The Secretary of the Treasury, upon being consulted by the Secretary of State on the question, replied: In view of the difficulties constantly experienced in enforcing the revenue laws on the Mexican frontier, owing in a great measure to the present uncertainty as to the boundary line between the two countries, I concur in your suggestion for the appointment of an international river commission to apply the rule prescribed by the boundary convention of November 12, 1884. Your committee, therefore, in view of the protection of the revenue, the prevention of crime, the maintenance of good order, and the preservation of international harmony, recommend the adoption of the joint resolution looking to the creation of a commission to determine all Rio Grande boundary questions. APPENDIX E. [House Report No. 490, Fifty-first Congress, first session.] IRRIGATION OF ARID LANDS-INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY--MEXICAN Mr. Lanham, from the Select Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, submitted the following report: The Select Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands in the United States, to whom was referred House bill No. 3924, entitled "A bill concerning the irrigation of arid lands in the valley of the Rio Grande River, the construction of a dam across said river at or near El Paso, Tex., for the storage of its waste waters, and for other purposes,' have considered the same and repectfully report it to the House, with the recommendation that it do وو The reasons which commend this bill to legislative attention, the conditions which have given rise to its introduction, and the necessities which have brought about its consideration are substantially formulated in the preamble. (See copy of bill hereto attached.) The statements therein made have been affirmatively established. The investigation of the committee has been aided by the presence and testimony of gentlemen who are fully conversant with the facts, and have had ample opportunity for an actual observation of their existence; besides, documentary and historic evidence bearing upon the situation has been available, from which additional information, believed to be reliable and accurate, has been obtained. It will be observed that the measure proposed is inceptive and initiatory in its character, contemplating in its terms no present, final, or conclusive legislation, carrying no appropriation, but reserving any ultimate proposition on the subject to be controlled by the future judgment and discretion of Congress after international consultation and methods for concert of action shall have been considered and devised. It is not expected that the remedies suggested for a solution of the troubles indicated can be rendered operative without the preliminary negotiation provided for shall be followed by appropriate and necessary legislation to carry them into effect. A mutual understanding and cooperation by and between the respective Governments concerned wil be a necessary antecedent, and any practical results are contingent on the event that, after full conference shall be had and full investigation EL PAS- -17 shall be made, it shall be regarded expedient and of such importance as to warrant future authoritative and conjoint execution by the two countries. Accordingly the fourth section of the bill provides That the President is requested to communicate to Congress the result of said negotiation, together with his recommendation thereon, at the earliest practicable opportunity. The committee are of the opinion that the issues involved are of such moment, the complications so embarrassing, the national and international interests so important, and the situation one of such gravity as to suggest the wisdom and propriety of the two Republics conferring and reasoning together, and inaugurating all suitable and possible measures for the conservation of that harmony and prosperity of their respective citizens and that amicable and orderly administration of their respective Governments so greatly to be desired, and yet so seriously menaced by the existence of the causes stated in the preamble. These difficulties will, it may be assumed, grow more serious and critical the longer the correctives are delayed, and it would seem to be the part of prudence to anticipate and provide against their consequences as far as it is possible to be done. The Republic of Mexico is our near neighbor, separated from us, in part, by the Rio Grande River, for a distance of some 1,200 miles. With its twelve millions of people, with its developing resources and wonderful possibilities, with its invitation to and reception of American capital, with its great trunk-line railroads, practically extensions of ours, with its varied fields for our commerce and constant demand for our products, with all its multiplied relations to us, it is a neighbor with whom we shall always have to deal, and whom it is both our duty and policy to treat and cultivate in a neighborly way. There are many Mexicans who are citizens of the United States, enjoying all the immunities of such. They are to be found all along on our side of the Rio Grande. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in its eighth and ninth articles made especial provision for such citizenship. In a report relating to troubles on the Rio Grande, transmitted to the House of Representatives by the Secretary of War in 1878 (see Ex. Doc. No. 84, Forty-fifth Congress, second session), Colonel Hatch says: The people are one and the same on the two sides of the river; although subjects and citizens of different nations, they are one in race and religion, and bound by the closest ties of interest and blood; their customs, habits, and traditions are the same, and there is hardly a family on the one side but is related by ties of blood or marriage with those on the other; hence, when you touch one you touch all, and when one is hurt all feel it. * * One [trouble] which must be looked for sooner or * later is in connection with the water taken from the Rio Grande for irrigation. As soon as the attempt is made to largely extend cultivation in this valley (there will not be enough water for all, and both sides have an equal right), from this troubles are certain