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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1908)
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL; PORTLAND, ' SUNDAY vrfORNINq NOVEMBER 8, 1908. VALUE Br Randall R. Howard. A' N EARNEST group of men had strayed from their political dls cuaalon and were talking- about the resource and wonders and 1 o possibilities of the Paclflo coast ' states, when one of them put, point , blank, to the spokesman this Question: "And what do you consider Oregon's greatest resource?" There was a per ceptible moment of hesitation before bis lips could flip back to us the single word, "Water. Th several pairs of eyes that were focused on him betrayed that they had. erery one, expected any thing else in answer, and from most of them there shot out a tinge of scep ticism, almost rebuke. - "Yes. water is not only Oregon's most valuable resource," he firmly continued, "but the one that she most carelessly neglects. The day will om when water will mean more to Oregon than hsr forests and minerals and livestock com blned, yet at the present time we are treating water as if it .were as In exhaustible as air and of as little im portance as our last year's grasshopper crop." The thought is worth meditating. An3 : surely there must be a kernel In the fact that the initial bulletin sent out by the national conservation commis sion, recently appointed by the presi- ." dent as a result of the late conference of governors at Washington, D. C. de voted more pages to water than - to any other topic Water is so common " so awfully common that only th harsh grating of privation or the cold reflection of the study arouses us to , our dependence on It and its lntrinslo ' 'value. In these days of umbrellas our - only thought is in getting away from water, dry-skinned and good tempered; we have rubbered ourselves underfoot, ' macklntoshed ourselves about, and urn breilaed ourself across half the slde- - walk all that we may escape water yet the serious man says that water is v the salvation of our state and that its ' neglect is a mark of public lassitude, A Few of the Big Facts About Water. Cut here are a few facts. Three fourths of Oregon Is classed as arid or semi-arid, and the use and development of s rid land la supremely limited by ' only one .thingwater. When the east ern home-seeker Inquires about vacant land he Is pointed to the arid districts and practically all the open land In America today Is arid: and while there - are possibilities in dry farming and tstock raising yet the first choice of i land will always be where irrigation ' is possible, at least hopeful. It is well known that In an arid section water makes the difference between the acre worth IVfor gracing and from f 100 to v $1,000, even 15,000 as intensive farming t or fruit land. The irrigated land Is f the- highest priced agricultural lendr of - - - our ' state today. Without water for .. irrigation there could be no world-famed Hood river or Rogue river or eastern ' rgon orchards. And the time seems almost here when the Willamette val-f- ley will put aside Its conservatism and insure immensely better crops through, v Irrigation, since it Is proved that .the rainfall here is less by half, during the ' growing season, than in many sections -.. commonly known and classified as arid. ... If the little trickle of water three ... fourths of a pint per second running for a hundred days during the summer, will make an acre orchard out of a : lisardy desert and create $200 worth of wealth, what is the value of a rushing ., creek or a deep river? Surely In the arid section it is the water and not : the land that returns prosperity and in sures independence. Surely, even the , child would say, we must be consider ing water one of our most valuable re - sources and are carefully guarding it by law and public opinion. ' But the humiliating fact is that in our P7XTrTfT TT3 TT7Q Vi.LJLN 1 J JS.1E0 THE Balkan region may ba called above all 'things the land of con fusion. It is the land of war, the land of rapine, of cruelty, of treachery, of tyranny, of almost all that's evil, but above all It Is the land of confusion. It has been ' so for 1,500 years. The New York Sun says: The con fusion began with that Invasion of bar- ' barlans which overthrew the Roman empire. Th Wild tribes which swept down over the Carpathians or in from .. the steppes of Russia found It in the enjoyment of the Greek and Roman civ ilizations. Some of them swept on, . some settled down in the region between the Adriatic and the Black sea They . tangled up the civilization they found with their own barbaric customs. Thev created a racial confusion which Is still at .the bottom of all the other confus ions that make up the Balkan problem. In a territory not much bigger than " France there are to be found today the ' distinct