The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-03-08

REGULATION
TO INSURE EQUITABLE DIsTRIB-
UTIoN OF THE WATER.
win Be Done BY COOPERATIVE Fed
eral LegisIation-Subiect for Ma
tional Irrigation Congress Next
August.


Spokane. Wash, March Eth
er cooperative state laws or federal
law will eventually regulate the
water supply, not by the riparian
rights nor by the priority right but
by the equitable distribution of water
in the irrigated districts
F. W. Blackman of Lawrence, re-
gent of the University of Kansas,
lays emphasis upon the foregoing in
letter to R. Insinger, chairman of
the board of control of the 18th Ma
tional Irrigation Congress, of which
George E. Barstow of Barstow, Tex
as. is president He suggests that
the congress which will meet in Spo-
kane August 8 to IA, as well as fut-
ure gatherings. should be scientific
associations for the solution of spe-
cific problems.
The earlier congresses. he
writes, were largely modes of agita-
ton and propaganda. Past congress
es have served a useful purpose in
discussing wide ranges of subjects,
but sufficient progress has been made
so that the future congresses may be
more scientific and less popular.
Among these specific problems de-
manding immediate attention | think
that an irrigation law should occupy
prominent place. The relation of
riparian rights to priority rights is
now and will be one of the most
troublesome questions that the peo-
pie have to settle.
1T was unfortunate that the gov
eminent at its foundation did not
understand something about the fut-
ure cultivation of arid lands and put
the land and water together making
them one and imseparable, and then
to divide the land into irrigation dis
tricts determined by drainage basins
and insure each acre within given
drainage basin its proportionate
amount of water This would have
saved saved millions of dollars
worth of property and millions of
dollars of expense in legislation.
.fAs it is. l believe we are slowly
either cooperative state laws or fed
eral laws will eventually regulate
the water supply. not by the riparian
rights nor by the priority right but
by the equitable distribution of water
in the irrigated districts.
Another very important problem
is the water power of the streams in
the arid region Great companies
are reaching everywhere to monop-
Ollie this water power and put a
perpetual tax for its use on future
generations If there is a natural
resource that ought to belong to the
people at large it is the water in
streams and lakes
For domestic use. for irrigation,
for transportation and for power
the states in the west ought to see
to it at once that the laws are passed
to give the state absolute and per-
petual control and ownership of the
water power of our streams. For,
while we are now looking to water
for irrigation, in another ten years
we will be looking with as much
eagerness to, water for mechanical
power
Il am not socialist, but l am pos
itives that the future prosperity
of communities and estates of this
great nation depends up On the use
of land. water, forests, mines and
must be conserved for. the general
good rather than squandered through
private selfishness
There is another question that it
appeared to me was needed for the
benefit of the farmer himself; name
ly. how to irrigate' | believe the
congress ought to be more of an
agency for the propaganda of prac-
teal instruction concerning the til
ling of the soil under irrigation; this
on account of the large number of
and settlers coming from
the east to settle in irrigated dis
tricts who know nothing about farm
ing in arid regions under irrigation.
If there could be prepared a Sc
ries of short papers, dealing with |
different subjects, such as prepare
ton of the land, amount of water |
needed, how to be applied, method |
of cultivation Or tillage and other |
matters, and if. subsequently,, these |
could be printed in small leaflets and |
spread throughout the irrigated dis |
tricts they would be a vast deal |
more service than the annual re-
port"