The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-07-01
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WILL HAVE
CHARGE OF WORK.
FUND WILL GROW FAST
Eventually the People Who Occupy
the Land Will Reimburse the
Government for All Outlay.

EH-Es
passage of the irrigation bill there
has been a good deal of speculation as
to whether a new bureau would be
created to take charge of it's admin
istration. It is now definitely known,
however, that the great national pol
icy which the act provides for will be
carried out by the secretary Of the
interior through the geological sur
vey as at present constituted under
the immediate supervision of Charles
D. Wolcott, the director, and F. H.
Newell, the chief of the photographic
bureau Of the survey. The friends of
the measuresare gratified to know that
this will be done because it removes
any danger pf the work falling einto
the hands of untried men.
The work of the survey in all it's
relations to the development of the
irrigation of the arid region
has been eminently satisfactory to
the people of the west who are famil-
lar with what has been so far accom-
plished. Mr.. Newell has been in
charge of the work for IA 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.
MI. Newell has made almost a life
study of the subject and is probably
more familiar than any other MAI in
the United States with the irrigation
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
a recognized authority on this whole
subject. The fact is fully recognized
by these who will have the admins
tration Of the new law and by the
western senators and congressman
who have worked SO hard for its en-
actment that it is the part of wisdom
to proceed with great care and with
out undue haste in carrying it's pro-
visions into effect.
It is believed that this view will
have the approal 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 con-
gressional district. The fact is that
the western people have been fighting
for a principle rather than for any
specific application of it, and now that
congress has formally adopted and in
augurated the policy for which they
have contended, they are ore in
terested to secure q wise and con-
sentative administration of that pol
icy, so as to demonstrate it's practi-
cal benefits, than to crowd for the i'm
mediate construction of works in e
cry local section of the west.
A, more conservative plan than this
irrigation act for the solution of the
great problem of the reclamation of
the arid region could not be devils
ed, and the opponents of the bill on
its passage SO far overshot the facts
in their d%enunciation of it that their
hostility rather reacted in favor OF
the bill in the minds of those who had
studied it's provisions.
The proceeds from the sales of pub
lie lands in the arid and semi-arid
states amount to about 5 $500, 900 a
year. The irrigation act sets apart
these proceeds, whatever they may
be, as a revolving construction FUND
in the treasury and authorizes the
secretary of the interior to use it fol
the construction of irrigation works
for the reclamation of the arid pub
lie lands. The lands reclaimed arr
reserved exclusively for actual set
tiers only. under the homestead law
who must live on the land five year!
before they can get title. The tota
cost of each system of works is to b.
a charge against the lands reclaime'
under it, and each settler must pa,
back to the government, in ten equa
annual installments, his proportion Q
the cost of the works. The entir
investment of the government in eacl
system would therefore come bacl
to it in ten years time and as j
came back, from year to year, it woul,
be available for the construction 0
new works. It is really astonishing
the way this fund accumulates. TAX
ing it by ten year periods, with tn
average receipt from new land sale
Of g. o. 900 q year. the amount avail.
able from this source for the first te
years would be $25,00o,0 600. In tn
onnonA <ow -voaru this coro omos,r