In view of the serious conditions confronting the citizens of our county because of this unlawful appropriation of the waters of the Rio Grande River, we most earnestly urge you to introduce the proposed bill for the international dam at El Paso and to use every reasonable effort to secure its early passage.

G. W. HUFFMAN, tax assessor, El Paso County; LOUIS W. EVANS, superintendent Franklin Irrigation Company; J. C. JONES, farmer, Ysleta, Tex.; J. J. SMITH, farmer, Ysleta, Tex.; JOHN R. HUGHES, captain Company D, State Rangers, stationed in Rio Grande Valley; BENIGNO ALDENETE, manager of Ysleta Ditch; M. LOEWENSTEIN, excounty treasurer and ex-corporation assessor of Ysleta; L. Fort, grape grower and orchardist; GEORGE BUCHANAN, merchant, Ysleta, Tex.; JOSEPH MAGOFFIN, mayor of Eĺ Paso, Tex.; S. B. CARBAJAL, ranchero; C. O. COFFIN, grower of Bartlett pears; MOSES DILLON, collector of customs; C. N. BUCKLER, ex-district judge; S. J. STEUDENTHAL, president El Paso Chamber of Commerce; JAMES H. WHITE, tax collector, El Paso County; C. R. MOREHEAD; JNO. JULIENE, ex-county commissioner; J. P. CONNOR, County treasurer; J. B. W. BURTON, manager Burton, Ling & Co.; GASPAR GIRON, manager flour mill, San Elizario; W. B. BROCK; W. F. ROBINSON, Fort Hancock; CHARLES DAVIS; CHAS. B. PATTERSON; J. H. COMSTOCK; C. W. MILLER, M. D.; W. H. WINN, excounty assessor from 1892 to 1898; B. LIEBMAN, miller, Ysleta; C. A. BLANCHARD, railroad agent, Ysleta, Tex.; J. J. SCHARIES & MUELLER, Clint post-office, Tex.; J. H. CONKLIN, real estate; MILLARD PATTERSON, attorney at law; W. W. BRIDGERS, representative ninety-sixth district; PARK W. PITMAN, county clerk; W. R. MARTIN, Superintendent G., H. and S. A. Railway Company; M. C. EDWARDS, lumber; Z. T. WHITE; J. A. SMITH; T. J. BEALL; HORACE B. STEVENS, real estate and insurance; JOHN A. HAPPEE, real estate; MAX WEBER; A. H. PARKER, county surveyor; J. J. MUNETZ; JAMES R. HARPER, County judge; W. J. HARRIS, county commissioner, precinct No. 2; JUAN ARMENDARIZ, county commissioner, precinct No. 3; G. N. GARCIA, jr., county commissioner, precinct No. 4; A. COURCHESUSS, county commissioner, precinct No. 1; A. G. FOSTER; FRANK DEL BUONO; A. W. WALTHALL, district judge; G. P. PUTNAM, superintendent schools; W. W. TURNEY, state senator, twenty-fifth district; PEYTON F. EDWARDS, attorney at law; PEYTON J. EDWARDS, county attorney, El Paso County, Tex.; F. E. HUNTER, ex-county judge, El Paso County, Tex.; ADOLPH KRALSAULZ, merchant; MCCATCHEM, PAYOR, & Co., wholesale hay and grain dealers, also dealers in agricultural implements and wagons; R. C. LIGHELNLY, merchant; FELIX MARTIALS, broker; G. MCNAUGHTON, illustrator.

Hon. G. B. HEATWOLE,

EL PASO, TEX., April 26, 1900.

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Although not having the honor of your personal acquaintance, I desire to trespass upon your kindness in regard to a matter which is of the most vital importance to this city and the adjacent community, and its very existence depends more or less upon it.

The city of El Paso is situated midway between the source and the mouth of the Rio Grande, and the water here has decreased year by year for the last twenty years on account of the increased use of the waters of the Rio Grande in Colorado and New Mexico by their greatly increased population until the river here has water only for two or three months in the year and during the balance is practically dry.

