The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-25

land transactions in the past are out
lawed so far as criminal prosecution is
concerned, but still the patents to the
lands may be annulled and the lands
themselves be reclaimed upon a proper
showing in court We have no idea,
however, that any systematic pro
gramme of this kind will be underta-
ken, either by reason of the proceed
ings of this land convention or other
wise; because there does not seem to
be any real disposition to get at the
bottom OF things, bat only to single
out certain persons and punish them,
leaving the bulk of the offenders un-
molested
By reason of the fact thnt the pub.
lie lands yet to be disposed Of must be
dealt with in wholly different man
ner from the way IN which the public
lands early reclaimed or not needing
any reclamation-as in the old West
there should be an entire change in
the laws for the disposal or otherwise
dealing with the disposal of them. The
old Mexican system whereby proprie
ter or colony could settle up an i'm
mensc tract and have the advantage of
some large stream to reclaim it, being
protected in all steps from beginning
to end by the government, would prob
ably be the best way to deal with the
remaining lands. But the refusal of
Congress for so many years to deal
with the irrigation question, and its
refusal now to deal with it in any com.
prehensive or systematic manner, so
far as private rights and private op-
portunities are concerned, has COM
phcated the whole question so that it
is extremely difficult now to deal with
it at all, theoretically, if there were
no private proprietors and no vested
rights in the way, it would be easy
for Congress to legislate as to the water
rights that might be obtained from all
the interstate streams; and any stream
that is of sufficient magnitude to count
for very much is certain to be an in
terstate stream. Any good irrigation
code, that of Egypt, of Italy. of Spain,
or even of Mexico, would be a vast i'm
provement over our present lack of
systematic dealing with the irrigation
question.
So far as we have observed. there
does not seem to be any inclusion in
the programme of procedure of the
Denver convention any thorough re-
view of or dealing with our irrigation
system, The programme appears mere"
ly to contemplate a little punishment
of some unloved politician here and
there, little restriction of the grazcrs'
rights on forest reserves, little mouth
spouting about the advantages of pre-
serving the forests (even where there
are no forests and never have been
any), these things constituting the
bulk of the interesting exercises of
that Denver convention. A good many
Governors Will be there. including the
Governor of Utah, who knows practi-
cally nothing about irrigation, the land
question. the forests, about grazing or
any public phase of the questions that
are likely to come up. Like incompe
tence will be there from other States.
and the whole matter will merely be
sort of echo of what the President
and his personal representatives de-
sire to have then and there declared.
And so the convention is likely to be
merely a reunion Of clackers who will
echo whatever the dominant spirit de.
sires TO have them echo. And so the
Denver convention will really amount
TO no more than would an official proc.
lamation or leaAet from the White
House.