The state herald., 1903-06-26
WEAKNESS OF BRIEF FILED
in THE KANSAS.COLORADO SUIT

sponse to request OF Senator Burton
OF Kansas. T. c. Henry, an irrigation
expert who is known all over the West,
severely criticises the brief recently
filed in the Kansas Colorado suit Mr..
Henry letter is as follows:
Denver; Colo June Is, 1903.
Hon. j, r. Burton, Abilene. Kansas:
Dear Sir-I cheerfully comply with
your suggestion that | discuss briefly
the KansasColorado suit from prac-
ucal Colorado standpoint.
4 shall refrain from urging any
claim in behalf of Colorado based upon
moral or ethical grounds. A decade
ago, the leading industry of Colorado.
relatively as important as wheat and
corn are to Kansas was assailed and
practically destroyed involving losses
many fold greater than the recent
floods have brought to Kansas. Our
frantic leading and protest elected only
jeer and scoft-our cries taunt and
mockery.
Counsel for Colorado have good
right to assert that If the bill could be
successfully maintained, IL would mean
ruin to the state of Colorado and dis
aster to every state in the arid region
from which u stream flows into another
state. for the lower state would simply
assert the same theory, and having ac-
quired the undisputed flow of the wa
ters to its territory, nothing would
cause 1t to flow back again, and it
would be used for the same purposes OF
irrigation No honest citizen of Kan
sas will have temerity further to claim
that the suit brought against Colorado
has for its real object the direct pres
ervation of riparian rights, or to pre-
serve the navlgability of the Arkansas
river in Kansas or elsewhere
Nor will any intelligent citizen any
where deny. again quoting Colorado
counsel. that the effect of the bill. il
maintainable, would be to nullify the
acts of Congress- to declare void titles
which have vested under these acts. to
prevent the development of the arid
lands in the public domain, and to neg
ative the entire policy of the federal
government which for years has been
developed with great care and at great
expense
The grotesque and puerile COM
plants gravely set up in the Kansas
bill make me, an old-time verile Kan
san, positively ashamed They all but
again warrant the answer which
prompted the once noted inquiry.
What is the matter with Kansas
Think of Eugene Ware, of counsel for
Kansas, subscribing to the proposition
that the melting SHOWS in the noun
tains of Colorado. 500 miles away, fur
nish almost the entire supply of wa
ter for the underfiow for the Arkansas
valley all the way to Wichita. the evap-
oration from which cools and moistens
the surrounding atmosphere. promotes
the growth OF all vegetation. enhances
land values and cOnduces directly to
the public health and making the To-
cality habitable.' Again asserting his
solemn distress at the spectacle of the
falling of unripe fruit the danger TO
the sewerage OF Dodge CITY, and all
the way above the city of Wichita the
drifting sand. dirt and debris and
growing vegetation, willows and trees.
so obliterating the bed of the Arkan-
sas that the food waters from the ex-
cessive melting SHOWS In the state of
Colorado have made new channels
and debris thereon and doing great
damage to stock pastured, crops grown,
improvements situate thereon. injuring
the health OF the people and decreasing
the value of said lands Of the Arkan-
sas valley.
THE proof and the fact Is that Mr..
Ware is but occasionally the hard
headed lawyer and the stern United
ut. l,tts
almost always a poet. and this Kansas
brief Is his latest and most whimsical
effusion.
But seriously. the record gaugings
of the Arkansas river at Canon City
under state direction for eleven years
past for ten months-January and Feb
ruary excluded-show the mean aver
age flow to be s67i cubic feet per sec
ond. This result covers a field equal
practically to the entire mountain snow
melting area of the Arkansas water
shed In Colorado-a volume. the coun-
sci for Kansas ON the contrary asserts
for about ten months In the year Is up
wards of 2.0o0 cubic feet
III this S67i cubic feet were dellv-
cred at the Kansas border undlmlnish-
ed. on the basis Of the sales OF water
rights by the Colorado companies with
which you and have been Identified. Il
would supply for Irrigation Just is,l5s.S
acres-a little more than two townships
OF land-a small fraction indeed Of the
$500. 900 acres In the Arkansas valley
Kansas counsel claim are imperiled by
the wrongful acts OF Colorado
III n true that the volume of the Ar
kansas is augmented by tributaries be-
fore II enters Kansas, otherwise. apart
from the return flow resulting from ca
nal diversion In Colorado. not ten per
cent. OF the Canon City snow water
would reach Kansas This very sea
son, but for the rains Of the past week.
the melting SHOWS on the Arkansas wa
torshod would have been wholly nh-
sorbcd before reaching Pueblo. This
has happened before. The intermittent
considerable volumes Of water which
enter Kansas are mainly supplied by
rains which prevail In the foothills and
ON the plains Of eastern Colorado
rains analogous In origin and character
10 those which have recently flooded
and destroyed the lower Arkansas ynl-
ley In Kansas although at the time the
river bed was practically dry In Colo
fndo. Not onc-nfileth Of the 10000 cu-
bic feet nj this moment In the ArknnanA
river flowing into Kansas II contribute
cd or augmented by the melting snow,
$50 far rs the normal volume Of
rnow wntcr IN concerned. the situation
In Kansas N distinctly improved by
the diversion prar,iced In Colorado,
which causes and creates n return
aas.4 .auatiglpr IN. pnYtnaI Vnlu,aa NJ