The Parker post., 1912-07-27

| most meritOriOuS part of my address,
IF no public business may be
| transacted in the departments except
through endless sinuOsitieS and the
unwinding of tangled red tape con-
gress alone is to blame | have
sufficient faith in the Integrity and
patriotism of the secretary of the i'm
terror and the forestry officials to
believe that they will scrupulously
administer amy law We may enact "
Desert Land Entries.
Following is the text of Mr. Ash
urst's desert-land bill:
''Be it enacted, etc: That no des-
ert-land entry heretofore made under
! the public-land laws, for lands, shall
! be Cancelled or in any wise Impaired
because of any failure ON the part Of
| the entryman to make annual or fin
| al proof falling due upon any such
entry prior to December 81, 1918:
Provided, however, That patent shall
| be permitted to issue to ally DESERT
land entry when the proofs disclose
| that the land embraced Within such
entry has fairly and in good faith
been reclaimed to agricultural or hor-
ticultural crops by the dry-farm-
| ing process
!. Speaking further on the merits of
this bill, the Arizona senator said,
in part:
"Mr. President, it will be observed
that this BILL if enacted into a law,
will enable tho2e settlers who have
made desert entries to procure patent
when they shah have in good faith.
reclaimed to agricultural or horticul-
tural crops the land embraced Within
I their entry.
There exists no substantial reason
why this bill should not become a
law. The object of the law authoriz-
ing desert entries is the reclamation
of the land. For all practical purpos-
es ut should be of no concern as ito
the particular manner i'm which lands
are reclaimed, so long as they ac-
tually be reclaimed 1t is unfair to
subject the desert entryman to a
procrustean bed of fiXity, and in eff
feet to tell him, as the present law
does, that, no matter what success
he may achieve, no matter how boun-
tiful be the crops he may grow upon
his land by dry tanning or other pro
cess, he may obtain title by reclaim
ing the lands by irrigation only.
"The character of the land always
varies, and the home builder should
be afforded every reasonable oppor-
tunity to have the advantage of the
susceptible of reclamation by irriga-
ton only, and of course the reverse
is true respecting different lands.
Irrigation was praoticed by the
early people ON the banks of the Mile.
the Tigris and the Euphrates. Irri-
cation was also practiced by the alb
origines of South America before and
al the time of the Spanish conquests.
Numerous places in Arizona bear
indisputable evidence of the fact that
the Skillful engineers of ancient Ari-
IONA watered it's fertile fields from
concrete-Fned aQueducts and giant
irrigation dams centuries before Mon
teZuma assembled the throne of the
AZtecs.
But irrigation in the present age
upon the North American contimert
dates from the settlement ON the JOr-
dan river in Utah by those heroic
pioneers, the MoTmons.
'"The early irrigation enterprises
consisting of damming the rivers and
streams, conveying their waters by
bitches and laterals, and distributing
j. over the land This method gave
rise to water rights and vested intcI
ests in the use of the water. In the
old established communities such
rights have become valuable. Later
storage dams were constructed, and
irrigation i'm some places has become
more and more complex and eXpen-
sive.
The government is now with EN-
inent success, reclaiming vast tracts