survivals of three races goln; back to primitive times. The Albanian, Rumanian and Greek peoples are lineal " descendants of peoples who have held the country since Immemorial times. The Albanians are of the old Illyrlan stock. Every one knows who the Greeks ; are. Th Rumanians are nobody qufte knows who, but most likely the Thra ' clans of old days with a strong Roman modification, not to speak of various subsequent admixtures. Mixture Indeed is the racial law of , the Balkans. Only the Illyrlan blood l approximately pure. Even the Greeks . . of today have a large percentage of : Slavic blood in them. r- The original Bulgars were a Flnno- Tartar people, akin to the Magyars. But the race has been so nearly assimilated bv the Slavic people whom they found In the regions where they settled that the present Bulgarians, despite the name, are far more Slay than Turanian . In their characteristics. Next after the lllyrians, or Albanians, the Serbs are the purest blooded Balkan 1 people. But they are a comparatively recent arrival. They are probably 90 per cent Slavic. The race has been only slightly modified by the peoples whom they overthrew and intermarried with when they took possession of Servla, -.Bosnia, Herzegovina. Novibazar and . Montenegro', where they now make up a majority of the population. Tangle of Population. But the racial confusion Is not in the blood alone. It Is still more remarkable ln th matter of location. For instance, of th 4,000,000 Bulgars who live In the Balkans only about 2,700,000 live in Bulgaria itself, while the rest lnnablt Russia, Rumania, in.trifi-Hrrrarv and th Tuririuh nrnv Austna-fivngary ana tne iurwsh prov- mces. especially Maceaonia. un the - population of Bulgaria is made up of ihr0h the hierarchy of the Grecian Turks, Rumanians, Greeks, Gypsies ""?' v. ..,, 5,000 of them), Spanish Jews (Jf.UO), .i..JLn2?y(t"?y1, b? "?! dJ rVI,e..hatr1 - Tatars and samples of all the other S,16" nth9 -iS? JecX f ,Khr'SKia.n" U narinnatltloH of purntui . often more bitter than that between ' only 2,600.000 of them live in Servia.r5ot, the J,tS,lJl' n.J hei,Mace" -Th rest are scattered over Montenegro. 'donltn 1,.,?. thZ, un" : Bosnia. Herzegovina, Novibazar, Croatia; Bpeakabh ail2v,t!e,' ma' ,MaT eiBionia amith Hiinimrv iatria unA donia the most distressful country In ' f'sVmaUa. ! BulTof pe'r'cent'of th; 't'irhoS T mantn'rati' VLbft. ttot klngoo'tn. ?h kJ!&",ct M ly 11,9 other half being found in Transylvania, M0ph1fjnr?!d5i"SPnheil th ,hr,k which is Austrian; in Bessarabia, now .hThJ Si?? cAurfL iJSS0"? 0,f. liti?' ln SerVlU D la ti slaMurn ft Bulgarla'serVl's have kept" thel? CSrftory pretty fe7of P e"t of th Population, the Mo- tranrs. They arrhapa fh wild- hammedans about it and the .Roman et people in th world, and It Is said Catholics 21. ..." - that only Pyrrhu the Threat ever cen- In Albania th great majority of the . ouere lUjl but besides fhej ToOO 000 Popl ar Mohammedans .though frce- a : t them nUabitin-Albnla. tha mmmimn 1? postil to the Turkish government t li.or of tb AdrlatleLouth of Mont Thero ar. however.' about 200,000 Chrls 5 r-ro. thir are 200,000 of them id lan equally divided between the two Greece and lOO.vOO la southern Italy . !Yet- So hate ' ach other, j. The Mo A for Macedonia, to dacrib th hammedans. Albanians and th Turks, confuKlon of races la almost Impossible, with at Impartial hatred. T't- i hararterlstlc faet is the tendency ' . of ii the races to fiock by themselves- Bulgarian Greatness, u. Ji bfrm Is mlxttir in th towns and ther ' . " ' '". . ' . r. a few vtllsses ln which Turks Bui" " All th multiform hatreds Which-keep . g.-.rs aid Greeks Uv together; but for th Balkan pepploa seething ia disorder OF WATER TO III., xl'?:-' ' ' ' . - - i-i i I, iiKifipiim w ,7j7 mute III-. v, . . ' . v .- . i -?S llll" T.M . t' . rtiKi!' f'.kf.: I iJM. . - - state where water means so much w have only childish and antiquated laws which can do scarcely anythine- toward justly distributing and conserving this element which alone can render habit- able and productive the larger part of 2nS JS.,WeihJ6 JUSZI JZnd w.' f2.SL7L f"-4, but u water law l are Jorrowed frotn ?h.P2fihif".d. An-d1Srn-t-a-,,?" Thrf f-1 wS, Wf" ?ht?.ZUnV hif .'-A .7. i.