Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-11-10
SO THE PEOPLE.
MAY KNOW
True Inwardness of Kansas
Colorado Water Suit
BIG CONCERNS
DISL0yAL TO STATE

Bring on Big Interstate Water Fight
that Threatens Colorado Ag-
rIculturaI Interests,
The Denver Post few days ago con.
tanned the following:
Among number of the big, rich men
and big concerns in Colorado there is ar
amazing disloyalty to the state and her
interests. These men and firms draw
thousands of dollars out of the citizens oi
the state. have been doing so for years
| are citizens Of the state, have their homes
here. and in spite Of this where there is a
dollar concerned. seem to forget that
Colorado is in existence,
For example. the McNells Of Colorado
Springs went down into Kansas and
bought couple Of old abandoned bitches
in the Arkansas valley. and then started
a suit to divert from Colorado lands a
vast amount of Colorado water and put
it on Kansas lands through these old
abandoned bitches.
Colorado has made the McNels rich.
They live in the state. have drawn their
money from the state, and yet for a few
dollars they are willing to destroy the
very greatest interest in the state CT
Colorado. because If their contention is
true in reference to these old bitches in
Kansas-and it is really absurd-then
what they are doing for Kansas can be
done for Utah. Nebraska and New Mex
leo. 1t would mean almost the destrue-
ton of Colorado.
Now, the McNeills are interested in
mines. mills and banks in Colorado. that
have made them rich and powerful. and
yet they take Colorado money and start
a suit. which IL upheld by the supreme
court Of the United States, would almost
destroy the state.
The following article contributed to the
Denver Times by one Of the attorneys in
the Kansas-Colorado water suit brought
by the United States Irrigating Company.
is correct and concise statement from a
logical standpoint Of the situation:
In the furry that arises over the pot
hunters bill, !" or the irrigation defense ap-
preparation. there are some fundamental.
rock-bottom facts that the man-on-the
street Is likely to forget. As matter Of
fact. Colorado is just parking its artillery
for the sternest defensive battle in its
history; and beyond any question Of
wasted public funds. or how well or i'll
we manage the finances Of the cempaign.
stands the fact that the campaign must
be managed. fought and won. Here is
the story in brief:
The waters of Colorado and most OF
the irrigating states are divided by the
state officers among the bitches along
the streams according to the familiar
maxim, First in time is first in right. y
That is to say, it has been the rule with
in Colorado and most but not all its
neighbors to give water, in times of
scarcity, first to the ditch that was first
constructed and after that to later ditch
es. or. as we say. Junior priorties" in
their order. 1t happens that Colorado
has carried irrigation to an extremely
high point of development, At the pres
ent time there is practically no water
leaving the state in the Platte or the Ar
kansas rivers. 1t is in these two valleys
that the real agricultural population Of
the state has found a foothold. Every
ounce OF water is in demand.
Irrigation in Colorado was soon fol-
lowed by irrigation in the neighboring
states lower down the stream. Notwith-
standing this, Colorado has used the
waters to the fullest extent, and stood
firmly on the footing that the waters
belonged to the state and were subject
only to its jurisdiction. In the closing
years of the last century the great and
81 ~ in
rado began to decrease the waters avail
able for the Kansas bitches. As re-
suit the state of Kansas invoked the au-
thority of the supreme court Of the
United States, and asked that court to
announce that Colorado was in the
wrong. Kansas declared that she en-
forced inside her own boundaries the old
riparian law, which had its origin in
England and obtains now in the eastern
states, where water is plentiful and no
one thinks of taking it from the streams.
This old riparian law prescribes that the
streams must flow undisturbed, as they
have always flowed; real irrigation is a
thing unknown to it; the taking of the
water is almost high treason.
Kansas declared, This is the rule we
enforce among our citizens" This is the
rule that all the states inherited from the
pilgrims in the Mayfower. This new
tangled doctrine that Colorado has in
vented cannot affect US. We are entitled
to have the Arkansas flow as it always
flowed. undiminished into Kansas. II
we use it up in Kansas that is no con-
Germ Of Colorados."
Colorado fought the case desperately,
The legislature spent and appropriated
about 100000 in the battle. When il
was done the supreme court announced
] its ruling. 1t occupies seventy pages If