The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-08-10
NATIONAL |RR|GA-
TON SITUATION
+. III. NEWELL OF THE RECLAIM
TION SERVICE TELLS MEMBERS
OF NATIONAL IRRIGATION CON-
GRESS OF WORK DONE.

sion OF the NATIONAL irrigation cot
gress. was F. H. Newell, director of
the United States reclamation ser
vice. His subject was "The Nation
al Irrigation Situation" Mr. Newell
said in part:
The present situation in national
irrigation is that homes are being
provided for thousands of self-sup-
porting citizens at no cost to the tax
payer. Seven years have elapsed
since the passage of the reclamation
act. Under its operation irrigation
works have been built in thirteen
western states and two territories by
which waters are conserved ana dis
tributed and nearly 100000 acres al
ready brought under irrigation, with
returns to the fund amounting al
ready to over a million dollars. The
success obtained may be said to justi-
fy the hopes Of the most enthusiastic
@: the early advocates of the reclama-
ion act.
"The nation is concerned in this
work. not only because of the re-
sulting internal development, but also
because of the improvement in citi-
2enship and in stability of American
Institutions"
Mr.. Newell said that while the gov
eminent has done much in irrigation
work. private capital has also made
great advances and possibly at pres
ent five or ten times as large an in
vestment in the aggregate is being
made by corporations in building if
rigation works as is being invested by
the government Much of this in
vestment. however, has been made
possible, or, at least, has been stimu-
lated by the government work, said
he. "The fact that the national gov
ernment has deemed it wise to take
up the matter has been one of the
strongest arguments appealing to
capitalists to do likwiSe.
There is no competition as be-
tween national and private funds,
but rather an attempt at all times
on the part of the government to
stimulate legitimate enterprise
through obtaining facts upon which
investments might be safely made
and to avoid taking up such work as
could be handled successfully by
others
s'The reclamation fund has been
larger than was expected. upwards of
s51,000,000 being available to De-
cember, 1909, this being twice as
much as was foreseen. There have
been laid out systemsswhich involve
the ultimate reclamation OF several
million acres. Large works, whose
magnitude is such that they have
been passed over by private corporate
enterprise have been built. In all.
it may be stated that in round num-
bers there were ready for irrigation
at the beginning of the irrigation
season of the present year over 5000
farms, with an aggregate acreage OF
100000 acres. Storage of flood wa
ters had been created and IN actual
use to the extent of q million acre
feet Canals and bitches were ready
for use of an aggregate length OF
more than 5000 miles. distance
equal to that across the United
States. Fifty-eight tunnels had been
built of length of $4,000 feet. Many
thousands of smaller structures. such
as headgates, fumes, bridges, turn
outs, etc, were completed, a thou
sand miles of telephone in operation
and yardage of earth moved com
parable to that handled in the same
time at Panama.
'MOre than all this showing o
material progress are the exceilen
results accomplished in carrying on
the purpose of the act, namely tht
making of opportunities for homes
The wise provision of the law re
stricting acreage has been enforced
and there is well marked beneficial
result in the subdivision of large
areas OF irrigable land and the piac
ing of this in the hands of men com
petent to successfully cultivate tn,
soil and make permanent homes. The
speculative element has been Target,
absent
'The work now in hand will re
quire all of the reclamation fund FOL
several years. Each large work il
completed to point where 1t hal
made possible hundreds of homes
and where returns are coming to thu
fund, but it has numerous ramifica
lions, or divisions, each of which re
ouires considerable more money TO