-I1 lit. T2 - l'i 5tl?2,iwylr,".aS?.he-oc.ca: ai- nlU-?Un p.la,y , ,n,h,hi Sfil" J ,waiter n".8r" m?lntaln thelr tv.butJleaI y watrl,.s Ue m0B buffeted and beaten and trtisunderstood and unappreciated living th ng of our proud state. The Water situation is very simple. In Oregon and in many ri uh thing as a definite title to water. The ?i iIL! A0ernm, srl.v rfflnlte iitle to land, but ror the water that renders the land productive and that nature ana common sense and the experience of older civ ligations than our own teaches should be attached perpetually ' 'uc uicio m no Bccuuiy ui utie and only a hazy court decreed recoenl- tlon In law. Supports Over Twenty Lawyers. Take an example of the working of the most part each of these three peo ples has Its own settlements. You wlK find a Bulgarian village more Bulgarian than any in Prince Fer dinand's dominions, and a few miles from it there will be a Greek village as Greek as any In the Peloponnesus. Making a triangle with the other two, a Turkish village will be found where every man wears a fez and every woman goes veiled. Confusion of Tongues. Along with the confusion of races comes the confusion of tongues. Babel was nothing to It The Bulgarians have a language of their own, or rather they have Innumerable languages, for there Is no pan-Bulgarian tongue. Every district, almost every village, has a dialect of Its own, all funda mentally Slavic but Influenced In dif ferent degrees by Turkish, Albanian, Servian, Rumanian and old Bulgar In fluences. Out of these the Panublan dialect now shows a tendency to emerge as the literary standard for a national language. As a medium for ft the Cyrillic alphabet, invented by St. Cyril perhaps about 1,200 years ago when he first translated the Oospels and the Greek. liturgy into Servian, has been adopted. There are newspapers and some books printed In It. The Servian language Is a more set tled thing. It Is spoken all over the regions Inhabited by the Servian people, and thanks to -fit. Cyril It has a set tled form. In fact It has a copious lit erature, divided into three periods. In the earliest age religious works predominate; a Dalmatian period extend ing from the Kth to the 18th century possesses much poetry, both epic and lyric, and historic and legandary chron icles. The modern period as adopted the forms of western Europe and abounds In good writers. The Rumanian language Is a Romance tongue preserving the Latin forms, though the vocabulary Is largely Thra clan and Slavic. It also is broken up Into dialects, especially In the outly ing colonies such as the Zlnzars, who live in the mountains In Macedonia But It has had for centuries a fixed, stand ard and there Is an extensive Rumanian literature both ancient and modern. Add to these tongues the Albanian, which has no literature and hardly an alphabet, the Greek and the Turkish, and the linguistic confusion Is com plete. The Religious War. The tangle of religions Is almost equally remarkable. There are the Mo- hammedans and there are the Chrls- tians. but there are Christians of the Orthodox Greek church, whom the Ro- man Catholics call schismatic, and . .,..,.. , , . ,. . there are Christians of the other Greek h,..h wi,nm fh Roman rnthnii. .n -"rhy-, ih. iiuh rZ: our water laws. There is a little dls- trlct of eight sections In the Walla ... . , -..,.,,. .,,, wkirh TValla valleV of Umatilla county which is supporting over 10 lawyers py Its continuous water litigation. The pres- ent suit has been in the courts for hree years- and ...following the usual C0Urse, it will probably Be as many "-ore years before a decision is reached. HaI'' a thousand persons have been made Parties to the suit, and Its out- Com a vlta matter to the 50,00 J re- ldonts of the valley, for with water much of the land Is worth $1,000 per acre, and without It there is no assur- ance and nttle possibility of any crops at all. Perhaps Justice in the regula- tlon and distribution of the life giving water of thlg valley would not be too costly even at iiiis price, ir sucn a suit could definitely settle anything, but It can not- I' w'u decide the present rel- atlve rights of all the persons who have been made parties to the suit, but there is nobodv to enforce the court de- cree and a newcomer may upset the whole, court-made system by a new dl- version or water, ana men tne entire matter must he fnuirht thrnnrh ci n with a painful repetition of the fees forithe score of lawyers, and the anx- iety and community turmoil. Bven nnturn whpn h nitiirallv aVitrta tv, a channel of the 8tream,'can cause untold "RA T TZ A XT TTZITh jDJt.l.JrLPH W UD and bloodshed are centuries old in their origin. There were the Bulgarians, for in stance, who already In the sixth cen tury were at war with the emperors at Constantinople, who, converted to Christianity in the ninth century, reached such power ln the tenth that their ruler, Symeon, assumed the title of czar qf all the Bulgarian the title Just revived by Prince Ferdinand and ruled over a territory extending from tlte Black sea to the Adriatic and al most from" the Carpathians south to Adrianople. This great monarchy was orerthrown about the year 1000 A. D., and we find the Byzantine emperor, Basil II, com pleting Its subjection in 1020, when he Stormed the palace of I.ychnidus, and found ln It a treasure of 10,000 pounds weight, nf gold, equal In value, perhaps, to 12,000.000. Mis method of signaliz ing his conquest was characteristic of the age. He