The farming interests have suffered so much both on the Texas and the Mexican side that they have dwindled down to practically nothing. The Mexican population, which depends altogether on farming, has decreased in the last fifteen years from about 20,000 to 5,000 population, and our own side, which formerly had a farming population of about 10,000, has decreased to about 2,000. In order to remedy this calamity it has been proposed and agitated for the past eleven years to impound the flood waters in an international reservoir to supply the two countries, but the matter could not be agreed upon by the two Governments until the last year of Mr. Cleveland's Administration, when Mr. Olney took up the matter with such vigor that he was anxious to conclude a treaty before the Administration went out, but on account of unexpected trouble with an English company, which, however, is now of minor importance, the matter was laid over. And now on account of pressure brought upon our Representative in Congress, Hon. John H. Stephens has finally introduced a bill for the construction of a dam and reservoir above El Paso to remedy this evil state of affairs.

I have been informed that you are a member of a subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee to report on this bill, and this letter is addressed to you with the object of making you acquainted with the great necessity of getting this dam and reservoir constructed to relieve the evil condition of our valley, and also because the shortage of water has for a long time been the cause of irritation between this country and Mexico, whose relations otherwise have been of the most friendly character.

There is no denying that the United States has profited a great deal by the use of this water, which rightfully belongs to the old settlers of this community, their ancestors having used the water they are now deprived of for nearly three hundred years, and it is a crying injustice that these people should be shut off from water now to enrich others in Colorado and New Mexico; and the construction of this dam would not interfere with the prosperity of Colorado or New Mexico, only limiting them to the flow in gravity ditches and allowing the surplus water from the spring floods to be impounded here in a reservoir.

The matter has been before the United States Government for the last twelve years, and as it has recently been brought up in Congress, you would do me a great favor by using your influence with the other members of the subcommittee and see that the committee make a favorable report, recommending the immediate construction of this dam.

I take this liberty of addressing you because I was reared in Mankato, Minn., lived there twenty-two years, and it is probable that we may have many mutual acquaintances there. Refer you to L. P. Hunt, editor of Mankato Free Press and postmaster; H. P. Chrestensen, S. F. Barney, of Mankato, the last two brothers-in-law of mine; and Judge Flandreau, St. Paul. I have interests in Minnesota and visit there nearly every year.

I started in business here nineteen years ago, and I am at present the acting president of our chamber of commerce. You will do me a great favor by taking an interest in this matter, and you can rest assured that the people of this community will appreciate anything you can do to ameliorate their unfortunate condition by impounding the waters here for their use.

Very truly, yours,

W. G. WALZ.

SANTA FE ROUTE.

Hon. DAVID B. HENDERSON,

LAS ANIMAS, COLO., April 12, 1900.

Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: If the writer is correctly informed, a bill for the building of an international dam across the Rio Grande at El Paso, Tex., has been presented in the House by the Representative from the western district of Texas, the provisions of which embody very rank class and post facto legislation not warranted by constitutional authority.

In brief, the bill provides, if information is correct, for the building of said dam to satisfy the claims of Mexico for alleged damages due to lack of water in the Rio Grande at that point, said to be caused by the diversion thereof in New Mexico and Colorado for irrigation. The bill would fix a responsibility and obligation on the United States to recognize and relieve the alleged distress of Mexico from lack of water said to belong to her and diverted from the Rio Grande by the people of New Mexico and Colorado at some point or points wholly within the limits of the United States. This seems preposterous enough, but the special feature of the bill to which I wish to call your attention particularly is that wherein it is provided that the building of all other dams and all other appropriation of water on the Rio Grande above El Paso and within the United States shall be prohibited.

This provision, the reason and necessity for which will presently appear, viewed from the standpoint of the promoters of the said El Paso dam, is intended specifically to prevent the building of another dam across the river at Elephant Butte, 125 miles above El Paso.

This latter project is being promoted to irrigate the Rio Grande Valley from that point south by the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company of Lascruces, N. Mex., and El Paso, Tex. This company was organized in 1893, and in 1894 or 1895 secured the requisite authority for appropriation of water and storage thereof behind the proposed dam at Elephant Butte from the Territory of New Mexico and the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with the laws.

After this company had begun the construction of its subsidiary works the promoters of the El Paso Dam-the same persons who are now fathering the aforesaid pending bill-succeeded in having an injunction issued by the Attorney-General of the United States restrain

ing the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam. This was in 1896. The case went to the United States Supreme Court, being decided in favor of the defendant in every case and point, except that the Supreme Court sent it back to a court of inquiry in New Mexico on questions of fact as to whether the proposed dam would impair any actual navigation of the Rio Grande. This latter court again found in favor of defendant last December, but the prosecution again appealed from the decision, finally dissolving the injunction, and the matter now pends in the supreme court of New Mexico.

