The Lamar register., 1906-08-22
VOLUME XXI.
Home Enterprise Best.


terprise under the district system,
beats waiting for the government to
take hold of ditch enterprise We
predict the Bent and Prowers canal
will be irrigsting crops sooner than
the government officials could have
been interested. much less taking
hold and constructing a canal.
when the government took up
the reclamation Of the western plains
and began sppropriating money to
build reservoirs to hold back the
flood waters and make them avail
able for irrigating, the thought was
pretty freely expressed that the
proverbisl slothfullness of the gov
ernment would prevent the present
generation from reaping much bene-
tit from its works.
"rhe government is building the
Gunnison tunnel and making good
progress with it, but it will be near
ly two years more before the coun-
try adjacent to Montrose to lie cover
ed by the project can receive any
benefit from it. On the other hand,
an undertaking bv the farmers under
q ditch in Morgan counN that had
not enough water from the river to
guarantee a crop, will be benetiing
next season from reservoir on
which work was started less than
four months ago. The Empire res
ervoir is being constructed to hold
Platte river waters for summer use
1t will cost all of S75O,O0O to build
and will reclaim about $4,000 acres
of the Fort Morgan oasis. Private
enterprise and private money is do
ing the work. 1t is on scale of
those undertaken by the government
in other states on the ground that
the settlers could not accomplish
the work, but in this case the settlers
are accomplishing it and doing it in
shorter time than it would be done
by the government.
'If there is any complaint to be
made with the practices Of the re-
clamstion service it is that in some
instances the projects have been un
dertaken in sections where the de-
mand OF settlement had not yet re-
quired the construction Of irrigat-
ing works. There has probably been
too much of tendency to reclaim
unoccupied lands with the expecta-
tion that after the water was avail
able the people would come IN and
settle them, also too much Of keep
ing people off lands the reclamation
department some day, in its own
good time, expects to reclaim.
"In the Morgan county case the
people were there, the lands had
been taken up and there WAS an act
ual, pressing demand for the reser-
voir. 1t would appear that it WAS to
meet exactly such cases that the re-
clsmstion act was passed, but instead
the government position has been
to get into unoccupied regions and
build the works ahead of the COM
ing of the people. Those in charge
Of the department have made it
rule to give preference to projects in
unoccupied regions in order that
complications with the settlers might
be avoided. The result of this atti-
tude will be to open new regions
that will be years in filling up while
the actual settlers who stand in need
Of capital to build canals and reser-
yoirs will go on getting it by loan,
bonding their lands under the die
trict improvement laws and compet-
ing az best they may with the sec
tions opened by the government in
Lu6 SAFE OF tuelr Piouuoeo'
amounts to the government becom'
ing u rival and competitor OF the
people in canal building and so far
as there are figures available since
the competition was entered upon
the privately owned work is winning
on points of effectiveness, speed and
economy Of construction.
"It sounds we'll to have it saId
that the government was coming to
the aid of the settlers in the arid re-
gion, but in effect the government
has only gone into new business
and the settlers are fighting their
a