caused 16.000 of his cap tives to be blinded. But to one out of every 100 men he spared a single eye, in order that they might lead the whole lamentable phalanx to their king, a fugitive ln some mountain fastness. It is related that he died of horror on beholding them. Is It wonderful that the Bulgar hates the Greek T Servia'a Heroic Period. Servla also has its heroic period. In 1050 Michael, Its grand shupan, was rec ognized as an Independent sovereign by Pope Gregory VII. Its power reached a climax between 1331 and, 1335. when Stephen Dushan called himself h em peror of the Rumellans and ruled over a territory which embraced Bosnia, Al bania, Macedonia, Thessaly, part of Bul garia and Greece as far as the Isthmus of Corlrh. Stephen Dushan Is the great hero of Servian legend. He lies buried in, the Studenitza monastery in Servla land when King Peter was called to the throne he made a pilgrimage thither and kissed the dead emperor's brow. The remains, wrapped ln their ancient winding sheet, are encased in a coffin of black wood and on the breast lies a golden crucifix containing in the center a particle of the true cross. There Is an outer coffin also which was present ed by the ancestors of King Peter, th Karageorgovltcbes. It is a massive af fair of silver with a crimson velvet top and a great silver cross upon It.- when the obrenovltches wer ln pow er ln Servla this gorgeous casement was hidden away in the cellar of the mon astery and King Alexander and. Queen Drags presented- a wonderful et of golden vestments to be used ln the great ceremonies of the monastery church. Nowadays the vestments' are ln hiding in the cellar and the silver coffin is ln ev idence again. The Servians expect- th Kmperor Stephen to reappear as a' sort of a. Messiah. . Turkish Conquest The overthrow of Servla was finally completed by the Sultan Mohammed II.. 'who, having taken Constantinople ln 1453, devoted his attention to the Balkan region. From this time until th be ginning of the" nineteenth century Ser vla had practically no history, but an offshoot from its people kept up th fight against th Turks unceasingly and without over being overcome. ,v After the battle of Kossovo, 1n 1J8, a band of refugees under one Ivo, th black, took possession of the rugged mountain tract Just above Cattaro, on the. Adriatic shores. i The region was named Tzrnagora, or the Black moun tain; the Montenegro of today. Ivo is another of the heroes whom th Serbs expect to com -back some day and help drive th Turk out of Europe. The Montenegrins still wear a badg of mourning ln their caps for him. HI spirit has certainly been continually alive in the littl realm that he found ed. UndeV Its prince bishops, who suc ceeded each other for more than three centuries from uncle to' nephew. Monte negro hast1 not entry resisted Turkish eon quest but has frequently sent armies out to Jttdrlbasar and Uaoedonia and in OREGON ?t xt"; ;z f& Z- AN EVIDENCE OF WAITED WATER: VPPLtt trouble for. under the law. nobody has a right to reshlft it. , Waitinn'for New Laws "w in some sections of the state water ...,,, v,.. . . a"d peace and Justice Is seemingly maintained by the exercise of common snnait and thA maloritv rule. But as th. ..s.m.v.iinlt.r K.n..- -nr thtrl,lv settled and Water more valuable, per- flicted tremendous losses upon th sol- dlers of the porte. The Great Awakeninsr i nc ureal waaening. It is a singular clrcutnsunce Wat th. awakening aga nst the Turkish domina- tlon which lasted for nearly 850 years after the conquest showed Itself In v- eral regions about the same time. Just at the period when Alexander Tysilant ... . . , , . , , was putting an end to Turkish mlsrul ln the country which is now Rumania, Greeks were starting that heroic struggle for Independence In which Lord Byron played a picturesque part The Servians simultaneously began a bitter and determined fight to throw off Turk- tsh rule. In 11104 Kara George, wh was oer- tainly a peasant and perhaps a brigand, finding that he was down on a list of persons to be massacred, took to the mountains and raised the standard of Io1iL ete?te i"18 Turkish force and in 1806 he took possession of Bel- grade. The Russians helped him for awhile, then deserted him. and he was obliged to take refuge in Hungary. The Turks swept over the country ln 1814 with murder and pillage. They crucified 806 Christians at Belgrade. But now one of the lieutenants of Kara George began V?,l0om,u&wlth n"w '"fn"1- Thl w Mtlosch Obrenovitch. also a peasant, a swineherd, who haf acted si spy for - . . . L ivara ueorge in me early pari or me struggle, xi is Dan a a in 181ft made such headway against the Turks that the CONTENTMENT A little bird sat on a tree. And sang this song right merrily: "I'm glad, as glad as 1 can be. That I'm a bird upon a tree." A pretty golden butterfl) Among the blossoms fluttered by, by, Ana asicea ner mate, woo nigh: wanaerea "Who would not ba a butterflyT . ..... ' Ai tl,nyJ,IULa dal,r"now?.r Unclosed her eys when -passed th . . fb,wf r . - , , And .m I led to feel th sun' warm .. . power: "It is so sweet to b a flowr." . , , . , v A gent , playful summer breej Blew o'er the nelds snd stirred the tree, 7bJ5ff.