Now, I wish to call your attention to these facts, of record:

First. The rights of the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company have, in every case, been sustained by the courts.

Second. In its decision, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to recognize as valid Mexico's claim to waters of the Rio Grande within the territory of the United States-this point being a contention of the prosecution-or to admit the validity of any claim for damages.

Third. In the hearing of the court of inquiry on the facts, the prosecution failed to sustain its contention that there was not water enough for the two reservoirs, the one at El Paso, the other at Elephant Butte, but modified it to the showing that in exceptional seasons only would there be a deficiency.

Having failed in the courts, the necessity of the pending bill is now apparent.

Now, the contention of the supporters of this bill is that never should Mexico be short of water, even in deficient years; hence the absolute necessity of prevention of all storage above El Paso.

Please note that the pending bill proposes to cut off vested rights in New Mexico and give them to aliens-citizens of Mexico. It would take waters within the United States, carry them past the doors of the rightful owners, famishing for lack of them, and give them to Mexico. Can this be defended on any ground? Is this the way for the United States to be relieved from questions of damage? Could the courts sustain such an act? If the real effect of this bill is once understood it will never get to the Senate-not even a favorable report to the House. Since the organization of the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company the writer has had the honor to be its chief engineer; has made an intimate study of the water-storage problem, and knows whereof he speaks.

Our contention is that the waters of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Colorado belong to those Commonwealths, Mexico having no shadow of claim to them.

We can show, moreover, that there is an abundant water supply for all.

Here are the cold figures:

The capacity of the Elephant Butte reservoir is 253,000 acre-feet; that of the El Paso one is 536,000 acre-feet. The mean annual flow of the river (Rio Grande) is not less than 1,000,000 acre-feet. The irrigable area of the entire valley within the limits affected is about 300,000 acres.

This presents all of the essentials of the whole matter. The data given herein are all matters of record in the courts in the hydrographical branch of the United States Geological Survey, in the records of my company, and even in those of the El Paso project.

The real secret back of the unwarranted fight on the rights and interests of New Mexico and Colorado is the determination to create an absolute water monopoly at El Paso, and that, too, wholly at the expense of the United States and their citizens. Mexico is asking much and giving nothing for her relief. Her enlistment in that project was a brilliant but insincere stroke of diplomacy. Bah! for her claim of $22,000,000 damages!

Will you kindly submit this statement for the consideration of the proper committee, and I am sure you will throw your influence for justice and equity as you find them. I am confident the gentleman from Texas does not realize the full measure of the terrible calamity this bill would be for New Mexico in his laudable intention to help his own district.

Yours, very truly,

J. L. CAMPBELL,
Chief Engineer R. G. D. and S. Co.,
Locating Engineer A. T. and S. F. Rwy.

APRIL 10, 1900.

DEAR SIR: On the 19th ultimo Mr. Stephens introduced a bill (H. R. 9710) entitled "A bill to provide for the equitable distribution of the waters of the Rio Grande River between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico, and for the purpose of building an international dam and reservoir on said river at El Paso, Tex."

The main object, as proposed by this bill, is to prevent the construction of dams and reservoirs for purposes of irrigation on the Rio Grande River above El Paso, and secure the construction of a dam at El Paso; an expenditure of $2,317,113.36 to be paid for out of the United States Treasury; the waters to be impounded by said dam to be shared, share and share alike, by the United States and Mexico.

The whole proposition is now involved in litigation, growing out of an injunction suit brought by the United States to prohibit the construction of a dam and reservoir at Elephant Butte, about 125 miles above El Paso. The allegations in the bill of complaint embrace the question of the obligation of the United States to furnish to Mexico a moiety of the waters gathered on our own soil and passing down the Rio Grande River. It is alleged by the Attorney-General in that case that both by treaty obligation and international law the United States is bound to furnish water to the Mexicans. In fact, practically every question that can be raised under this bill is now before the court. The suit was commenced in one of the district courts of New Mexico and appealed by the United States to the Supreme Court of the Territory, and again appealed by the Government to the Supreme Court of the United States. Our Supreme Court decided a portion of the questions involved and sent the case back for a further hearing. It has again been tried in the district court and is now again pending on appeal by the United States in the supreme court of the Territory. I think I can show that the object of this bill is to settle a lawsuit by legislation. In behalf of large financial interests that will be seriously affected should the proposed measure become a law, I ask to be heard before. your committee at such time and place as you may designate.

You will find the case to which I referred reported in 174 U. S., 690.