The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-06-25
NOT A new BUREAU
The Geo1og cal Survey Will Have
Cha4ge Of Irrigation.
THE PUBLIC LAND SALES FUND
How Money for Construction Will
Be Obtained-Grent Results
Expected.

bureau,
building, Washington.
Washington, June 25.-Since the passage
of the irrigation bill there has been good
deal of speculation as to whether new
bureau would be created to take charge
of It's administration. 1t is now definitely
known however, that the great national
policy which the act provides for will be
carried out by the secretary of the in
terror through the geological survey as at
present constituted under the immediate
supervision of Charles d. Wolcott, the di-
rector, and F. H. Newell, the chief OF
the photographic bureau of the survey
The friends of the measure are gratified
to know that this will be done because it
removes any danger of the work falling
into the hands of untried men.
The work of the survey in all its rela-
ticns to the development of the irrigation
resources of the arid region has been
eminently satisfactory to the people of
the west who are familiar with what has
been so far accomplished Mr.. Newell has
been in charge of the work for fourteen
years. He entered the employ of the
geological survey under Major Powell, who
may really be said to be the father of
the national irrigation policy, and his
great conception of the marvellous posi-
bilities of the arid region under national
plan for it's development seems now about
to be realized. Mr.. Newell has made al
most life study of the subject and is
probably more familiar than any other
man in the United States with the irriga-
tion resources Of the west and what must
be done. to accomplish the purposes of the
new national irrigation law which has
been we'll designated the new homestead
law. His recent book, 'IrrigatiOn in the
United States, is recognized authority
on this whole subject. The fact is fully
recognized by those who will have the adj
ministration of the new law and by the
western senators and congressman who
that it is the part of wisdom to proceed
with great care and without undue haste
in carrying it's provisions into effect.
It is believed that this view will have
the approval of the people of the west
generally and that there will not be any
such wild scramble as some have predicted
to get reservoirs built right away in
every western congressional district. The
fact is that the western people have been
fighting for a principle rather than for
any specific application of 1t, and now that
congress has formally adopted and inaugu-
rated the policy for which they have con-
tended, they are more interested to secure
a wise and conservative administration
Of that policy, so as to demonstrate its
practical benefits, than to crowd for the
immediate construction of works in every
local section of the west.
more conservative plan than this IT.
rigation act for the solution of the great
problem of the reclamation of the arid
region could not be devised, and the OPP
ponents of the bill on its passage SO far
overshot the facts in their denunciation
of it that their hostility rather reacted
in favor Of the bill in the minds of those
who had studied it's provisions.
For instance one of the leading members
who opposed it declared:
It is the most insolent attempt at larceny
that have ever seen embodied in a legisla-
tive proposition. 1t provides for the giving
away of an empire in order that private prop
erty may be made valuable. 1t is a PROPOSE
ton to spend vast millions of dollars In order
that the present owners in the states Of Wyo-
ming and in other states shall have their
lands reclaimed at public charge.
Nothing could be further from the fact
than this. The proceeds from the sales
of public lands in the arid and semi arid
| states amount to about $4,000, 900 year.
| The irrigation act sets apart these pro-
goods. whatever they may be, as revolv-
| ing construction fund in the treasury and
! authorizes the secretary of the interior
| to use 1t for the construction of irrtga-
ton works for the reclamation of the arid
public lands. The lands reclaimed are
reserved exclusively for actual settlers
only, under the homestead law, who must
live on the land five years before they can
get title. The total cost of each system
of works iss to be a charge against the
lands reclaimed under it, and each set
tier must pay back to the government, In
| ten equal annual installments, his pro-
portion of the cost of the works. The en-
tire investment of the government in each
system would therefore come back to 1t
in ten years time and as it came back
| from year to year, it would be available
| Por he n works.
really astonishing the way this fund &C.
| cumulates. Taking it by ten year periods
| with the average receipt from new land
sales of $2,e0Q,000 a year, the amount
available from this source for the first
ten years would be S25,000,000. In the
| second ten years this same amount WoulC
be duplicated and the $25,000,00O invested
during the first ten years would come
! back and be reinvested in new works II
the SECOND ten years, thus making tota
| investment in the second ten years o.
$50 ,000, 900 in the construction OF new
| systems In the third ten years another
$25, 900 900 will come in from sales and the
whole SIS, 900 invested in the SECOND
ten years would come back for reinvest
ment, making grand total invested II
| the construction Of new works in thu
thirty years of $150,00000o. This whole
sum would come back to the government
in the fourth ten years and could be re
/ invested again and again until the who'll
vast area of irrigable arid public land ha
been reclaimed and settled and at the en-.
the whole sum will finally be returned t,
the government.
1t is, of course, impossible to construc
such irrigation works to reclaim the ari
public lands without including unde
some of the systems lands which hav
been taken up, and 1t would be the heigh
of injustice to say to the actual settle
who went there and built his home be
!, fore the works were planned that he wa
barred for all time from any chance of get
ting water for his land from the govern
ment system. The bill has been mos
carefully drawn to cover this contingency
The actual settler who lives on his Ian
can, on payment of his share Of the cos
of the works, get water but for not NOR
than 160 acres, and the granting of waite
rights to nonresident owners of larg
tracts is carefully safeguarded agains
and forbidden.
Every feature and provision of the BIZ