-h-5-SBJ?.-;i?,eVi . . ' - "-"" w w.m . breeze T" And Jack, a chubby little boy. With romping dog snd rattling toy, Cried out, with shouts of keenest joy, "It's jolly Tine to be a boy." Donald A. Fraser In the Delineator. The. Sea Hate. From the London Dally News. Soft It sings in shining ripples, glad ... Je?ea'h.u'eolaen. da7- With a laugh among the du grass, a it flings Its jewel SDrav: ButJ hate Its smiles and whispers, for beneath the white, curled crests Lies the great black heart of terror and the wrath that never rests. ,... , ,. . . , . . . . , Hldden from the blessed daylight. In nritB cavit,hvSf and throb- . With a dreadful choking gurgle and a . . ond of dying sobs; And th long dark trailing seaweed. lifted , on Its ebb and . flow. Is like hair of drowned women Whelmed wunin in unueriow, Through the pale-green dusks of twi- ngpi, irora iam roiiins mystic line., :;eVuiar.bttt,r-'ai,-. But I flee th siren music of th cruel luring flood, . " For 'tis dootti .ii In Its message and the answer In, my blood: ,.jr. . . . . . ... - . . F. O'Neill Gallagher The Only Kind. From th Baltlmor American. "Do you 'think our favorit has ehn2 1 wJn 1 that prise flahtr "Oh, yes; h bae a flghUng cftaae.V Great Power GenerateJ an Ttousands o Acres Irrigated ty Splendid Streams Possibilities in tLe Future Development cf Ttis Resource ;: , suasion and argument go t the winds and open strife is sure to follow In time. Such an example may be taken from Crook county, There' is a fine mountain creek which has already r- covered from the desert thousands of acres of land. Under proper utilization Jt lB capable of recovering as many- more acres. But who is to say what Is proper utilization? Our state law Is si- lent on the oolnt. One man may take Anshiio-h nfnt.r iunA thin In an AtiiAl case) to flood . his entire farm six Tangle RaCC5 Tonues and R-ltfoua Beliefs Wkick Dates Back BarWan Invasion of Europe-Centuries cf Struggles Atfainst tne sultan was forced to make terms with him. Kara George came back Into the coun- try. but Mlfosch betrayed him to the Turks, who killed him., Rivalry thus re- moved MUosch ha 1 Pclaimed lllJ9. lty waa rec0gnized by the porte and then began its rPan Btat- ,Th1e,,desc1endant," LP. Kara onBDtor thZM co!l?'lreJ?. Ior . e. 'nrono. The-Obrenovltches were deposed in 1842 and the Karageorgovitches seized th tifl of prince. A few years later a prince of their line was assassinated and th Obrenovltches came back, and thus It was that Prince Milan, an Obren- ovitch, found himself on the throne at the era of the Russo-Turkish war. Another region in whteh the standard of revolt was raised ln the beginning of th nineteenUi century was the south- ern section of Albania, where the fa- mous or Infamous All Pasha, the Hon of Janina, established for a few brief years a sort of Independent power. Those who are Interested ln his career can gain a good view of It on easy terms from Maurus Jokal's novel "The Lion of Janina" Bulgarian Atrocities. All these struggles ln the early part bf th nineteenth century brought free- j , .,.. . ... dom. 'n on8 deKree or another totha ni.tlnn.il.. a.At,A- - uvivu8 owLt-a. auwuioi ucm-i struggle against 1876 the Turk hpnan ln lur" oegan in ln tne8e m ter there seems to b a sort of contagion. It Is certain that a,n,':plde,n,01 r unrest ran through the Balkan peninsula In that year Bui- aria, which had been so enslaved as to e called the peasant state, after cen- turles of submission, showed signs of awakening. The brutalities of Turklsn rule seemed to be brought to a head by l the establishment of a Circassian col- ony in the heart of the country. The peasantry revolted an atne Bsitii Bazouks, th Turkish irregular soldiery, maintained especially for purposes of atrocity, were sent in to put down the uprising. . . . Th populations of towns and villages f wiped out. The houses were burned, the women outraged or carried off to Turkish harems, children wer slaughtered In their mother's arms, and men wer burned allvedn the churches. hundreds at a, time. When the news of thes doings was spread through Europe by Januarius Aloysius MacGahan. tfia famous correspondent of th London Payw,Te,eT!:aPhl th1re WM aa.!.,nco?