The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1902-11-11


ian owner cannot prevent by injunction
a diversion from the stream above him |
unless it interferes with some beneficial
use of the water then being made by a |
riparian owner.
1t should also be established by our
courts clearly and beyond question that
the right of a riparian owner to use
water to irrigate land to produce crops,
as we understand the meaning of the
tern. irrigation in the arid region, is not
common law right, but one growing
out of the necessities of this arid coun-
try, and that the riparian owners right
to the use of water for irrigation arises
from necessity and is based on and linn
tied by use. 1t is not perfected until
the water has been actually used, and
therefore if an appropriation perfects
right by use on the stream below the
riparian owner, before the riparian
owner, uses the water, the right of the
lower appropriation becomes a vested
right which the upper riparian owner
must respect, and the riparian owner
cannot afterward take the water away
from the lower prior appropriation.
These are matters which must be adj
Indicated by our courts who have juris-
diction to determine not only what the
rights of riparian owners now are, but
to find what they have been in the past.
If these rights are thus limited by judi
cial decision the decision is not an inter-
ference with any vested right. 1t is
merely determination of what that
right is and has been and fixes it's limi-
tations.
COOPERATIVE CANAL COMPANIES.
Every one planning the organization
of canal should be shown that water
right companies have been the grave
yard of millions of dollars invested in
them, while cooperative canal companies
have been almost uniformly successful.
In organizing irrigation companies, pro-
moters should sell stock and not water
rights, putting their profit on the price
of the stock, Then when the invest
ors have got back their money and their
profits, the ownership of the system
goes to the land owners who should con-
troll and operate it for their common
benefit. Not another water right com
pany should ewes be organized, and all
now existing should as rapidly as pos
sible be transformed into land owners
companies.
To make all these matters generally
known and understood requires great
and persistent educational campaign.
1t can only be carried on by an organ
ization like the National Irrigation AS
ISOLATION, having fixed policy and
permanent membership and an ade-
quate fund for conducting the campaign
by public lectures and the distribution
of printed matter, and information
through the press. This cannot be
done by an organization like the Nat
ional Irrigation congress, which is a
mere forum for discussion, having no
policy whatever about anything.
The work that has been done in the
last three years to convert the east
through our educational campaign, has
been done by The National Irrigation
ACKNOWLEDGMENT by the Irrigation Con-
gress-and this association will continue
its work.
The National Irrigation Association
must continue its educational work in
the east until eastern public sentiment
will favor the appropriation Of just as
much money as is necessary in every
state to build projects which have been
surveyed and approved by the Secretary
of the Interior. The arid lands should
be reclaimed just as fast as settlers will
take the land and pay back to the gov
eminent the cost of the irrigation works
built for their reclamation. This, and
the merit of each project, and nothing
else should be the test of whether any
given project should be built. Unless
we can establish this board policy as the
policy of the national government, the
result will be that at the end Of couple
Of years the western states will newt
ably be fighting among themselves for
the small sum of 100000 or s3,OOO,-
600 a year, which is all that will be
available under the present act.
In the next two years there will be
about SIC, 600, 900 available for construct
ton because we started with fund OF
nearly 5000, 900 when the bill was pas
sed. This fund Of SIC. OOO. 900 is as much