Geological Survey Professional Paper 669 The Colorado River Region and John Wesley Powell

Almost as soon as he became Director, Powell added paleontology to the Survey program. Lester Ward was appointed paleontologist, though the appointment was also intended to encourage him to continue his sociological writing. O. C. Marsh was persuaded to join the Survey staff, though he kept his laboratory at Yale; C. D. Walcott and C. A. White were placed in charge of still other laboratories. Separate chemical and physical laboratories were set up, and the programs were expanded from their modest beginnings under King. A library was begun, and the publications program was organized. Once the field of the Survey was clearly defined and the topographic work underway, preparation of a preliminary geologic map was begun by W J McGee, and a thesaurus of American geologic formations was started, as well as a bibliography of North American geology. (The classification scheme for the bibliography bore the Powell imprint, all its adjectives ending in "ic": Volcanic, Diastrophic, Hydric, Glacic, Eolic, Biotic, Anthropic, Lithic, Petromorphic, Geochronic, Choric, Geomorphic, and Economic Geology and Geologic Technology.)

Survey appropriations increased steadily, and by fiscal year 1885 were close to the half million that King had considered the ideal. Other scientific agencies were growing as well. By 1884 the trend had become so pronounced that Congress was prompted to charge a joint commission of the Senate and House of Representatives "to consider the present organization of the Signal Service, Geological Survey, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department with a view to secure greater efficiency and economy of administration of the public service in said Bureaus."

The Coast Survey, the oldest of the four bureaus, was first authorized in 1807. Although its first superintendent had insisted that it be civilian controlled and truly scientific, time and again transfer to the Navy had been proposed and more than once accomplished. Now such a transfer was again being proposed. The original function, a survey of the coast, was not yet accomplished, but the bureau had taken on others, including hydrographic studies and geodetic surveys in the interior. The Navy had also been collecting hydrographic information since the 1840's and had set up a separate Hydrographic Office in 1865. The Signal Service was really the weather bureau, as the meteorological observations that had been authorized in 1870 had been expanded into research as well. In 1881 a departmental task force had concluded that there was no natural connection between the military and the weather bureau, but a bill to transfer the function to the Interior Department had remained in committee. The Geological Survey was only 5 years old, but under Powell's aggressive leadership it had already become a broadly based and truly national scientific agency and was engaged in an extensive topographic mapping program. Potentially, if not in fact, there was overlap with the Coast Survey mapping.

The Joint Commission, usually called the Allison Commission after its chairman, Senator William Allison, called upon the National Academy of Sciences for advice. A new Academy committee was named, but its report rather pointedly observed that Congress' failure to carry out the Academy's recommendation for two surveys within the Interior Department had inevitably resulted in a defect in cooperation between the Coast Survey and the Geological Survey. The Signal Service, they thought, could be divided between civilian and military. The Coast Survey and the Hydrographic Office should not be combined, though consolidation of the hydrographic work might be reconsidered after the survey of the coast had been completed.

The Academy Committee sought to establish a general principle on the relation of science to government. The Government should not undertake any work that could be equally well done by the enterprise of individual investigators, and it should confine itself to the increase and systematization of knowledge tending to promote the general welfare. Management of a scientific bureau required a combination of scientific knowledge and administrative ability; they therefore proposed that a department of science be established to direct and control the purely scientific work of the Government. However, recognizing the improbability that Congress would take such action, they proposed alternatively that the scientific work he reorganized into four bureaus which would be placed in one department, the work to be coordinated by a permanent commission.

The commission hearings opened in December 1884, with Major Powell as first witness. He was questioned on the Survey's authority to do geodetic work and to extend its work into the "old" States, even about the necessity for topographic maps as a basis for geologic maps.

