Gilpin observer., 1903-06-25

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 l discuss briefly
the Kansas-Colorado suit from prac-
tical Colorado standpoint.
Il shall refrain from urging any
claim in behalf OF Colorado based upon
moral or ethical grounds 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 scoff-our cries taunt and
mockery.
Counsel for Colorado have good
right to assert that if the bill could be
successfully maintained, it would mean
| ruin to the state of Colorado and dis
| aster to every state in the arid region
| from which 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 it's territory. nothing would
cause it 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 it's real object the direct pres
ervation of riparian rights, or to pre-
serve the navigability 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. if
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
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 underflow for the Arkansas
valley all the way TO Wichita the evap
Grafton 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 flood waters from the ex-
cessivs melting SHOWS in the state of
Colorado have made new channels
washed there through depositing dirt
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
States commissioner of pensions, but
almost always poet. and this Kansas
brief is his latest and most whimsical
effusion.
But seriously, the record gaugings
| lof he A RI vi ot "
under state direction for eleven years
past for zen months-January and Feb
ruary excluded-show the mean aver
age flow to be S67.4 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 1000 cubic feet
IF this S674 cubic feet were deliv-
cred at the Kansas border undiminish-
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 4S.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.
1T is 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
tershed would have been wholly alb
sorbed 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