trol over streams flowing through more than one state was recognized, and in the following year at the third National Irrigation Congress, held at Denver, the construction and maintenance of irrigation works by the national government were expressly advocated.

At this time public interest in irrigation was further greatly stimulated by several important public documents and investigations. In connection with the work of the Senate committee, already referred to, a large amount of technical data relative to water supply conditions in the arid regions had been collected, and this material, published in 1893 under the title "Report on Irrigation, 1893," gained a considerable circulation. About the same time were published the results. of the special inquiry relative to irrigation, made in connection with the eleventh census in 1890. In the agricultural enumeration for that census, the enumerators had obtained, in addition to the usual facts, statements as to the area irrigated. Circulars of inquiry were then sent to all irrigators whose names appeared in the returns, and a large amount of definite information was thus for the first time obtained concerning the cost of irrigation and the conditions existing in the irrigated areas. Still another document, which played an important part in the education of public opinion on the subject of irrigation and the relation of the national government thereto, was a report made by Captain Hiram M. Chittenden, in November, 1897. This report was made pursuant to a provision of the rivers and harbors appropriation act of 1896, calling for "the examination of sites and report upon the practicability and desirability of constructing reservoirs and other hydraulic works necessary for the storage and utilization of water to prevent floods and overflows, erosion of river. banks and breaks of levees, and to reinforce the flow of streams. during drought and low water seasons." Although it thus had reference primarily to flood prevention works, the report de

'Printed as Senate Document 41, 52d Congress, 3d Session. Printed as House Document 141, 55th Congress, 2d Session.

voted considerable attention to the value of dams and reservoirs in the arid region for purposes of irrigation. Furthermore, Captain Chittenden recommended that the government itself should build, own, and operate all reservoirs and other necessary works, holding the stored waters absolutely free for public use under local regulations.

In 1899 the movement for national construction of irrigation works was further strengthened by the formation of a permanent association to take the place of the more loosely organized annual congresses which had hitherto been held. The membership of this association numbered not only representatives of the arid region but also not a few eastern business men and representatives of national labor organizations. The active head of the association was Mr. George H. Maxwell, of San Francisco, and under his leadership the organization became very effective in disseminating information concerning irrigation and in enlisting support for the measures which it favored.

The effect of this widespread discussion of the reclamation problem was observable in 1900 in the platforms of the three leading political parties in the presidential campaign of that year, the Republican, Democratic and Silver Republican platforms all making mention of the subject. Only the last named made definite declaration in favor of national construction, declaring it to be "the duty of the general government to provide for the construction of storage reservoirs and irrigation works." The Republican platform recommended “adequate national legislation to reclaim the arid lands of the United States, reserving control of the distribution of water for irrigation to the respective states and territories"; while the Democratic platform merely declared in favor of "an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of the West."

The efforts of the advocates of national reclamation works were powerfully aided by the growing conviction in the arid and semiarid regions of the inability of state or individual enterprise to realize the full possibilities of irrigation. Even

where interstate and international complications did not interfere with effective action by the states or individuals, the expectations entertained by those who had advocated the legislation of the years 1890 to 1901, which has been traced, had failed of complete realization. Comment has already been made on the relatively meager results effected by the states under the terms of the Carey Act. On the other hand, the area reclaimed by private enterprise during the same period had been very considerable; but it was appreciated that less was to be expected from private enterprise as time went on, as virtually all the opportunities for easy and inexpensive development had been taken up. Moreover, although vested rights had attached to a great part of the water and irrigable lands, yet the rate of actual utilization was far less than necessary for the proper growth of the arid country.

Experience had moreover demonstrated that irrigation. works were likely to be profitable only when those constructing them owned also, the lands which were to be irrigated by them, and that further private reclamation of the public lands on a large scale could, therefore, be effected only by the alienation to the developers of large compact areas of irrigable lands. The virtual impossibility of a procedure so totally at variance with the whole public land policy of the government was, however, clearly recognized; so that the irrigation problem of the public lands seemed incapable of solution by private enterprise.

Passage of the Reclamation Act. At the annual meeting of the National Irrigation Association at Chicago, November,

1

The area reported to the Census as producing crops under irrigation more than doubled in the ten years from 1889 to 1899, the acreage rising from 3,631,381 to 7,518,527. These figures are undoubtedly large and include many lands which are watered only in part or very imperfectly. It is probable that by following a more careful definition of the term "irrigated" the acreage reported would have been greatly reduced through the exclusion of meadows watered by more or less natural means and lands which received water only following erratic storms.

1900, definite proposals for the national construction of irrigation works received extended consideration, a leading part of the discussion being taken by Representative Francis G. Newlands, of Nevada, Mr. George H. Maxwell, chairman of the executive committee, and Mr. F. H. Newell, then connected with the Geological Survey and later chief engineer and director of the Reclamation Service. Upon the opening of Congress in the following month, Mr. Newlands offered a series of bills embodying the proposals favored by the association. The essential features of these bills were as follows:

I. The government was to construct the necessary works for the reclamation of the public land and of adjacent areas which had passed into private hands.

2. The funds expended for the construction of such works were ultimately to be recovered by the government in the form of charges paid by the users of the water stored by such works.

3. The reclaimed lands were to be broken up into small holdings. The lands still owned by the government were to be alienated only to homesteaders; as to those in private ownership, a limitation of the area under a single ownership to which water would be supplied was to be imposed, and the actual residence of owners on or near their lands was to be required.

Although Mr. Newlands' bills attracted wide attention, the session of 1900-1901 closed without action by the House. But in the President's message of December, 1901, which opened the first session of the 57th Congress, the speedy enactment of comprehensive irrigation legislation was strongly urged. Mr. Roosevelt, who had succeeded to the Presidency in September, 1901, upon the death of President McKinley, had resided in the west and was well informed on the conditions obtaining in the arid regions. His message defines very comprehensively the problem and policy of reclamation by the national government. After calling attention to the need for

federal action to insure the conservation of the country's forests, he declared:

The forest alone can not, however, fully regulate and conserve the waters of the arid region. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual states acting alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the resources of single states would often be inadequate. It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid region useful by engineering works for water storage as to make useful the rivers and harbors of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headwaters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river control, under which levees are built in the lower reaches of the same streams.

The Government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of streams the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry season to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow.

The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The object of the Government is to dispose of the land to settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish this object water must be brought within their reach.

The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their homes along streams from which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim their holdings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain, however, vast areas of public land which can be made available for homestead settlement, but only by reservoirs and main line canals impracticable for private enterprise. These irrigation works should be built by the National Government. The lands reclaimed by them should be reserved by the Government for actual settlers, and the cost of construction should, so far as possible, be repaid by the land reclaimed. The distribution of the water, the division