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Show -17- The reclamation of arid territory through irrigation and the fullest possible satisfaction of the competing demands on a limited water-supply by an increasing population* present one of the most permeating aspects of the conservation problem. To a dramatic extent it is an ever-present con- cern in the daily lives of the people in one region, while it hardly touches the imagination, let alone the lives, of millions of people in other parts of the country. Kherever the pressure is felt one answer is clear, no one mm State can control the power to feed or to starve, possessed by a river flowing through several states*66 A great number of our streams have this potency. Moreover, there can not be a definitive settlement. Popu- lation, engineering, irrigation conditions cons tantly change; they cannot be cast into a stable mould by adjudication or isolated acts of adminis- tration. The whole economic region must be the unit of adjustment} con- tinuity of supervision the technique* Agreement among the affected states and the United States, with an administrati|jb agency for continuous study and continuing action, is the legal institution alone adequate and adapted to the task. The Colorado River is the Nile for the Southwest; the State of Colo- rado its Soudan. At first there was n6 collision among the various users because nature was adequate to their scattered needs* The earlier Imperial Valley development could be made without sacrifice elsewhere. The irriga- tion projects by Arizona and Colorado could likewise draw freely on the available surplus. But when, in course of time* the United States proposed enormous projects on the public domain within this basin, and when the abutt- ing States planned further works, with the increasing need of water for domestic and industrial uses, the cumulntive demands upon the river put an end to laissez faire* Conflicts followed, with the conventional resort to courts. But litigation added confusion, not settlement. The judicial in- strument is too static and too sporadic for adjusting a social-economic V issue continuously alive in an area embracing more than a half a dozen States. The situation compelled accommodation through agreement for contin- uous control of these continuously competing interests. Initiated by tine Governor of Utah in 1919* & movement, participated in by the Colorado River Basin States in collaboration with the United States Reclamation Service, was started for the interstate study and solution of the problems present- ed by the utilization of the water supply of the Colorado River and its tributaries. After a series of conferences, the necessity of settlement A suggestion was made to a convention of the cotton-growing interests three or four years ago thatthe foundation for such cooperation might toe laid if the cotton States would enter into a treaty among themselves pledg- ing cooperation in executing it. There are several examples of such in-tar- state treaties for the accomplishment of ends which could not be attained by the States acting s eparately. I believe the suggestion has much of practical value9 and that if the cotton States would act upon it they would find the National Government prepared to give all possible assistance and encouragement to the program." - New York Times^ April 7, 1925* 66colorado v. Kansas (1907) 206 U. So I46, 27 Sup.Ct. 655. |
