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Show RECLAMATION OF THE ARID LANDS 655 Section 1 provided that all money from the sale and disposal of the public lands in those 16 western states which had more or less arid or semi-arid land (except for the 5 percent that went to the states of origin) was to be credited to a Reclamation Fund which was to be used for the planning, construction, and maintenance of dams and other irrigation works.55 Since this section was to apply to income from lands for the fiscal year 1900-1901 there was already a tidy sum of $3,144,821 available when the bill became law and $4,585,520 more by June 30, 1902. Section 2 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to construct such projects as the funds permitted. Section 3 authorized the Secretary to withdraw from entry lands needed for such projects and lands susceptible of irrigation. The latter were thereafter to be subject to entry only under the homestead law and no commutation was to be allowed. Section 4 declared that the users of water, whether on public (homestead) or private land, were to pay for the water sufficient to return the cost of constructing the dams, ditches, and other works. Nothing was said about interest, however, and never was a cent of money to be required for interest except on delayed payments. On all construction 8 hours was to constitute the workday; no Mongolian labor was to be employed. En-trymen were required by Section 5 to reclaim at least one half of the irrigable land within their claim and to pay the charges for the water they used before patents would issue to them. The Secretary was authorized by Section 55 A proviso in the Newlands Act stated that if the income from land sales in the other 13 public land states was not sufficient to cover the $25,000 to be paid to each state and territory under the Second Morrill Act the deficit was to be taken from general Treasury funds. By 1902 the appropriation for the state experiment stations under the Hatch Act had been changed to come out of the general funds, not the income from public lands. 6 to use the Reclamation Fund for the operation and maintenance of reservoirs and other works until their cost had been paid by the users of the water, when management and operation should pass to the owners of the irrigated land. Section 7 gave the Secretary the right of eminent domain. Section 8 declared that state laws governing the control, appropriation, use, and distribution of water should prevail and vested rights were not to be affected. This section was strongly criticized by opponents because it repudiated Roosevelt's strictures on the water policies of most western states, leaving them as they were. Section 9 stated that so far as was practicable "the major portion of the funds" arising from the sale of lands in any state should be expended on projects in that state, although considerable leeway was allowed the Secretary.56 This was interpreted to mean that 51 percent of the proceeds from sales in any state should be expended in that state, the other 49 percent being subject to general allocation. Though the Newlands Act did not end the revenue concept in public land policy (in fact it even extended it), it did mark the beginning of a new era in which the government was to play the role of the planner and entrepreneur for reclamation projects in order to bring water to public land for the benefit of homesteaders and to privately owned land, subject to the same water fees paid on public land. The measure did not discriminate between the owners of private land and those homesteading on public lands but did require that: No right to the use of water for land in private ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding 160 acres to any one landowner, and no such sale shall be made to any landowner unless he be an actual 56 Reclamation Service, Fifth Annual Report, 1906. p. 41. |