It is increasingly evident that the Federal Government must in the future
take a leading part in the impounding of water for conservation with
incidental power for the development of the irrigable lands of the and
region. The unused waters of the West are found mainly in large rivers.
Works to store and distribute these have such magnitude and cost that they
are not attractive to private enterprise. Water is the irreplaceable
natural resource. Its precipitation can not be increased. Its storage on
the higher reaches of streams, to meet growing needs, to be used repeatedly
as it flows toward the seas, is a practical and prudent business policy.
The United States promises to follow the course of older irrigation
countries, where recent important irrigation developments have been carried
out as national undertakings. It is gratifying, therefore, that conditions
on Federal reclamation projects have become satisfactory. The gross value
of crop, grown with water from project works increased from $110,000,000
in 1924 to $131,000,000 in 1925. The adjustments made last year by Congress
relieved irrigators from paying construction costs on unprofitable land,
and by so doing inspired new hope and confidence in ability to meet the
payments required. Construction payments by water users last year were the
largest in the history of the bureau.
The anticipated reclamation fund will be fully absorbed for a number of
years in the completion of old projects and the construction of projects
inaugurated in the past three years. We should, however, continue to
investigate and study the possibilities of a carefully planned development
of promising projects, logically of governmental concern because of their
physical magnitude, immense cost, and the interstate and international
problems involved. Only in this way may we be fully prepared to meet
intelligently the needs of our fast-growing population in the years to
come.