Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-02-20
PLEA FOR STATEHOOD.
Why New Mexico Earnestly Presses
Her Claims.
RIGHT TO RIO GRANDE WATERS.
Editors Post, Washington, d. c.:

Your valuable paper, ever Just and
keenly alive TO matters of public inter-
est, has recently devoted considerable
space to Oklahoma's and Arizona's
claims for statehood; and, as a mem
Der of the New Mexican delegation
now in Washington with the OBJECT of
pressing that territory's claim to early
admission, | venture to ask a similar
courtesy at you hands for New Mex
leo.
We who know New Mexico well be-
lieve that the mineral wealth of the
territory will ultimately prove to be
equal to that of any other state of the
Union, II our splendid pastoral re-
sources are known of all men. But.
great as our mineral and pastoral
wealth, present and future, may be.
our immense area of irrigable lands
has a potential value far exceeding
that of our other resources; and the
future greatness and prosperity of
New Mexico must depend much more
upon the development of her agricul-
tural interest thar upon aught else.
We have several millions of acres of
rich %alluvial land of unsurpassed fertil-
it'll, %irrigable from the Rio Grande and
it's tributaries; medical experts have
long pronounced the climate of New
4hCAlCO W NC uhtQudlltu vi lnb AIlbIl
can continent, taking it the veal round,
our fruits and cereals secured first
prize at the Chicago worlds fair and at
the Paris exposition; our farms and
orchards are from 1,200 to 1900 miles
nearer to the great eastern markets
than are those of California, and our
fruiting season is from four to six
weeks earlier. In fact the natural con-
ditions of New Mexico are much that
If we are not deprived of our Justly,
inherent right to impound the flood
waters of the Rio Grande and it's tribu-
taries for che irrigation of our fertile
valley lands, our farms must inevitably
in the relatively near future, add many
millions of dollars annually to the agri-
cultural wealth of the United States.
FARMING INTERESTS IMPERILED.
Unhapplly, we are in grave danger
of being ~despolIed of our rights to the
waters of our catchment area; and, if
We are wrongfully deprived of the use
of the food waters of our streams, the
farming interests of our people is
doomed and we must remain depend
ent upon the n~eighboring states for
the bulk of our food supply. Hence,
the Importance of statehood; for once
} admitted into the ~sisterhood of states,
New Mexico's right to the waters of
her catchment area will be safe as is
l that Of Colorado and the other arid
states to the waters of their non-navi-
gable streams.
: Flo nearly ten years certain interest
!; ed parties in Old Mexico and Texas
owning lands just below our southern
| boundary have ben scheming to have
? the federal government inhibit our use
. of the food waters of the Rio Grande
and it's tributaries for irrigation above
Ell Paso. Bill after bill has beer intro
, duced with that object; and some five
t years ago the parties mentioned, man.
aged to induce the federal government
: to institute proceedings in the courts
| against the Rio Grande Dam and Irri-
| cation company Ga domestic undertake
2 ing. Incorporated under the laws of
7 New Mexico and subsidized by the
8 owners az the lands to be served by
5 the company with a view to prevent
: ing the completion of the large sys-
: TEN of storage reservoirs and irriga-
l tion canals then in course of construc-
ton, on the ground that the company's
works, If completed, would interfere
with the navigation of the Rio Grande
I in e Mexico and below FL Paso. AT
!, least, this was the legal ground for the
i attack upon our territorial water
rights; but, as a matter of fact. the
real object was to reserve the entire
flow of the Rio Grande in New Mexico
for an international dam" so called,
to be built at FL Paso, Texas.
HI absurd contention that the con-
= struction of storage dams in New Mex
leo would interfere with navigation
above Ell Paso was Dol abandoned,
but the action was continued on the
~ -, that aA,. ,., - l. "a
q the Rio Grande for irrigation in New
Mexico would seriously affect the nav
igable capacity of that river some
200 miles or more below-measured
= by it's sinuosities-where the alleged
, navigation is carried on by one old
stern-whee!er of about eighteen inch,
: es draft, which occasionally. during a
few months of the year, but with great
difficulty, succeeds in navigating the
sandbars and shadows between
= Brownsville and Rio Grande City, 17C
miles above the mouth of the river.
THE FLOW OF THE RIO GRANDE.
= At first our people treated the action
Il as a huge joke, for it is a well-estab
, lished fact that the storage of the flood
waters of t%orrential streams for fTri
cation in variably improves the norma
regime of the stream below the district
irrigated. This has beer demonstrated
in Colorado, where practically the en-
tire flow of the headwaters of the Rio
u Grande is appropriated for irrigation
in the San Luis valley, also in othel
parts of the arid west, in Europe, anC
in India. Prof. l.. G.. Carpenter. of tn,
United States Agricultural College. a
Fort Collins, Colo, has made a thor
~ ough study of this question, and ha!
shown that. despite the fact that prac
~ tically the whole of the water of tn,
e Rio Grande in Colorado is diverted 70
ie irrigation. h normal flow of tn,
stream below, where it passes int
y New Mexico, has been improved rathe
p than diminished.
d But Notwithstanding the well-knowl
., facts that were presented to the tria
Ut court, which decided that the Ri
ne Grande is not ~navigable within tn