Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-11-10

the 2o6th volume of the supreme court
reports, but the gist Of 1t is this:
1--WE are satisfied that Colorado has
seriously diminished the water that used
to reoch Kansas. But as between the
states. we will not employ the riparian
doctrine in its strictest. unvarying form.
We will determine what is just and wise.
We find that on the use Of these waters
Colorado has built up cities and farm
communities to point of benefit much
overlapping the injury to Kansas. We
will not set back that empire. Colorado
has gone too far"
The material value of this decision to
Colorado in dollars and cents is difficult
to estimate, but it ran into the billions.
Since the decision Of the Kansas
Colorado case in 1909 the trouble re-
manned in abeyance until last year. Then
a company which owns two great aban-
doned bitches and beat sugar factory
near Garden City came into court on a
new theory. They ceme on the prin-
ciple that they were the owners Of ear
lier bitches than those in Colorado and
that their early use Of the water amount
ed to an appropriation of the water; that
the defendants were all junior to them
and that, as younger bitches, they must
allow the water of the Arkansas to flow
into Kansas. Behind this action, back
ing it and furnishing the funds. there Is a
band Of investors in Kansas lands. The
water they demand is identically the
same as that which Colorado won from
Kansas three years ago.
The defendants were the water officials
Of Colorado and about sixteen mutual
farmers companies in Colorado. These
Colorado companies are not corporations
in the ordinary sense. They are cooper
ative mutual companies in which each
water user owns share in the ditch and
is annually assessed so many dollars 10
meet the expense Of the year II the state
government does not assume the ex-
penses Of this suit they must be met by
what is practically a house Toulouse as
sessment made on the farming popula-
ton from Canon City to the state line.
As the Ks nsas parties say in their
complaint, they are seeking to gain what
they hoped that the Kansas-Colorado
case would win for them but did not. The
gaining of it would wipe out OF existence
towns and villages and erase from the
state tax rolls millions Of taxable prop
erty in the counties Of Fremont. Pueblo.
and particularly Otero. Bent and Prow-
ers.
Colorado affirms that the resources OF
the state are its own to use in its borders
as it sees fit. II such be not the case.
the natural advantages Of her position
are meaningless. She denies that appro-
priations carry any weight beyond the
borders of the commonwealth which
authorizes them. She points to the fact
that the uss Of streams for irrigation
near the headwaters is vastly more eco
nomical than their use on the lower
reaches, on account Of the return
waters" and the loss attached to carriage
across the deserts. The welfare Of the
whole people demands that water
be used in the most economical form.
There is little enough Of it as it is.
None OF these questions have been
settled. The stake that depends upon
their settlement can hardly be oyeressi-
mated. Ifthere is any single point upon
which Colorado as a state should be
united, 1t should be in the defense OF its
waters.
The situation as we have settled it was
very foreibly presented to the last lsRisla-
ture. As result lthe legislature passed
house bill No sos. which has since been
designed as the "pot-hunters' BILL" The
act provides a fund Of $4,000 to defend
the rights Of this state to control the
water thereof within its borders" A
joint legislative committee Of seven. in
eluding the attorney general. is appoint
ed to investigate the attack being made
upon Colorado irrigators and to defend
the state and its citizens. Much Of this
money will be wasted. Such is always
the case with American government ex-
penditures.
But, regardless Of the fate Of this or
any other Individual bill. lies the fact
that Colorado is facing the sternest
crisis IN its irrigation history. The San
Luis valley is at a standstill. the progress
Of the Arkansas valley as an agricultural
community is at stake. If the attack on
these streams is successful. the bars are
down to inroads on every watershed in
the state.