The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-02-09
Daai9 aalc

M. M. MURDOCH. Editor.

THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND sURiRRiGATIoN.
Thirty years ago. this spring the Eagle contained an
article on the value subirgaon for the valley lands
Of the Arkansas river The article written for this
paper C. c. Hutchinson founder Of sister city
the county seat of Reno the first time that We
ever saw the compounded word in print It can now
be found in the dictionaries time for several
subsequent years. flow of the Arkansas River was
such as was estimated by competent engineers to be pos
sibe of navigation by steamboats, and other floating
craft The river originally meandered by government
surveyors as navgable stream and it 50 held to
be in the statutes of the At about that
The years just previous to the time when Col
orado got on to the arid lands could be rem
valuable for agricultural purposes by irrigation
the congress made appropriations for the improve
lnent of the channel the mouth of the
Little Arkansas to which point the stream deemed
possible of profitable navigation But the Colorado
bitches obviated the necessity any appropriations
for the Great Arkansas river
Year by year. the river dwindled until the farmers
along the valley within boundaries Of Kansas became
uneasy for the They had come to realize that
"subirrigation was speculative dream As result OF
the diminished waters. the ceased to flow at
times and crops that formerly matured under the aveage
rainfall fell short Fearing still greater disastrous conse
uuences year or two since. movement was started
in this city for the purpose Of asceaning there was
tiny legal recourse against the people who subsequent
settlers Of another about to systematically
appropriate the entire waters a which had proved
SO beneficial to who had bought their lands and
riparian rights from government in good faith After
much delay the been landed in the United States
upreme court the attorneys Kansas in the contention
being Attorney General A. Goddard Eugene F. Ware OF
Topeka and S S. Ashbaugh OF this city.
The brief gotten up by these solicitors, copy of
which has reached hands. is book OF one hundred
and ffty-three pages. 1t is compilation Of English
common law Of history and national statutes
relative to water rights; law Of riparian rights;
Of common law between states; e S statutes concern
ing irrigation of the validity Colorado navgabe rivers
of the history of common law in Kansas and Colorado
and Of the appropriation by Of water flowing
Into another.
This brief tells the supreme that the suit is not
animated by slightest desire injure or harass the
state of Colorado or citizensbut settle and deter
mine matter Of the gravest importance and far reach
ing consequences to citizens Kansas living in the
valley of the Arkansas Further it not asked that the
present irrigation bitches Colorado shall be destroyed
hut it is sought stop that state from granting any fur
Their privileges at the expense of the people who used the
waters Of the said long before Colorado was
state The that all eastern Colorado was at one
time part Kansas line along the divide west Of
Ieadvile county in which Denver is located
formerly represented in Kansas legislatures of ter
rtorial times short the brief with its maps trad
tons and laws constitutes readable and reliable history
the great valley the waters of which enter
the present boundary Of Kansas elevation of $500
feet above the level 30 miles through the
state watering 100000 acres Of land.
There is state sovereignty the rights Of overflow, geo
ogy desert lands homestead rights priority rights the
rights of eminent domain. hundreds Of cited decisions
and irrigation laws of Colorado to be found in this
wonderful brief which fails of securing Kansas her
rights hardly fail of parayzing the supreme court