| OCR Text |
Show 652 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT land to subsidize agricultural experiment stations and provide further endowment for the agricultural colleges, authorized the appropriation of $15,000 "arising from the sale of public lands" for each of these purposes to each state and territory.46 If Congress could do this-and the amount granted for these purposes was ultimately increased to $25,000 annually- why could it not place most or all of the balance of the proceeds of the public lands in a revolving fund for the construction of reclamation projects? The keenest opposition to this proposal, which became part of the Newlands bill of 1902, came from the people who were closest to the A &: M institutions. They feared that it was the intention of Newlands and others associated with him to make the entire fund, minus the 3 or 5 percent of the net proceeds which had annually been paid each state since its admission, tributary to the reclamation fund, and thereby jeopardize the A & M appropriation. Roosevelt Invigorates Federal Program Theodore Roosevelt's assumption of the Presidency, following the death of William McKinley, brought to the White House a strong advocate of reclamation and conservation. In his State of the Union message of December 3, 1901, President Roosevelt laid the basis for a Federal reclamation policy. Great storage works are necessary lo 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. . . . The Government should construct and maintain these reservoirs, as it does other public works. . . . 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 of the streams among irrigators, should be left to the settlers themselves in conformity with State laws, and without interference with those laws or vested rights. . . . No reservoir or canal should ever be built to satisfy selfish personal or local interests; but only in accordance with the advice of trained experts, after long investigation. . . . With a few creditable exceptions, the arid States have failed to provide for certain and just division of streams in times of scarcity. Lax and uncertain laws have made it possible to establish rights to water in excess of actual uses or necessities, and many streams have already passed into private ownership, or a control equivalent to ownership. In the arid States the only right to water which should be recognized is that of use. In irrigation this right should attach to the land reclaimed and be inseparable therefrom.47 Western Representatives in Congress and western people generally must have felt a great thrill on hearing a President talk with such profound understanding of and sympathy for the needs of their section. Congress had already moved to put the government behind reclamation, but Roosevelt's challenging and authoritative words brought to the movement widespread support. By July I, 1902, Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada could report to the Senate that on the roster of supporting organizations were the United Mine Workers, the Chicago Federation of Labor, the National Board of Trade, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Commercial Club of St. Paul, and other trade organizations and labor unions.48 Newspaper support for Federal reclamation projects became nationwide. Opposition, which proved ineffective, came from 46 Acts of March 2, 1887 and Aug. 30, 1890, 24 Stat. 440 and 26 Stat. 417. 47 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, XV, 6656-58. 48 S. Doc, 57th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 30, No. 446, (serial No. 4249), pp. 16-17. |
