi-
ton to one claim of over 4,OOO OOO 900 cubic
1eet and others aggregating 1000. 09Di unin-
telligible units, over 100000 inches are
claimed. The filings on San joaquin river
amount to over eight times its greatest
flood flow and those on the Sweetwater
river call for 5000 times the existing sup
ply Yet. with all this multiplicity of
claims the law provides no way for their
adjudication other than appeals to the
ordinary courts of law, which the history
of California irrigation as set forth in
these reports shows, ends only too often
in even greater complication and uncer-
+ tainty than existed before the courts
T were appealed to. 'The whole system
is wrong declares the report. TT is
wrong in principle as well as faulty in
procedure. 1t assumes that the establish
ment of titles to the SHOWS on the noun
tains and the rains falling on the public
lands and the waters collected in lakes
and rivers, on the use of which the de-
velopment of the state must in a great
measure DEFEND, is a private matter. It
ignores public interests in resource
upon which the enduring prosperity of
communities must rest. 1t is like A SUI
ing for control of property which be-
{ longs to c."
RIPARIAN RIGHTS TROUBLESOME.
No law or institution has given SO
much trouble to California irrigators as
the English common law doctrine of
riparian rights, which was adopted by
the first legislature of the state In
spite of having been supposedly abro-
gated by later legislature, it has COM
pIicated almost every attempt to settle
titles in the state, because it is diamet-
rically opposed to the California law of
appropriation and wholly irreconcifable
with the use of water in irrigation.
In closing the review of the situation,
the expert in charge declares that 1.-THE
reform of the irrigation laws of 7Caiifor-
MIA involves the future of a great COM
wait on success and the evils which will
surely attend failure ought to enlist
the efforts and intellects of the ablest
and best men in the state. 1t is an OPP
portunity for the exercise of construc-
tive craftsmanship which rarely appears
in the life of any commonwealth. The
task is not to piece together the dis
| cordant fragments of laws and decisions
which now control, but to create an
irrigation code worthy of an enlight-
ened and self-goyerning people. Success
will mark the beginning of an economic
revolution whose influence will be- felt
throughout the West. If the creation
of institutions worthy of the time and
place can come as a part of the world
wide movement of trade and popula-
ton toward the Pacific coast, and of
material development of arid America
by public and private aid, which is now
being SO strenouslv urged, the opening
years of the twentieth century will wit
ness new era of home making in the
West"