In presenting his views on the organization of the scientific work of the Government, Powell recognized two types of scientific investigations: construction based on scientific principles, and investigations designed to furnish information to the people. The latter investigations, he pointed out, could not be planned and executed according to plan. If they could, this would mean that the facts were already known, and if the facts were known, the investigations would be unnecessary. He agreed with the Academy that all scientific work should be under one management, and that it should be led by scientists, but personally he would prefer to have the Smithsonian Institution in charge.

A few days later Major Powell was back to present Interior Department's argument against transferring the topographic work of the Geological Survey to the Coast Survey. There is an ideal order, he told them in which the various kinds of surveys—topographic, geographic, geologic, geodetic, cadastral, and parceling should be undertaken, but practically speaking, the ideal cannot be followed because the land is usually occupied before governments are established. In the United States, experience had shown that topographic mapping under the control of geologists was better and less expensive than if done by some other organization. "Geology is the most comprehensive science studied by man. It draws on all other sciences for its materials. Its most fundamental connection is with topography, because geology in all its branches has for its purpose, either directly or remotely, the explanation of the topography."

He went on to discuss coordination among scientific bureaus. It would be possible to start with any bureau and show its relation to the rest and by so doing make it appear to be the center about which the others gathered. "Science is a fabric of complex structure, and scientific research is by multifarious lines. Many are the ways to interrogate nature and discover her laws." A central organization would have many advantages. It could serve as the Government's scientific authority to which legislative and administrative questions could be addressed. It could also serve to coordinate and stimulate work done by other organizations or by private enterprise, though it could not control the work of others. The Major noted that "scientific men, competent to pursue original research, are peculiarly averse to dictation and official management," but are "anxious that their several labors may be filled into the grand system of scientific operations for the development of knowledge."

Major Powell came out of the hearings with a greatly enhanced reputation, but the hearings had not been completed when Congress adjourned on March 3, and on March 4, 1885, there was a new administration, the first Democratic administration in 25 years. There were investigations of bureaus, rumors of changes, and innumerable seekers after office.

Some evidence of inefficiency was found in the Coast Survey, and the Superintendent was forced to resign. The investigators of the Geological Survey, however, concluded that it was efficiently run and that its accounts were well kept. President Grover Cleveland appointed the head of the investigating team as the new Superintendent of the Coast Surrey, dismaying both the career service and the scientific community at large, and Major Powell's success, in contrast, led to some feeling of bitterness.

When the commission reopened its hearings it was with an entirely new tone. Alexander Agassiz, the head of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, a man of great wealth, who had had a long association with the Coast Survey, had come to the defense of the Coast Survey and had raised certain fundamental questions about the relation of government to science. He concluded that the centralization of science in Washington would lead to disaster. His thesis was typical of the laissez-faire attitude of the day: "Competition is the ideal of scientific activity, and the government should limit its support of science to such work as is within neither the province nor the capacity of the individual or of the universities, or of associations and scientific societies."

Congressman Hilary Herbert wrote to Agassiz inquiring whether the work of the Geological Survey could be brought within proper bounds. It seemed to the Congressman that Major Powell was transcending the rule that Agassiz had laid down about the Government's role in science. He asked specifically about the various studies of the Comstock Lode, about paleontology, and about topography. Agassiz replied that the mining industry studies all seemed to him to fall within the limits of private investigation. Paleontology was one of those things that private individuals and learned societies could do just as well as the Government. They would, in fact, do it more cheaply. As for topography, a geologic map without it was impossible; but if the States did not want a topographic map enough to pay for it, it seemed plain that they did not want the Government to pay for it either!

When Agassiz's letter was made a part of the record of the commission, Powell prepared a reply. He gave credit to Agassiz for the work he had done. But, he said, a hundred millionaires could not do the scientific research work now done by the General Government, and it was questionable whether scientific research and the progress of American civilization should wait until the contagion of Agassiz's example inspired a hundred millionaires to do likewise.

