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-10- whioh have developed the semi-arid West. They do not realize that in the semi- arid West water is the souroe of l1f'el They oannot visualize a oonditicn where the presence of' a head of water JIl8.rks the differenoe between bumper orops of beets, potatoes, vegetables, beJ'ries. grains and other foodstutt and orop. - ot prairie dogs, sage brush and weeds. They will never guess whe.t has been aooanpliahe.d through the energy aDd courage of men who daJ'ed all the obstaole. presented in a desert colmtry to re- claim the West by digging irrigation oanals. In & large selStlan or these United States, a great portion ot the people ot this Nation live and work and prosper through t~ application of water to the lands whioh they have reclaimed. Praotioal navigation is, of 'oourse, impossible on the -oreeks and r"ver. trca whioh these landa are watered. At Santa Fe a few. years ago when the needs ot navigation were argued as the reason for hobbling diversione ot water for agri- oultural uses on a oertain river, a great lawyer of' this state retorted that .. man would get sand in his eyes if he attempted to row a boat in that stream. This is not an overstatement. Floods threaten the lives and property ot the people on the great rivers of' the East and Midwest every spring. Their pioture of water is based on fear and host 111 ty and apprehension. Here .ter 1s 80 acaroe that we oherish it. Even the we.tern oowman'. traditional dependenoe aD his horse beoanes 1nalgnif'ioant in cc:mparison to the concern of the western . _ :f'armer over a threat to deprive him of his water supply. Where better river tl"ansportation is essential. where &rD1\JLl flood tbJ'eata hang like a shadow over a oommunity thel"e is need for legislation whioh will authorize the oonstruotion of' dams and reserv01J'sto end that danger. With that we have no qtarreh But the -.tel" in the uppal' reaoh.s of r1 vera having their' or1ginin the arid Y;est seldom reaohes the seotions where navigation is possible or where flood threats....aside from oooasional oloudbursts-_are im- portant. . It _s nearly 8. hundred years ago when the first 1J'rigation ditoh .. oon- structed to take water out of' a tributary or the Arkansas in Colorado. Ninety years ago the seoond series of' ditohes was built on the Rio Qonejos. Those last named ditohes have f'unoti oned every year s!noe and still watering the lands 01 thriving f'a.nning seotions" The growth of ~rrigation sinoe has brought us to the point where this state ran)al as one of' the great agrioultural seotions of the United states. With irrigation rights recognized and authorized and approved by repeated Aots of CQngreu and by a series of consistent deoisions of the United States Supreme COUJ'tt a way ot life hilS been established whioh oannot be J!lodlf'ied or altered without causing \D1told damage to the people ot the West and oons.. quentlyof' the entire oountry. . The o~8truotion of' a projeot with navigation as it, primary objecti".