The Florence tribune., 1901-02-16

carried entirely over the ditches of those companies, notably the Florence Land Company. Our plan, so far as established works are concerned, will not interfere with them at all; we will not clash with them we will not sub- ject ourselves to any claims for dam ages by reason of interference.
 It is perfectly feasible engineering proposition. I could call the Senator's attention to many great ditches taken from streams in the West that are carried down for irrigation and other purposes across railway tracks, carried across canyons, carried across other irrigation ditches. There is nothing that is serious from the engineering standpoint in that. So, after investi- gating this matter, feel that can assure the Senate that this plan will not directly interfere in any manner with the ditches or the properties or the lands of the Florence Irrigation Company.
 Mir. President, it has been suggested by the Senator from Connecticut that various legal questions will arise if we attempt to dam this river and store its waters and make use of them for irri- gation purposes. He says there are vested rights in these intervening com panies. They haves rights. We rec ognize them. They have rights that they can not be deprived of, but their rights are clear under the decisions oi the courts in this country, and we know exactly what they are. When we store water above them, they have one right and only one right, that there shall be given to the flow of the river just that amount of water from time to time and from year to year that was accustomed to flow in ths stream before the construction of oul dam and reservoir.
 It is the old common-law doctrine that you can not interfere with tht usual and ordinary flow of stream O water. So if we construct this reser voir it will be the duty of the Govern ment, a duty easily performed, a dut. that can be performed without in trenchiug upon our own irrigation rights or exhausting our own stored supply of water, 10 return to the river months after months, year after year as much water as history shows was accustomed to flow in it before we con structed our works. Now, all these are easy matters. They are matters ol detail. They are matters that neet not give us any concern. They ar matters that ought not to stand for ont moment in the way of our taking action.
 There is only cue question here, and that is whether or not the fact that in addition to providing irrigation for our Indian wards by constructing | dam large enough and storing waters enough for their use we are also en abled to irrigate thousands and thou sands of acres of other lands, is an, reason why we should not proceed  through an appropriation bill of thi kind and through the Indian Com mittee, to start this project or to in vestigate it. I insist that there is D reason in the world why that objectio should be made, nor are we necessaril. committing ourselves to any great irri gation plan. Yet if we can, while pro viding irrigation for these Indial wards of ours, provide irrigation als from the same reservoir for thousa nd of acres of desert Government land, i is to me only an additional reason wh, we should not hesitate to have the mos thorough investigation and repor made, so that Congress may kno' exactly what we are to secure in tht
 way of benefits to the Indians, to tn
 public lands, and to the people.
 Mir. President, there are but fe'
 points in the United States that ca
 be selected where it is feasible c favorable to try the great exper
 ment of national irrigation. doul
 if there is another place in the who
 area of our country that seems to ha'
 been so fitted by nature for the exper
 ment as the one named in the amend
 ment to the bill. It is in a Territor,
 to begin with, not in State. O jurisdiction there is absolute over u
 waters and the soil and the Territo and the people. We can legislate
 we please. Then the flood waters that river are most phenomenal. The has never been suggestion made b l that the food waters of that river, arrested in the rush which means on , destruction and devastation, are su } cient to turn a vast area ot desert la | into garden, where not only India l but gods may dwell and reap the fir : of their toil. It is favored locali
 MT. Platt of Connecticut. Gods? ]. Mir. Thurston. Yes, gods; becau 2 every American citizen, in my idea