Volume IV of the magnificent series of sources on the history of the Philippine Islands covers the period from 1576 to 1582. The most important documents translated are the "Relations" (reports to the home government) of Governor Francisco de Sande, and accounts of expeditions to Borneo, Jolo and Mindanao. As has already been stated, this superb work will be completed in 55 volumes, orders are accepted only for the entire series, and the price is $4 net per volume. The Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland. The samples of Simeon Ford's after dinner speeches now published under the title of A Few Remarks, quite justify his reputation as a promoter of hilarity. Indeed they are even funnier than was necessary for their original purpose-since laughter bubbles easily from them that have just been sufficiently dined and wined. Mr. Ford has carefully avoided anything which might require his hearers to think, and thereby risk impairing their digestion. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $1 net. 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The fifth volume in the series treating the Historic Highways of America, by Archer Butler Hulbert, takes up The Old Glade Road-the highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg over which relief reached Fort Pitt from its investment by Pontiac's savage forces, and which was a vital factor in the settlement and conquest of the trans-Allegheny empire. The Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland. H. D. Hemenway, Director of the Hartford School of Horticulture, has prepared a manual entitled How To Make School Gardens. It is the result of years of practical experience, is intended for the use of both teachers and pupils, and contains suggestions that will be of value to other than school-gardeners. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $1 net. Ralph Henry Barbour tells, in The Land Of Joy, an entirely pleasant and genuine story of a couple of Harvard undergraduates, their friends and sweethearts. It is his first novel, though he has written good short stories of college life, and he scores a success with it. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $1.50. Seven of the last stories to come from Bret Harte's pen are published under the title of the longest of them-Trent's Trust. Colonel Starbottle, Jack Hamlin and other old friends appear again, with many new ones, and play their parts as entertainingly as ever. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $1.25. To the "Little Novels by Favourite Authors" are added a sufficiently shivery ghost story-Man Overboard, by F. Marion Crawford-and a light tale of love and laughter-Mr. Keegan's Elopement, by Winston Churchill. The Macmillan Co., New York. 50 cents each. Wild Birds in City Parks is a descriptive list of 100 birds which have been observed in Lincoln Park, Chicago. A. W. Mumford, Chicago. 25 cents. CHARLES AMADON MOODY. By one of those blunders which "somebody" will occasionally make, the titles under the likenesses on pages 101 and 103 of this number were transposed. The half-tone on p. 101 is intended to represent Frederick Haynes Newell, while that on p. 103 is meant for Charles D. Walcott, despite the title lines. THE NATION'S HAND IN THE DESERT. OHE first anniversary of the Executive approval of the National Irrigation Act occurred on the 17th of last 'month, and the same date-most significantly and appropriately was the one hundred and twenty-eighth anniversary of that other great day in the upward progress of the American people, the Battle of Bunker Hill. Much has been accomplished in connection with the new policy during the first year of its existence. The Geological Survey, to which the work was committed by the Secretary of the Interior, has created a branch known as the United States Reclamation Service, and placed at its head one of the ablest and best trained young scientific men in the country, Mr. Frederick Haynes Newell. The forces have been organized and put into active operation throughout the West. Many projects have been considered, and a few of the most important and promising have been made the subject of careful preliminary surveys and estimates. Finally, five great undertakings have been definitely selected, and it seems likely that within a few months actual construction will have begun upon some or all of them. If so, the second anniversary of the Act will see millions invested in substantial works, while another year or two will reveal the dawn of a new and momentous era in our social history-the swarming of the people upon the soil conquered from the silence and sterility of the desert by the strong hand of the nation. ONLY THE PEAK CLEAR. In entering upon this work we are treading what is, for us, an almost unbroken path. Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that differences of opinion should arise and that there should be misunderstanding, criticism, disappointment, even bitter complaint. From the earliest hour of its history, national irrigation has had one luminous object in view-to reclaim the largest possible area of land and to settle it with the largest possible number of human beings. This object has stood out, clear and distinct, like a mountain peak against the sky. But how to reach it !