80 The Environmental Debate
investment of private capital in the construction
of irrigation works but rather to lend it encour-
agement. This is particularly true in reference to
irrigation under the Carey Act [of 1894] in the
various States.
I am not a believer in the Government enter-
ing into competition with legitimate private
enterprise. Its functions under the Reclamation
Act are not of this character. The Western States
should therefore be very jealous of the perpetu-
ity of the Reclamation fund and of its constant
increase.
The purpose of the Reclamation Act is to
undertake the irrigation of arid and semiarid
lands where a considerable portion thereof
belongs to the public domain, and by the instal-
lation of the storage and diversion of available
waters to irrigate the largest possible area within
a given territory at the least cost to the entry-
men and land owners for construction, mainte-
nance and operation, always keeping in view the
matter of the settlement of these lands and ren-
dering them capable of supporting the greatest
number of families. While it is a reclamation act,
it is also a settlements act, and the public lands
which are proposed to be irrigated by means of
the contemplated works have been rendered sub-
ject to entry only under the homestead laws in
small tracts capable of supporting a family. It
is declared by the act that only the cost of con-
struction and maintenance shall be repaid to
the Government. No consideration of profit or
direct advantage to the Government is intended,
and in this the statute does not trench upon the
rights of private enterprise. The law is a benefi-
cent one.... It differs, however, from the simple
homestead law in that it holds out inducements
only to men of sufficient industry and capac-
ity to carry the added burdens of construction,
maintenance and operations, which is the cost
of the lands. While it is possible that persons
of limited means may successfully enter and
acquire irrigated lands, it will generally be found
that it is not a poor man’s proposition, unless
coupled with intelligent industry in agriculture.
The whole scheme of the act is based upon the
appropriation of the proceeds of the sales of public
lands in certain States and Territories for the con-
struction of irrigation works for the reclamation of
arid and semiarid lands therein. No further appro-
priation by the Government is intended, or can be
inferred from the Act, and the responsibility for the
disbursement of the funds and the construction of
the works is placed upon the Secretary of the Inte-
rior.
It must be recognized that the Government is
acting in the nature of a trustee for the people in the
disbursement of this fund; that it must constrict the
works for the settlers and turn them over at cost,
and has no right to waste the fund....
* * *
Any one who has visited one or more of the
Reclamation projects now in operation and sees on
the one hand the desert covered with sage brush and
barrenness, and on the other, the water flowing over
the fertile soil producing heavy crops of grain, or
orchards in fruit, appreciates to the fullest extent
the benefits of irrigation
The people of the West, therefore, who are
familiar with these wonderful results in irrigation,
are highly appreciative of the importance of the
Reclamation Service, but the great difficulty which
that service encounters is in finishing the projects
now undertaken as against the clamor for a diver-
sion of the funds to new fields.
* * *
The danger, which the Government is under-
taking to overcome, is the establishment of small
irrigation projects in localities where by such estab-
lishment the larger opportunities are destroyed,
thus preventing enormous areas of lands from ever
acquiring the use of water. It is quite true that many
small projects capable of being financed by men of
limited means can be carved out of larger possibili-
ties, but to encourage them means the loss of the
larger possibilities. For lack of funds the Govern-
ment is at present often required to surrender pos-
sibilities in water appropriations which means an