The Arizona sentinel., 1903-09-09
THE IRRIGATION CONI2E $.
 The board of supervisors has

l Ogden, Utah, which cOnVeneS OF
 the 18th inst, and he will leave
 today for that place in company
 with MT. J. E. Ludy, delegate
 appointed by Governor Brodie.
 The other delegate appointed by
 the governor is J. W. Dorring-
 ton of the Sentinel, who will
 also attend, and will join the del
 egation at San Francisco.
 Judging from current newspa-
 per reports the Maricopa and
 Yuma representa- tives-cODsti-
 tuting a strong delegation-will
 have plenty of opportunity for
 work at the Ogden convention,
 and they will doubtless give a
 good account of themselves. It
 seems probable that the Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, and perhaps
 other delegations will organize
 in opposition to the Tonto Basin
 project and attempt, also. to de
 cry and throw all kinds of cold
 water on the government irrlga-
 tion projects on the Colorado
 river. Whether such efforts will
 be of any force or avail in infu-
 encing a change of government
 plans is hardly probable.
 Everything that has so far de-
 velOped with reference to either
 of these propositions indicates
 that the secretary of the interior,
 who has almost supreme power
 under the national irrigation
 law. is in full accord with the engineers of the geological sur
 vey in the Arizona section, and that their reports will receive and have received his approval. As we understand it, the TOnto Basin dam has been definitely and finally determined upon and preparations for actual work are now under way. The Colorado river projects are not so far ad- vanced, but the fact that a requi- sition by Engineer Perkins just recently for S40,0 to push the present work was honOred with out hesitation, indicates that the interior departments very much in earnest about the Colorado river work. And those few peo pie in this locality who are try ing to make it appear that it will be forever and a day. before we can get government irriga- tion may be-it is just possible they may be-mistaken. It is true that other eligible localities are clamOring for government construction of irrigation works, and fighting every other locality where the government has made a move along the same line. If there was ever a better illuStra- tion of the 'pOrk" in human na ture it has escaped our observa- tion. Just why there should be unseemly scramble is unaccOunt- 1 able except on the score of un reasonable SelfShness. The re- clamation fund, which comes from the sales of public lands, has now reached the sum of if | teen million dOllars-a sufficient | to construct six irriga, tiOn works such as the TOntO | Basin enterprise. The fund is increasing all the time, and be- fore the passing of another year there will be money available to | justify the inauguration of irri gation work Tn every eligible locality where the feasibility of | such work may be determined.
 AS to priority claims for first work done, it is significant that the very first lands withdrawn from entry and the first prelimi- ! nary work under the irrigation law was in ArizOna-and along the Colorado river. One impor- tant reason for this was the very evident great possibilities pre- presented here: Nowhere else in all the arid region is there such stream as the Colorado [ riveF-which is capable of furn- ishing d water supply, when properly conserved, to irrigate about 4,OOO,OOG acres of land, Nowhere can land be found more fertile than in the Colorado delta. And nn,rhnrn nrl, nlinnntin 1n,nAi