Arizona republican., 1902-02-16
CHAIRMAN TONGUE
 ON IRRIGATION He Is Opposed to Any Pro- ject Committing the
 Government
He Favors Features of the Bill Pre- pared by the Committee or Western Senators and Representatives, but Finds Serious Defects.-


 land committee of the house, does not entirely approve of the general irriga- tion bill drawn by the western members 8nd submitted to Mir. Tongues commit tee for potion. He said today:
 T am decidedly opposed to any wild gigantic scheme of irrigation that would commit the federal government to the expenditure of untold millions from the public treasury, destroying present farm values and frittering away the homes of coming generations
 Such scheme. backed as it is by some powerful interests whose motiv es are not far to seek, has not the slight est chance of success. Its advocacy re- tards and may for time defeat a moderate measure for just and reason able irriga tion. Such schemes are not advocated wholly in the interest of the public good or for the greatest benefit of the masses of the people of the Unit ed States. These great measures incite opposition from people in the east and middle west, who fear any legislation for irrigation, no matter how moderate, might be but an entering wedge. start ing the country upon a policy of which no man can see the end.
 "In my judgment the true policy
 
 pursue. the policy which has the best opportunity to secure ;he support of congress, is to irrigate sufficient arid land to furnish homesteads for actual bona fide home builders. This should be the object and the limit of any irri- gation law. There is d healthy natural demand for this and it should be met Irrigation should keep pace with rural settlement and the natural healthy in crease in rural population. It should not go faster than this. Irrigation will not make population. neither will it in crease the birthriEht or the stream O.: desirable immigra tion into the United States.
 Ut is claimed by very respectable authority that people will go from the city to seek, beautify and adorn rural homes. It is certain that the idle and the vicious will not leave the city. The industrious. well employed and well paid part of the population should not leave the cities. The present tendency from the country to the city Is q na- tural result of present economic con- diticns. It is because city and factory furnish more remunerative employe- ment than farming or stock raising. We should not change this condition by converting them from food consumers to food producers. lessening the demand and increasing the supply of food prod ucts. It is not to the benefit of farmers to increase the number of farms. The factory and the city are the salvation of the farm. What the great west needs today is not more farms, but bigger cities. bigger factories and more of both. As nation we are not in need of more farm products. but we are in need of more markets for the products we now have.
 "To build American homes and pro- tect the welfare of the home builder. not to make market for unstable land grants or more agricultural imple- ments, should be the end and aim of this class of legislation.
 "The bill prepared under the direction of western senators and representatives is in the main along right lines. It seeks to supply bona fide demand for rural homes and safeguard the welfare of the home builders. In so far as 1t seeks to accomplish these ends it has my unqualified support, but it Is not perfect It contains many serious de- fects which can and should be reme- died by suitable amendment. It pro vides that the whole fund raised from the sale of these lands is to be placed in the hands of the secretary of the in- terior to be expended by him under his sole and unrestrained discretion. so it be expended for irrigation. There is to be no other control or restraint. By the 3Oth of next June this fund will be approximately s6O0O.000 and will in- crease at the rate of s3.000,000 annually. As this is expended it is expected to return and be expended again many times over.
 'The secretary may eXpend the whole of that within any of the sixteen states or territories named in the bill in any one of them or any part of one of them, according to his own sweet will. Such vast power is vested in no other officer of any free country in the world. Con gress is asked to pour all these mil lions into the treasury, deliver the key to the secretary of the interior. relin- uuish all control. and then point to the fund thus created and say to all those interested in the expenditure. whether for the public good or to satisfy or ganized greed, There it is now. there it is. now pull for if. lobby for it, scramble for it, scrap for it, and the best and strongest interest take the most of it.
 Every state and every territory hav- ing land to irrigate. or whose officers think they have lands to irrigate, every owner of great land grants. every trans-continental railroad. every indi- vidual or corporate land grabber will maintain an organized lobby at Wash ing and will at once strip for the fray. Those portions of the United States most moderate and most just in their demands will be compelled to keep in fighting attitude and contest vigorously for the expenditure of every dollar they may receive The secretary of the in- terior will not individually select single enterprise. He must act through agents Will these always be above