The Holt County sentinel., 1902-06-27
New Homes for Is. 900. 600.


The irrigation bill passed by the house
on Friday, and already passed by the
Senate, is 40 attempt to solve what Sec
rotary. Wilson has we'll called "our great
est domestic problem
This problem concerns the reclama
ton of the great arid and semi arid
region which stretches from the Tooth
meridian of longitude westward to the
| Sierra Nevada and at its southwestern
corner reachest the Pacific ocean.
This region is by no means all desert,
though in Nevada. Utah, California, Ari-
iona and New Mexico it contains real
deserts. But its rainfall as whole is
far below the average required by agri-
culture as carried on in the Mississippi
valley and on the Atlantic slope. Yet
great areas Of its lands are astonishingly
fertile If only water can be brought to
them. An the water is there to fertilize
these lands, but SO unequally distributed
that it goes largely to waste.
This region contains about COO 900 COO
acres of the public domain. Much of this
is rugged mountain. Some of it IS ire
claimab.e desert, valuable only for its
mineral deposits. But at least 6OOOOOOO
acres, it is believed, can be converted
into farms if the water supply be scien-
titically distributed and economically
used. Then there are perhaps 100000
GOO acres of grazing lands that will be
useful if water is brought near them.
Systematic improvement of the lands
by irrigation will provide homes for 25,-
100000 people, at the lowest estimate,
and probably for twice as many. Sue
cessful irrigation farming both requires
and attracts close cultivation and a
dense population.
This great improv ement of the ma
tiOnal domain congress has decreed shall
now begin. That is the purpose of the
law just enacted, and the method adopt
ed is both simple and practicable. Here
after all money received from sales of
public lands in this region will go into a
special trust fund for the building of
irrigation works.
The lands 20 be benefited by such
works are to be assessed for their cost
and sold in parcels not exceeding 100
acressat the prices SO determined. The
money received which may be paid in lC
annual installments. goes into the trust
fund, which is thus constantly replen-
ished, These irrigation works will be no
burden on the public treasury. They
will be paid for by those benefited, much
as pavements aud sewers are paid for in
Chicago.
As was imperative in a region where
the first necessity of life is not land, but
water, the law DEGREES that the beneficial
use of water shall be the basis of rights
to it. In other words, it will not be pos
sible hereafter for spectators to buy up
vast areas of the public domain and
wait for the work of others to make
them valuable.
Irrigated or irrigable lands will be sold
only to those who will use them. As far
as possible the opportunity for men to
profit by the unearned increment of
their neiuhbor's toll has been cut off.
The law might have been improved by
denying its benefits to states Switch
neglect to modify their land laws to con-
form to the doctrine of beneficial use of
water. Only Wyoming. among the many
states affected, has a really scietuitic
and equitable irrigation code. The laws
of some of the other states are a positive
impeachment to home making and an en-
enlargement IS speculation. 1t would
seem advisable for congress at the be-
ginning to have insisted upon the
change of such laws.
But with all ITS defects the irrigation
act is distinct step forward and good
beginning. Its operations will neces-
sarily be slow. 1t may be half a century
before water is brought to all the irri-
gable lands. But the results will be of
ever increasing benetcence.
Irrigation of these arid lands will not
only provide homes for millions, but will
largely protect the region eastward
against drought. On the whole, the irri
CATION Law is likely to pass into history
as the w,sest legislation of the present