to arise sooner or later, which may involve the two countries seriously. In the report of the Board of Officers (see Ex. Doc. No. 93, Fortyfifth Congress, second session), March 16, 1878, is to be found the following statement: The Rio Grande, at this season of the year even an insignificant stream, its channel often shifting and always erratic, but during the heats of summer sometimes dry, affords, by being directed into acequias on either bank, a scant and variable supply of water to the people of both nationalities, but is utterly insufficient to irrigate this extensive valley, where the yearly rainfall measures but a few inches. As time progresses and the country is opened by accessions to its population, sure to come-for it is a most fertile region and gloriously rewards the labor spent in irrigation-the question must grow in importance, and may occasion trouble beyond the reach of diplomacy to settle. Time has verified in a great degree these prognostications, as will appear subsequently. The "accessions to the populations" have been rapidly made. A new and different citizenship has been attracted here and added to those residing in the valley at the time when these official reports were submitted. Energetic and progressive Americans have since made their homes and invested their capital here, while substantial and material development by the Mexicans is also observable. Our people along the border are thrown in daily contact with the people of Mexico. Notwithstanding our covenants of amity, it has been not only difficult but at times impossible to prevent outbreaks and conflicts on the Mexican frontier from various causes, despite the efforts of good men in either country to maintain friendly relations. Depredations, reprisals, bloodshed, and retaliations have occasionally marked and marred the history of these border peoples. General Stanley, commanding the Department of Texas, in his official report, dated September 12, 1889 (see report of General Schofield to Secretary of War, 1889, p. 100), says: Our relations with our Mexican neighbors upon the long line of the Rio Grande have been kindly, although they are a good deal excited over what they deem the violation of their riparian rights, through our people taking all the water of the Rio Grande for the irrigation of the San Luis Valley, which leaves the Rio Grande a dry bed for 500 miles. The question is one that must be settled by the State Department, and thus far there has been no call for military force. The remedy for this water famine and consequent ruin to the inhabitants of the Rio Grande Valley must be found in storage reservoirs, so easy of construction, one in the canyon opposite Taos and the other in the canyon near and north of El Paso. The Rio Grande is quite a long stream, being, with its meanders, some 2,000 miles in length. It rises in Colorado and is supplied from a number of tributaries in that State and northern New Mexico, the rainfall, and melting of the snow and ice. There are frequently vast accumulations of snow and ice in the deep canyons of that region during the long winters. If the snowfall be great and its melting accompanied by rains in the spring, the river becomes a raging torrent from about the first of April until July, carrying enormous quantities of water through its entire length. Much of this time it is wholly unused and unnecessary for irrigating purposes in either Colorado or upper New Mexico, and its flow is not only vastly more than is required for such purposes lower down the stream, but, because of its temporary superabundance, becomes really destructive. In such cases it goes on unused to the Gulf, carrying as waste that which, if it could be conserved for the seasons later on, would be precious indeed to the people along its course. If the snowfall in the mountains above be light, and its melting unaccompanied by rains, the water from the snow is in a great degree evaporated and the floods are less enormous. The middle third of this river, say, from Albuquerque, N. Mex., to Presidio del Norte, Mexico, a distance of about 500 miles, has no important living confluents, and passes through an extremely arid belt, where the evaporation from a water surface is many times the rainfall annually; and in unusually dry seasons its history for the past forty years shows that it failed to carry a current for short periods during August or September on an average of about once in seven years. At and below Presidio del Norte it has living confluents from Mexico and Texas which maintain a constant flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Midway in this arid belt are the two large valleys of the river-Mesilla in New Mexico, and El Paso in Texas and Mexico-where agricultural pursuits have been maintained almost since prehistoric times, certainly and of record for more than two centuries, essentially dependent on irrigation, the ordinary rainfall not being an important factor in the growth of crops. Near and just above El Paso, Tex., the Rio Grande, or, rather, the middle of that river, following the deepest channel" (treaty 1853), or "the center of the normal channel," etc. (convention 1884), becomes the international boundary of the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico. But for the last forty years the river has been so continuously changing its bed from one side of the valley to the other, more or less with each recurring flood, in many cases it being unknown whether caused by avulsion or gradual erosion and deposit, that it is frequently impossible to determine to which country the land on either bank of the river belongs in different localities and to great extents in area. These floods have sometimes become devastating torrents, inundating the whole valleys for miles, cutting new channels, and sweeping everything before them. In 1842, in the El Paso Valley, the river changed its bed for a distance of 30 miles, and in some places 7 miles laterally. Hundreds of smaller changes have been made since. In 1884 it began moving back from the Mexican side at this point, and in a few months carried away 15 miles of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and threw a single body of over 5,000 acres of land on the south side of the river, although it is