Again Powell affirmed his stand on what scientific research the Government should undertake. First, the Government should not promote research in those fields where private enterprise could be relied on for good and exhaustive work, especially while vast fields where private enterprise could not work were still unoccupied by agents of the Government. In the geologic field, some individuals, notably some able college professors, had made contributions to the geologic surveys, but their contributions, in comparison with those of the official surveys, were small. Historically speaking, Government had had an important share in geology.

The Government should promote the welfare of the people by providing for investigations in those fields most vitally affecting the great industries in which people engaged. Not only mining but agriculture profited from Geological Survey investigations.

Then there was the problem of efficiency. "The results of local investigation are of general value to many districts, and a knowledge of the geology of one locality must be derived from an examination of many other localities." Thus, a survey "should be organized on the broadest territorial base possible" for one such organization could accomplish more than 20 with the same amount of money spread among them.

In conclusion, Powell took a firm stand against Agassiz's idea of competition. "Possession of property is exclusive; possession of knowledge is not exclusive; for the knowledge which one man has may also be the possession of another. The learning of one man does not substract from the learning of another, as if there were a limited quantity of unknown truth. Property may be divided into exclusive ownership for utilization and preservation, but knowledge is utilized and preserved by multiple ownership. That which one man gains by discovery is the gain of other men. And these multiple gains become invested capital, the interest on which is all paid to every one, and the revenue of new discovery is boundless. It may be wrong to take another man's purse, but it is always right to take another man's knowledge, and it is the highest virtue to promote another man's investigation. The laws of political economy do not belong to the economics of science and intellectual progress."

A minority report proposed that the Geological Survey should expend no money for paleontology, except for the collection, classification, and proper care of fossils, and should publish only an annual report. Authors of other works might publish them at their own expense. The Survey would no longer need its physical plant, which the Secretary of the Interior was therefore to sell. The Coast Survey was to be transferred to the Navy because the "real scientists on this subject of nautical maps are educated sailormen, naval officers." Almost the entire scientific community rose to do battle.

The majority report required that the Geological Survey itemize the publication costs for which money was to be appropriated. The majority of the commission expressed themselves as having "no doubt of the wisdom of a geological survey of the whole country; the question of the propriety of its being done by the General Government they considered as settled by existing legislation." Moreover, they were of the opinion that "the administrative part of the Bureau is well conducted, and with economy and care, and discloses excellent administrative and business ability on the part of its chief." The Coast Survey was left in civilian hands, a tacit acknowledgment that scientific bureaus should be administered by scientists. Although no action was taken at the time about the Signal Service of the Hydrographic Office, and no department of science was established, the General Government had accepted a role in scientific research.

At the end of fiscal year 1885, in the midst of the Allison Commission hearings, the Director was able to announce that at last a plan had been developed for publishing the topographic map of the United States that was reasonably economic and met other requirements as well. The map was being made primarily for representation of the geology, but it would be useful for many other purposes was well: "in the study of drainage systems; in the study of the regimen of rivers; in the study of the great subject of irrigation; in the study of the distribution of forests; in the study of catchment areas for the supply of water to cities; in the study of the drainage of swamps and overflowed lands; in the study of soils and the classification of lands for agricultural purposes; and in the laying out of highways, railroads, and canals." The maps would also be useful in the event of war, but there was no demand more exacting than that of the geologist, and "if properly made to meet his want they will subserve all the purposes of the civil engineer, the agriculturist, the military engineer, and the naturalist." It would not be long before an opportunity would develop to test the usefulness of the maps.

By 1888 many were ready to admit that Powell had been right when he had said that the land laws were not suited to the lands of the arid region, that they worked to the advantage of the land speculator and the large landlord rather than the individual settler. An effort was made to repeal the Desert Land Act, the Timber Culture Act, and the Preemption Act, but it failed.

