Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
AN IRRIGATION ORDER
A Dam to Be Built in st,
Mary's Lakes,
WORK TO BE PRESSED
WILL OPEN THE EYES OF THE
CANADIANS.
Meeting Them on Their Own Ground
in Their Work as to the
Milk River.
WORK TO BE PRESSED

If Canada is not going to act nice and
ladylike to Uncle Sam, President Roosevelt
and Secretary Hitchcock don't propose to
shed any tears over IT, They will try and
get along somehow. and perhaps a little
later on our naughty neighbOr over the
border will come back and make up. You
see, it's like this: We have a couple of
naughty rivers in Montana which. after re-
ceivins the major portion of their waters
from our dish pam very imprudently stray
across the border. One of these. the MIX
river. after winding its way for POO miles in
a foreign country, repents and returns TO
the land of its birth. The other St Mary
river, wanders so far northward that ii
finally gets lost in Hudson Bay Now,
Canada has lot of extra fine land in the
valleys of both streams, and the shrewd
Canucks have recently taken it into their
heads to irrigate from these rivers, The
irrigation from st. Mary river don't bother
us much, as we have no lands to irrigate in
its valley, but when they began to draw on
Milk river a howl went up from Montana;
the echoes of which reached clear to Wash
ington. Our rights to Milk river are prior
to those of our neighbor We used the
water first. and by the law of the irrigation
country the first user has the first right. In
a region where water is life the taking Of a
river from its first appropriations is a declar-
alton OF war, and this is the way Montana
1rrigators view Canada's scheme to use
MIX river. Those who know the intense
feeling such an action must certainly en-
gender as soon as certain loss of crops fol-
lows, express a fear that actual bloodshed
viii ensue if some prompt action is not
taken to settle the matter
The President Takes Notice.
The director of the geological survey
recognizing he eli
brought it to the notice of the President
and of the Secretary of the Interior, and
was directed by them to proceed to Ottawa
TO endeavor to bring about an equitable
division of the waters and a permanent ar
rangement which would forever settle dis
putes- There was nothn' dom in Canada.
however. and then the President took notice
of the situation in his strenuous way
The reclamation engineers who inyesti-
gated the country had very wisely provided
alternative plans for irrigating Milk river
Nalley. one of those and the cheapest pro-
Vlded for storing In st. Mary lakes the flood
waters of St Mary river. and by means OF
canal turning these waters into Milk river,
which heads near by. The natural channel
OF MIX river was to be utilized a carrier
IN Canada until the water could be turned
out upon the land in the lower valley In
Montana 1t was believed as we had an
abundant supply of water assured through
storage that we could arrange to paw a GER
tain proportion of 1t to Canada for per-
mission to use the river as a canal in that
country. Everything would then he lovely
But IL taxes lot of fussing to arrange
little matter of business like this between
two nations, even when the people really
interested are willing and ready, and things
don look very bright just yet for this plan
Another plan of the engineers is to take the
stored waters across North Fork and into
the South Fork of Milk river, put a dam In
this stream and divert the two supp,fes
southwark into Cut Bank creek, thence to
a piX- Int,
Lower Milk River valley When our
Canuck friends wake up and find out what
Uncle Sam is planning to do, look out for
yelp that will wake new echoes in the
grassy northwest territory, for you see by
this plan we not only take back into our
bucket the naughty St Mary but we cut
or from Canada about 80 per cent of tho
flow of Milk river.
Characteristic of Canada.
The history of the Milk river project is
interesting, and exhibits one of the peculiar
characteristics of Canada, when any move
OF ours bears the slightest relation to her
interests. Several years ago when the geo.
logical survey was locating reservoir sites
in the west, in anticipation of the time tho
government would enter upon its present
plan of federal reclamation of the desert
public domain, the engineers called atten-
ton to this project. and dwelt particularly
upon the feasibility of st. Mary lakes as a
storage. reservoir. j. ]. Hill, the great rail-
ROAD magnate, whose knowledge of the
northwest is probably greater than that OF
any other man In the country, became deep
ly interested, and ever since has remained
stanch advocate of the scheme Al
though the plans then suggested contem-
plated holding back only the flood waters.
which can never be utilized in Canada the
Dominion government, through the British
embassy In Washington, entered a vigorous
protest. and made a formal claim to the
waters of st. Mary river, the grounds
of prior appropriation. For the United
States 10 attempt to use this water al
though every drop of it came from our own
snow-clad mountains. Canada declared
would destroy the comfy between the ma
tons. and would be not only an unlawful
but a very unfriendly act. Note this was
when 1t appeared we had the Canadian bull
by the horns. Now, Canada finds she can
utilize all of the normal flow of Milk river
and although We have long maintained prior
rights. both above and below her proposed
point of diversion, apparently the comfy of
nations no longer cuts ice, and she haught-
lily ignores our proposition to arbitrate and
goes ahead despite our protests and CON-
structs one of the largest canals on our
continent.
Order for a Dam.
Naturally, the people of Montana ask the
President, What are you going to do about
it?" The answer promptly given Sat
urday, when the Secretary of the Interior
set aside 81 600 for the construction of
a dam in st. Mary lakes. and ordered the
work to go forward with the least possible
delay. We are to follow Canada $ method
construct the works first and arbitrate
afterward. BY the time the dam is COM
pleted Canada may see a new light IL
she does not, we will continue to play In
our own yard and turn our truant rivers
hack into country.