Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1908-11-06
LAWS ON USE OF WATER
In A SINGLE VOLUME

Aasional conservation oomm;s
sion is compiling for publication in .
sineie volume all the laws and conr,
decisions, both state and fsds,s,
winch relate to the use of u,tar ~
sne United States. This manual will
oe Oh Immense practical yslue and II
IS somewhat remarkable considering
'"e VIDE humber of interests which
are touched by these laws, that no
such compilation has been made ha
lore this With the constantly grow.
log demand for interstate wsterwavs
'ne increasing utilization of water
power for the development of cleo.
'riclty' and the widening areas of
semi-arid Western plains that ara
oeins made arabic sough irrigation.
tnese isw' at the present time affect
the interests of a wide variety of in.
dividuals and corporations, aud in
the Immediate future the number
whose business is directly touched
Will beyond doubt be greatly in.
creased.
The work which the national con-
servatlon commission is doing along
thls line is extremely thorough aud
the compilation will be complete. 1t
Will include all state and national
statutes aud all court decisions which
concern water rights aud kindred
questions on both nsvigsble and non.
navigable streams and lases. The cits.
tions will include all acts which relate
to riparian rights, and public usufruct
of water. and all statutes which con.
Germ mills pollution of water, iuterfer.
ence with navigation or the use of
streams for power, damming of
streams, diverting stresmflow and SO
on-in short all acts which affect the
use of waters and their private ap-
propriat on to power or other pur.
poses. In the book will be included
also some authoritative discussion of
The principles involved in these laws.
The national conservation commits.
u N in its eDdeavor to make the com.
pilation sbsolutely complete and &C.
,urate has called upon the governors of
III the states for assistance aud the
replies in every instance have prom.
sed support. Considerably more than
lalf the states have already appointed
tate conservation commissions for
he specific parpose of cooperating
With the national commission iu its
work Of gathering the material
which will be embodied in the re.
port to the president the first of the
rear. In the other states the state
,fficials whose work most nearly
.ouches this project are at work.
A sipgle volume containing all the
avs which bear upon the use of
waters in the various parts Of the
country, will be an exceedingly use.
'ul reference handbook. 1t holds
of an even greater use
'ulness in that it will exhibit within
units that make ready comparison
posi- BILE, not only the general tenden'
lies of the laws and decisions on this
,ubject, but the discrepancies that
,xist between the regulations of
iifferent states.
The fear is frequently expressed that
he tendency towards monopolization
If water power, whi h has already
made very great progress in some
parts of the cocntry, will result in
practically all of this extremely
7sluable natural resources passing
from the people as a whole INTO the
lands of comparatively few men,
Win resulting higher cost Of water
,ower and water developed electr city
o consumers and tremendous ad'
,sutsgo TO the few possessors. II this
langer is Justified by the present laws
L is matter of great Importance 10
make tni, fact apparent at once
For this purpose nothing could be
more effective than such a presenta' /
ion Of all the laws on the subject as
hat which the commission is pre-
,sriug.