-that was a very different matter. Should we leave it to private enterprise? Should we give the lands to the States? Should the nation boldly assume the burden and take it upon its own broad shoulders? And, if the latter, by precisely what road should the mountain peak be approached? The future historian may find it interesting to follow the tortuous meanderings of public opinion on this subject and to chronicle the vicissitudes of the Irrigation Idea in its long and adventurous journey across the years. Congress, in its wisdom, recognized that the American people had decided, first, that the time had come when the desert must be reclaimed; and, second, that in order to make sure that it should be done promptly and thoroughly, they would do it themselves. And then Congress left to the Secretary of the Interior the onerous and delicate duty of arranging the details, granting him rather extraordinary powers for the purpose. Secretary Hitchcock, and his principal assistants, Director Walcott and Chief Newell, assumed the responsibility without flinching. They proceeded to select what they regarded as the best opportunities for initial projects under the new policy and to make rules and regulations to govern the use of water and the settlement of lands. And thereby hangs not simply a tale, but a howl of rage and disappointment. A QUESTION FATE. The matter involves many minor details, but there is one point at issue which is really big and generic, the decision of which must be followed by far-reaching and epoch-making consequences. The question is this: Can the Government build works where the land susceptible of irrigation is largely, or even exclusively, in private ownership? Or do the letter and spirit of the Act require that only lands in public ownership shall be reclaimed, save when the watering of private lands may be an unavoidable incident of the work? The particular instance which has given rise to controversy on this subject is the construction of the Tonto reservoir in Arizona,* but it is doubtless a question which must be met all over the arid region. It should be met frankly and squarely, and while we are still at the threshold of the new policy. It would be both cowardly and foolish to dodge such an issue. *The opponents of the Tonto proposition assert that absolutely no public land will be irrigable therefrom, but the Government claims that forty to fifty per cent. of the land which may be watered by storage and pumping (it is estimated that the works will provide 20,000 horse-power and a complete plant for electrical transmission to points of use) will be public land. The opponents assert that the Pima Indians will be left to suffer for water, of which they were long since unjustly deprived by white settlers, in consequence of the construction of the Tonto reservoir, instead of the San Carlos. The Government claims that the Pimas cannot be taken care of under the National Irrigation Act, which makes no provision for furnishing water except to those who can reimburse the Reclamation Fund, but says the lands of the Pimas may be irrigated as conveniently by power from the Tonto dam as from any other source. It is anticipated that early legislation will provide for this. In the meantime, five test wells are being sunk on the reservation, THE POLICY It is perfectly true, of course, that the paramount object of national irrigation is to make habitable and cultivable the fertile portions of the public domain. And this must necessarily be its chief usefulness, since the larger part of the land in the arid region is public property. But, in my opinion, it by no means follows that millions of acres of land in private ownership may not justly and legally receive the benefit of water developed by means of the national system. In fact, it is plain to my mind that it would be both unjust and illegal to fail to make provision for large amounts of land which are privately owned and which otherwise may never be made AND LEGAL. useful to human beings and never pay reasonable tribute to State or nation in the form of taxes. Now, let us see why this is so. A COMMON JUSTICE TO THE With few exceptions, the streams on which it is proposed to store water and develop power have long been used for irrigation. Their entire flow at low-water stage is diverted each year into canals already in operation, while an amount of water much in excess of their low-water flow has been claimed and appropriated in accordance with local laws and customs. As a practical question, it is found utterly impossible to store the flood waters of such streams without interfering with vested rights, unless it be frankly conceded at the outset that private lands dependent on this source of supply shall satisfy their reasonable needs from the new works, paying the Government there for in just the same manner that the settlers on public lands are required to do. As a rule, there are three classes of lands within reach of every stream in the arid region, viz.: first, those owned by earliest appropriators, which have an abundance of water; second, those owned by later appropriators, which have sufficient water for a short time each season and a claim for more water when it happens to be in the stream; third, those which have no water at all, and cannot have until the full storage and pumping possibilities of the stream and locality shall be realized by means of national irrigation. Taking the arid region as a whole, the third class of land is much the largest, and it was for the benefit of this class that the movement was undertaken primarily. But if the Government should shut its eyes to the claims of the second class it would do a grave injustice and have endless litigation on its hands. This would inevitably follow, since the water which the Government proposes to store or to pump is absolutely the only water which can ever be made available for the use of these lands now in private ownership, but receiving only partial and very unsatisfactory irrigation. That is one aspect of the case, and the commonest aspect. But take another where the issue is more sharply defined. PIONEERS. There are streams where every drop of water which can possibly be stored will be required to irrigate lands now in private ownership. These lands were mostly taken up by those who sought to make homes in good faith on the public domain. They settled under laws deliberately enacted by Congress. If those laws proved to be an invitation to disaster, it is certainly not the fault of the homeseekers. They depended for water upon speculative corporations chartered under the law and vested with sweeping franchises and rights in the most precious element of natural wealth. These speculative corporations frequently oversold their supply and more frequently went bankrupt before they had finished their works. Again, the homeseekers were not responsible for the situation in which they found themselves. Indeed, it very often happened that they had paid for their water rights in advance, thus furnishing the speculators with the capital on which to speculate |