Arizona republican., 1910-09-29
By Resolutions Committee
 of Irrigation Congress JUDGE K|BBtY's ADDRESS
The Appropriation and Con trol of Water-The Next President Probably R. E. Twftchell-The Lively Contest for Location.

Pueblo, Colo, Sept 2S.-The com mittee on resolutions of the National Irrigation congress late tonight en- dorsed the policy of federal control of interstate water by a substantial majority.
 What the policy of the congress will be on other matters is still being threshed out by the committee on promises to continue into the morn ing hours.
 Among the addresses today was one by former Governor Joseph H. Kibbey of Arizona, chairman of the commit tee on resolutions, on the appropria- tion and control of water for irriga- ton. He said:
 Whether government has it's origin in some divine injunction. whether it exists because of the natural dispo- sition of the many to yield submis- sion to the domination of the few, or whether it is the result and compact are all interesting questions, and upon a fuller discussion of the subject assigned me today we might find something at \ least illustrative of the relation of the water user to other water users, and to society gen. orally. The compass of this paper. however, limits us, and we cannot go into a discussion of those ques- tions.
 Government does in fact exist-it may be said from one view point at least to be the agency by which the duties of the individual member of society, so far as government con- cerns itself with them are defined and enforced, and his rights and privileges are recognized and protect ed.
 Government recognizes what we call property" and it is and has been as far back as we have historical knowledge of government one of its functions to protect the individual in the enjoyment of the right of proper ty-
 When we speak of property we mean the right of the individual of the community to have the possession of and the right to use as he sees fit Gnvolving the right, of course, not to use) particular things or ob- jects capable of exclusive possession and use.
 It requires no strength of the imag- ination to advert to a time when the institution of property had its or igin. It had its origin necessarily in the mere act of appropriation and the maintenance of the right to pos7s session and use by superior force against rival claimants. The first owner of property-the first proprie- tor-simply exercised the right of ap- propriation, and that appropriation could not have been in violation of any superior right of any other indi- yidual
 Whether this original appropriation of objects or things-this claim or the right to exclude others from any use of the thing appropriated-has just foundation or warrants our ideas of porperty, we have not now the time. nor is this the occasion for us to consider. That what we call prop erty rights originally depended upon appropriation may, we think, be con- ceded
 Those property rights, however, are not without their limitations. It is a familiar maxim of the law that no man shall use his own to the injury of his neighbor. Many applications of this rule might be suggested. To what lengths government may go in placing limitations upon the exercise of property rights has never been determined. The converse of this opposition suggests itself: How far will government permit the rights of a proprietor to be exercised?
 In any discussion relating to the use of water for irrigation we find a constant reiteration of the word appropriation" and almost as often we wrongly use the word. By kind of metonymic process, so common in our language, we have come to use the word in a sense which was not its original one. and which is mis- leading. We adverted moment ago to the fact that originally the basis of property was appropriation-an actual taking of the thing appropri- ated and the application of it to the indiyidual use of the appropriator to the exclusion of its use by any other individual That incidental to the notion of proprietorship-ownership in other words-based originally upon appropriation were the rights of ex- elusive use and possession-of dispo sition-in short of complete domin- ion limited only by conventional rules regulating such use and disposi- tion. The thing then appropriated had a more or less continued exis-