- iruiiauie uuiuui di ui uuirui, iu mo i um of th- Turk in the devastated regions " WaBut "simultaneous with th Bulgarian RoumanU's Progress, lnsurrectloa the Servians under Prince while all this waa going on ln Bul MUan had declared war on Turkey. Tho , 7 " , . JI . i n the main tiros troops sent against them also wasted garla Roumanla was in th mam pros their country with murder and pillage, perlng greatly and olvlllzlng herseir. In Bosnia and Herzegovina was also a Thfl natjonal exhibition held two years revolt and also more atrocities. .,, , vnnr the for Montenegro declared war on the sul- ago at Bucharest In honor or the ror tan and an army of brave mountaineers tleth anniversary of King Carlos acces- sultan's troops went to oppose them, there also were unspeakable cureltles m arched Into Macedonia, wnerever in uti-nn th. rhriattnn nonulatlon. i. r.miiii wmiM take the lead in ending this domination of murder, lust and robbery;- but Eng- lonri r.ncr niadstone. tanin'orlzed . and negotiated; - Russia went to War, and with th Roumanians. Servians .and Montenegrins as her allies, drove the Turks back past Plevna and Shlpka pass, over the Balkans Into Roumanla and as far south almost as Adrlanople, whn th. sultan stive wav and signed h trutr nf Run fetefn.no. by which he surrendered the greater part or nis of Bernn has been one of material prog European dominions, ress! , The capital. Belgrade, ha. been r t i..ii ' ' ' . - -tistiv rohnllt and modernized ln th ujnircil UK nei lira. . -- ' . , f.mt as th trade of th country Thu 2JTSlt5 tZLVXSZuZ Bde1 tn troubles of th Balkan penln- tTiem and agriculture ar flourishing. Its suli. but -'It wasdd much . for Europe's : : government -however, has been a trou- Jealousies.,- Th congress of Berlin was . blespm aKalr. dehaucneriaa ' .. . . .... i h th.V-.King Mitan ,tound th deb called in H7I to revise It, and by- th treaty which It framed the greater part of Macedonia was restored to Turkey, ik... i .v.. ,.- h r -i..i .r. r i Ust 10 year a - i Koumania. which had for years been flourishing independsnt principality, Inches deep every S4 hours and dyna mite the headgates of other water users who object to the waste, while scores of other tfater users and prospective water users will not have enough to save their crops from the hot winds" or, wator their stock. This particular com munity, typical of many others, Is wor rying along, hoping for a new water law. And If they don't get the law there is only one thing to do take the whole matter of the intricate water reg ulation before a court and lawywrs that perhaps never saw an irrigated farm, who will go quibbling on pMhtejnt for years with a lighter or a minus bank balance as the only permanent gain to the water user. All through eastern Oregon, as I traveled last summer there was the same waiting and hedg ing and retardation in the irrigated districts. "As soon ss we get this water matter settled," they would say, 'ws Intend to fix up the ranch." There is the deserted shack of the man who was sold a useless water right by an Irrigation . company operating under state laws; there Is the dry. ditch -that is empty because somebody is willfully wasting or hoarding the water jthat God surely meant for the common and general good of man; and there is the , at&loue settler and capitalist waiting, he'-knows not how long, until he has some assurance of the stability of his Investment before he will build dams or ditches, and improve his land. Only Half of the Story T1& -And only half of the story has been told when we talk about the. Immense ' value of water, for Irrigation to the arid land of Oregon, flven .more valuable, . some day, promise! to be our great tat wealth of water power. A single --II !C Sk example will catch the point It Is es- tlmated that the lower 36 miles of the Deschutes, river If harnessed today, would yield an annual Income of 6.000,- 000, and the school boy knows that this bit of water power can bo duplicated many times in our state. ine commer- cial value of a single horsepower is from 80 to 76 gallons per day, and theoretical horse power Is produced by 7 gallons of water Tailing- through Ji. k tetfl nar Mrnnrl. With A. mpntR picture of such a horse power trickle. xm of Struggles Aga yielded a province to Russia, and Bul- garia was forced to give her ln return the Dobrudscha, a low lying region on the eastern coast of the Black sea. Bul- Bar la herself was limited to a narrow nd'U was'nLd toVmpIl bound-rle. which to this day confine ner amBb'"la8Bnd Herzeaovnla. inhabited by peop0Ie,,acloSelyaklnB to "the Servian were turned over to Austria for admln- Intra!! jr. control, although the nominal sovereignty was still vested In the sul- tan. Montenegro had her complete lnde- pendence acknowledged and guaranteed Wth a considerable extension of terrl- tory. A semi-Independent province was established tn eastern Rumella south of Bulgaria, with a Christian governor an-l Its own laws, but paying tribute to tho porte. The Formative Period, ... Not a few changes have taken place since this arrangement was made. In lm Roumanla raised herself to the . . , -,, . -riian nr rank of a kingdom. Prince Milan of Servla also assumed the regal dignity In 1882. Bulgaria hsd chosen as her ruler Prince Alexander of Battenberg, but he enjoyed under the treaty of Berlin only the rank of prince and the sultan re- mained his suzerain under the treaty of g"""-,. TIirtnnTonSBuUarU Rumella and Us annexation to Bulgaria In 1885. ,',, d. ..