still claimed to be within the domain of Texas. This land was just above the Mexican town of San Ygnacio, and as the river left the town for miles, its people were compelled to take a canal from the river where it is entirely in Texas, and carry it for more than 3 miles over Texan soil, to irrigate their land and for domestic purposes. The situation is further well described in an able report submitted in the last Congress by the Hon. Mr. Hitt, of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, as follows: It [Rio Grande] has shifted its channels so often and so far, in some cases gradually, in others abruptly and by cut-offs, that no man knows accurately where the boundary is to-day. Sometimes the stream will suddenly cut a new channel, abandoning the old ones altogether and in a single day, by a cut-off, a tract or “banco" of a hundred acres will be found to be on the other side of the river. These causes have produced uncertainty as to the boundary, and this encourages smuggling, which is always carried on more or less on the border. When a man smuggles from a "banco it is almost impossible to catch and convict him. No surveys are made nor official records kept of the time and place of cut-off changes, and no one can tell with accuracy the extent of a cut-off. The bed of the old channel is the boundary, though it may be long since dry. There are sometimes two or three old beds, and it is hard to tell where is the middle of the old bed contemplated by the treaty. * * * At the last term of the United States district court at Brownsville the most noted case of smuggling was lost by the Government for want of that accurate knowledge that would satisfy the court. These bancos with their uncertain boundaries afforded retreats for smugglers, thieves, kidnapers, murderers, and every class of criminals, as well as bases of supplies from which to carry on their operations, free from interference by either Government. He concludes his report with a recommendation from the committee in favor of the creation of a boundary commission, "in view of the protection of the revenue, the prevention of crime, the maintenance of good order, and the preservation of international harmony." Article 5 of the convention of 1884 between the two countries provides that rights of property in respect of lands which may have become separated through the creation of new channels shall not be affected thereby, but such lands shall continue to be under the jurisdiction of the country to which they previously belonged. It is easy to be perceived how serious are the difficulties to both countries, in the adjustment of titles to land, the prevention of smuggling, and the arrest and punishment of all kinds of criminals, on account of the confusion of boundary and doubtful jurisdiction which arise from the facts stated. But a further complication has arisen in recent years, growing out of the fact that in Colorado and New Mexico a great number of irrigating ditches and canals have been taken from the Upper Rio Grande and its tributaries, resulting to a great degree in the absorption of the water before it reaches the point of international boundary. By reference to the fourth biennial report (pp. 287 to 325) of the State engineer of Colorado for 1887-88 it will be seen that more than three hundred ditches have been taken out in that State alone, while vast quantities of water have been and are being similarly appropriated in New Mexico. The result has been a great depletion of the flow of the river in the driest part of the year, July and August, when it is most needed. This has been so great for the last three years in the above-indicated middle third of the river's course as to almost entirely destroy the growing annuals, the younger vines and fruit trees, and, unless corrected in some way will finally eventuate in the total destruction of the agricultural interests of this entire section. In 1888 the river was absolutely dry for over sixty days about August and September, and in 1889 it had no flow whatever from the 5th of August to the 20th of December, a period of one hundred and thirtyseven days. While this dearth of water may not be wholly imputed to the irrigating agencies and consumption of water by the people of Colorado and New Mexico-for it must be admitted that these seasons were dry, with little snow in the mountains-still there can be no doubt that they have materially contributed to that end, and will continue to do so in the future in an increasing ratio as the number of ditches multiply. It is stated by Major Powell, Director of the Geological Survey, as a reasonable probability, that within a comparatively short period, with the growing development of agricultural interests in the region of the Upper Rio Grande, the impounding, distribution, and utilization of the waters of that river and its tributaries after the manner already begun, there will be a wholly inadequate, if not utter absence of, supply of water in the stream below. Such continued and serious dearth of water in the river has never been known before by those inhabitants of the valley who are and have been for many years best acquainted with its history and characteristics, and both Americans and Mexicans claim that the deprivation of their accustomed water supply is attributable to the action of the people of the United States in the localities mentioned. They further insist that the Rio Grande is an international stream, belonging not to Chihuahua or other Mexican States or to Texas and its people, but that an equal undivided one-half interest in it, with all its privileges, belongs to the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico, and that as such it is entitled to receive the care and attention of the respective Federal Governments. The El Paso Valley extends from the pass at El Paso 90 miles below, and is from 4 to 10 miles wide. It contains about 200,000 acres of magnificent lands, situated about equally on the Mexican and Texan side of the river, that under proper and possible conditions could be reduced to a fine state of cultivation. There are now in this valley about 50,000 people, nearly equally divided between the two countries. They at present cultivate about 50,000 acres of land, which in fertility |