Moreover, a series of dry years had had disastrous effect on the east edge of the arid region, and those who had disregarded the warnings about irrigation were now seeking sources of water to supplement the deficient rainfall. On February 13, 1888, the Senate asked the Secretary of the Interior whether the Geological Survey should be asked to survey and segregate irrigable lands and reservoir and canal sites in the arid regions. This was the opportunity for which Major Powell had been waiting, and planning, for 10 long years. He had found no reason to change the conclusions of his report on the Lands of the Arid Region, though he had seen the problems become increasingly aggravated. By now, the smaller streams were mainly utilized, so the only course open was to concentrate on the larger streams. Utilization of the large streams would require cooperative enterprise. Still, that was no reason to delay the survey of irrigable lands.

During the 10 years, the Major had added to his plan. He now knew that by taking out water for irrigation in the upper reaches of streams, the amount of water and debris reaching the lower regions during floods would be reduced, and land there could be reclaimed as well.

In March 1888 the Congress called on the Secretary of the Interior to examine "that portion of the United States where agriculture is carried on by means of irrigation, as to the natural advantages for the storage of water for irrigation purposes with the practicability of constructing reservoirs, together with the capacity of streams, and the cost of construction and the capacity of reservoirs and such other facts as bear on the question."

Powell's program was transmitted to the Joint Committee on March 29. He had interpreted the area covered by the request as every place beyond the 20-inch-rain fall line, thus taking in two-fifths of the United States. To accomplish what was asked, he proposed first a topographic survey, which would permit a preliminary designation of irrigable lands; then a hydrographic survey to measure streamflow and plot catchment basins to make the designation more precise; and finally a preliminary engineering survey to determine the feasibility of construction. If appropriations were available, the job could be done in 6 or 7 years; he estimated that the total cost would be 5.5-7 million dollars.

The Irrigation Survey was authorized in the appropriations bill passed on October 2, 1888. In order to prevent speculation, the House added an amendment that all the lands that might be irrigated by the reservoirs and canals to be located by the survey should be withdrawn from entry. Lest this he too drastic, an additional amendment authorized the President, at his discretion, to restore any or all lands to entry.

Powell was ready. Captain Clarence Dutton was placed in overall charge of the Irrigation Survey, and A. H. Thompson was in charge of the topographic work. Fieldwork began without delay in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Montana, and a training camp was established on the Rio Grande at Embudo, N. Mex., where a group of men was instructed in the methods of measuring the flow of rivers and other hydrographic techniques. In March 1889, Congress appropriated an other $250,000 for the survey, and in April, the Major was ready to certify the first reservoir site.

Powell accompanied the Senate Committee on Irrigation on its inspection tour of the arid regions in the summer of 1889 at the invitation of its chairman, Senator Stewart. During the trips he addressed two constitutional conventions meeting in preparation for admission of territories to statehood. To the North Dakota convention, he made a plea for State control of water rights. In the eastern part of the State, he reminded them, there was sufficient rainfall and in the western a permanent dependence on irrigation. The danger was in the middle region. "Years of abundance will come and years will come of disaster, and between the two the people will be prosperous and unprosperous, and the thing to do is to look the question squarely in the face. * * * There's almost enough rainfall for your purposes, but one year with another you need a little more than you get. * * * There are waters rolling by you which are quite ample to redeem your land and you must save these waters. * * * Don't let these streams get out of the possession of the people. * * * Fix it in your constitution that no corporation—no body of men—no capital can get possession of the right of your waters."

To the Montana Constitutional Convention he presented a still more radical proposal, speaking, he said, "as an old pioneer, not as a statesman," that the county boundaries should be drawn on the basis of geography. "In the western half of America, the local, the state, the territorial county governments, and the regulations and the national government are in no sense adapted to the physical conditions of the country."

There were 35 million acres of land in Montana that could be redeemed by irrigation, but only if every drop of water falling on the land remained within the State. A man in any given drainage basin must be interested in every part of it because the entire drainage basin gathers the water that he needs. The primary unit of organization in the arid lands should be the drainage basin which would practicably have a county organization.

