This bill first failed to pass, and it is possible that the attempt at national irrigation would have failed had it not been for President Roosevelt, who, from personal acquaintance, knew the needs of the west and became an ardent supporter of government irrigation. The act authorizing the present reclaimation work was approved June 17, 1902. This act places the control of government irrigation in the hands of the secretary of the interior, who is having the work carried forward by the Reclamation Service. Already twenty-five projects have been considered. Some are completed, others in building, and owing to the excessive cost of these the remainder are indefinitely postponed.

North Platte Project

This project comprises all of the government reclamation work on North Platte river, extending from about the town of

Broadwater, Nebraska, on the east, to the point where the river unites with the Sweetwater, in the state of Wyoming. This project is divided into the following sub-projects: Pathfinder reservoir and dam, on the river three miles below the mouth of the Sweetwater ; the Interstate Canal, on the north side of the river in Wyoming and Nebraska, and the Goshen Hole and Fort Laramie Canals on the south side of the valley. The government is not donating anything to the people in carrying out this work, as some have supposed. It is not presenting them with irrigation canals. From the receipts from public lands the L'nited States is building dams and reservoirs for the storage of water to be used in irrigation; also building canals and laterals to water the lands and owners of the lands are to pay back the money without interest, in twenty annual installments, when it will again be used to build other canals. The cost of this land itself will depend on whether it is owned by the government, in which case it is nothing, or by private parties who may sell it, and the cost of the water is dependent upon the total cost of the system.