(.. .AAfaJ Kit In train S3 a rv I a declared war on account of this aggran- .Aimm nf lt next door nelehbor. and uunoia iwicovwj, " there ensued that opera Dourre struggle wki.h waa , .in. htti and which has afforded Bernard Shaw thtf opportunity for his amusing comedy, -Arms and the Man " Alexander showed powers both as a statesman and a soldier In this crisis, Indeed he was a highly capable ruler: Dut RU8,ift could not get over the Rume- ,lan ann(.xatlon andtne high ambitions of Bulaarla generally and Alexander became the scaoeaoat of Its rage. His capital became a hotbed of Intrigues ,,.ln. kim. mft-nnasn urta tn his inlurv: the wires were pun-u v -truggle became too strenuous for him hrtt,,.ted in 188S. prince Ferdinand of Coburg was eiectS In hi place. Ferdinand was amDluou Tand wily and with his great Minister Stambuloff he kept on widfnauo the strength of his state Jnd his own hold upon it in spite of hostile , conspiracies. From that time to this tne prince has been laying pipes and pulling wires to e8n- himself king and Hd his realm of fSf nominal subjection to the sultan. H v . . . H, succeedea. ,ion to tn ruiersnip wm onstration of material and Intellectual oroarress. i "nrter the eenlal guidance of Queen M-h h nmmia "Tirmen Rvlva." literature and art have gained new head- way; but even the revolt of tho peasant .rn lout vear aaainst the great landed nobility and the money lenders showed that a readjustment of condl- tlon Is still necessary in this most fa- vored cf th Balkan lands. r . Serviaa , Dark Story. oervta . r . . irk. hiatnrv.Af Rervla since th treaty of pa"t, ami Vienna more to his' tast than ruling over the Servians. Me ab- dlcated the hron in. 188, Jnf. ........ n Alexander. Still SO TOUng that mnnell of rerency had to b estab- llshed. t i , One fine ay when M 'waa about 1 Alexander asserted hlnteelf. II seised can we estimate the commercial value of the thousands of falls and rapids of our riversT. . : ,. Th". 8,?n U point to an approaching electrical ag for our nation and the world. The coal beds are limited; our last stick of wood will be put. into 'th furnace in UtUa more than a generation at our present rate of consumption. No one has measured th Ingenuity of man. but the only present substitute in sight ror an this consumed coal and wood Is the heat and power resulting from eleo trlcal energy. And th scheme Is thor oughly practlcabler-grantlng cheap water Gettinj; "Htni-Out." ' TJher ar llttl' straws of evidenc flying everywhere, all telling" us that there are men of money who ar read ing th times and building themselves a warm nest for th future. ' They ar even now . at our open pantry window picking up th free "hand-outs" and not saying a word. Not that capital should not be encouraged to develop natural resources, but the publto should at least realize the valu of their gifts and glv them with strings, attached If such a method should be for the good of future generations. They should at least not kick their wealth to th gut ter and allow it to be picked up by who ever will. Under present law it is Ab surdly easy to acquire th fullest guar antee that our law can glv to water, whether used for Irrigation or for power. Supposing I, either as a cap italist or the agent of a capitalist, saw a waterfall or a creek that I could use or knew would b valuable later. I would merely stick up a notice of my purpose and intention to acquire' such, on a bush or tree anywhere near then file this notice with the county clerk of that county and presto, it is done. If I can guard my Interest and bluff others off I am sol owner of a river. I am supposed to begin work on my claim within six months and "pursue it diligently." but there is no such neces sity providing my Intentions are specu lative; I can merely refll on It every six months. Imagine th confusion. The Des chutes river at a single point. Bend, Is over appropriated by 40 times its sum mer flow; the records of filings on the whole river are in seven counties, and to visit their county seats would require 1,000 miles of travel, on half by stage: and even with these records w would know nothing about our relative rights, for the whole matter of the relative value of water rights Is one for the courts to interpret. It is not strange then that many of the ditches of Cal ifornia under jurisdiction of a very sim ilar law are now owned by the old law yers who used to defend them; that two million dollars have been spent in wa ter litigation In one county; that 14 people have been killed over on ditch squabble. Oregon