East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-10-08

The Irrigon 1rrigator prints the
following interesting article on the
need of better water laws in oregon;
At the apple fair nexr week at
Hood River, or rather at the same
time as the fair. the State Irrigation
society will meet, and work of great
Importance will come up for consid-
Grafton.
And when we say work of great inn
portance we do not mean simply of
Importance to irrigators or water
users, but to the entire population of
the state. for there confronts us now
a condition founded on the laws, or
wants of laws. on our statute books,
which will be of untold evil to us un-
less we can get together and have
proper code of laws drafted and
adopted at the next session of our
legislature.
As matter of fact as our laws now
stand there is no such thing as ac-
tual and undisputed title TO water in
Oregon. one may have possession.
and by prior, beneficial and continu-
Gus use may think he owns the water
he is and has been using; but let some
one tap the stream above him and
take away the water and he will have
a lawsuit on his hands in place of the
water. In the end he may win and
have the waters restored, but another
man may come along and take the
waters again, and he will have to
make the fight over again.
When it comes to the pinch, and
ne attempts to show his title he finds
that he has none to show. He may
own the water by all codes of right
and justice. but he cannot show 1t as
he can the title to his land, and yet
it is a part of his land.
And the owners or claimants of
water power are in the same predica-
ment as irrigators. They have no title
that cannot be taken from them at
least long enough to plunge them into
expensive litigation.
We must get together and have a
suitable code of laws adopted and
have the measurements of our streams
made and recorded and put some one,
or some commission, in charge of the
waters of our state and give them the
power to apportion the amount of
the flow of our streams to the users,
and adjudicate those rights so that a
man may know whether he owns the
substance or merely the shadow. And
when these rights are adjudicated let
them be recorded and have some one
give the owner protection in the use
OF what he owns.
| As II is now a man may be using
water from a stream and his title may
be indisputable. But at the critical
moment some person may cut the
water off above him, and then the
case Is thrown into court. The second
claimant gives a bond and continue:
to use the water, while the rightfu
owner sees his crops ruined, finds thu
value of his land cut down to moth
ing. and is probably finally compelled
to abandon the field and sell out a
fraction of the real value Of hi
holdings.
In a case like that the law should
allow the. water commissioner, o.
, whoever we may choose to call thu
one given charge, the power to a
once restore the water to the origina
J user, and let the appeal to the court
come later. No one thinks of taking
the final adjudication out of the hand
Of the courts. But while the lega
mill is grinding let US have some on
on the ground to instantly, to the bes
of his ability, leave the waters in tn
hands of those who have had the prio
; use of them. And when the case
decided let the court give an actus