Although his eloquence had little effect on the constitutional conventions (only Wyoming wrote into its constitution the principle that water rights were tied to the land), he continued in a barrage of speeches, magazine articles, innumerable letters, and meetings to explain his points. The best and safest agriculture, and the oldest, was irrigation agriculture. Perhaps 20 percent of the western lands could be reclaimed by irrigation, but that 20 percent added up to more land than had been tilled so far in the Nation. The water to reclaim that 20 percent would have to come from the large rivers. Dams on the large rivers, if properly engineered, would provide protection from floods and permit a controlled flow that would prevent wasteful runoff and allow the reclamation of arid lands at the headwaters and swamplands near the river mouths.

Laws governing the ownership or use of interstate or international rivers must be worked out and a plan devised to obtain the means to construct the enormous engineering works necessary for development of the great rivers; such construction was beyond the capabilities of an individual or a company. The first step, however, was a systematic and careful survey, and that, without question, was a proper function of the Government's scientific bureaus.

The times were not ready for Powell's kind of planning. At first, the General Land Office continued to issue patents on claims, and speculators kept track of the Government surveying parties in order to stake claims promptly on prospective reservoir and canal sites. The Commissioner of the Land Office on August 5, 1889, ordered the local offices to cancel all claims filed after October 2, 1888. In the ensuing furor, the Land Office, for a time, was forced to issue patents again, but with the warning that they might be invalidated. In April 1890 the Solicitor General ruled that as soon as Congress had appropriated money for the Irrigation Survey, all irrigable lands were reserved; as no one would know which were the irrigable lands until the Survey should certify them, all claims filed after October 2, 1888, had to be invalidated. The amendment designed to prevent speculation had, in effect, repealed the land laws and closed the public domain. The President could reopen it, but the President did not. There was immediate and mounting pressure on Congress to do so.

The public, and the lawmakers, wanted a quick answer to the irrigation problem, not a slow, careful survey and the preparation of topographic maps before the irrigation works could be certified.

In April 1890 Powell submitted his plan of operations for the coming year with a request for an appropriation of $720,000. Before the House Appropriations Committee could open hearings, the Senate passed a resolution demanding to know how much, if any, of the money appropriated for irrigation surveys had been diverted to topographic work, and, if so, by what authority the money appropriated by Congress for one purpose could be diverted and used for another purpose for which an appropriation was also made.

The Senate hearings were prolonged and bitter. They began by questioning the propriety of Powell's being the source of information for Presidential proclamations that would sometime return the land to settlement. But he had not asked for these powers—Congress had given him a job to do. Where would such a survey as he was conducting lead? Was the Government to take over the whole business of irrigation? Major Powell pointed out that by the Desert Land Act a homesteader had to irrigate before he could obtain title, and he could not irrigate without knowledge or money. The least the Government could do would be to assure a homesteader that irrigation was possible. But how could the Government say that irrigation was possible, if the Government did not control the water? And could the Government control water without building dams and canals? The Major thought that the Government could simply refuse to sell or release lands unless they were irrigable. No sane settler would take a chance far from the mountains or from actual or proposed irrigation works. "Do you conceive that there is any risk or doubt in the Government's assuming that relation and undertaking to deal with the flow and use of water in the great streams? Do you think it is better than to leave it to nature and the common incidents of human life?" asked Senator Hale. "I think it would be almost a criminal act to go on as we are doing now, and allow thousands and hundreds of thousands of people to establish homes where they cannot maintain themselves," the Major replied.

This was the crux of the matter. Did the Government have the right, or the duty, to protect the people's welfare? Or should nature take its course? Congress was not yet ready to admit that the Government had this right, or this duty. The appropriation was cut to $162,500, all power of reserving irrigable band was eliminated, and the hydrographic survey was cut out. Powell's hope that science could provide for orderly settlement of the West had again come to naught.