has grandmotherlsh water laws for, perhaps, two reasons. First, our water laws, such as we now have, were framed In an early day by eastern people wlio did not know, nor could they know, anything about the problem of Ir rigation nor the possibilities of water for power. Further than this' the situ ation Is due to the apathy of the Irri gatlonlsts and voters and the opposition of those whose business future does not demand modern water laws. Strange to say, a modern water law has never been made a political issue and few voters and fewer legislators have an Intelligent opinion on th subject. However, the matter has been agitated for several years by many state departments In cluding the land board, the state attor ney and the state engineer. 8everal western states have good water laws, notably Idaho and Wyoming also Canada. The mainspring of theise laws Is that "beneficial usi' shall be the basis of all rights to the use of water and that water for Irrigation shall be appurtenent to the land irrigated. They provide for definite water titles, relia ble water records and necessary polic ing; some of them also say that power franchises should not be perpetual, but limited to a fixed period of years. to tne Turks th reins of power and clapped all the regents Into prison, Und then followed 14 years of capricious rule, such as might b expected of a boy who was half a genius, half an Idiot The end came ln June, 1903. Some say It was an Austrian plot to create chaos which would have justified the Austro-Hungarlan kaiser In seizing and annexing Servla ln his dominions. Oth ers hold that the endurance of Alexan der, had reached its limit and that it was to prevent savage despotism and massacre that regicide was -decided on. Anyway, the fact Is that on the night of June 10 the regiments quartered in the capital surrounded the royal palace and after a long and fevered search, tn the course of which some faithful at tendants were struck down, a band of officers found Alexander snd Draga hiding- ln their night robes and killed them both. With Alexander died the last of the Karageorgevltch dynasty and King Pe ter, the head of the exiled Obrenovitch house, who had been living almost In poverty ln Switzerland, was called tn the throne where he still sits, not ov-r firmly according to Austrian versions of the situation, but firmly enough ac cording to the accounts of many Inde pendent English observers. Present Day Hopes and Needs. What all these- new countries need Is peace and capital to develop their re sources. It Is believed that they have enormous mineral wealth which England would be glad to develop were It not for the war risk. Roumanla Is the most settled down of all, but she still looks upon Bessarabia with an eager longing hopeless, for Russia never lets go. Servla had hoped by some torn of fortune to win Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austria which has Just killed these hopes by the act of annexation. The people of these provinces are full blooded Serbs. They have fought the Servians' proper and they were Incor porated in the old Servian empire. Perhaps they would rather be part of free Servla than subject to Francis Jo seph. Perhaps they would prefer their own independence. Vienna says that they are happy and contented today, but it is certain that they made a bitter resistance when Austria took them over in 1878 and again in 1903, when compul sory military service was imposed on them. The discontented ones among them cried out that they preferred Turk ish misrule to Austrian oppression. Montenegro is a prosperous little re gion of amazing simplicity. There Is a state council, but Prince Nicholas the prince bishops were dropped In the mid dle of the last century, but the Danllo Petrovltch line persists rules with the arbitary and unquestioned authority of a tribal chieftain. What he and his people most like would be to tack on Novibazar to the little realm. Albania Is wild and disorderly beyond imagination. Life Is secure in the Ys qul country in comparison with th northern section of Albania. There It Is tribe against tribe, all against the Turk, all against the Serb, all against the stranger. The country Is wlldlv mountainous and densely forested. Th'i whole population outside of a few towns, lives the life of brigands and ln the towns It Isn't much better. Finally there is Macedonia. Greece wants it and Bulgaria wants it. The tangle, of race, religion and lan guage In It has been described. The Macedonian bands raid the Bulgarian villages; the Bulgarian bands raid the Macedonian -villages. The Turkish sol diers raid both, to Inflict punishment. The bands escape and ,the villages ar burned th men shot and' the women violated. Both the Macedonians and the Bul garians freely admit that their purpose Is to-provoke a repetition of the atro cities of-1878 so that Europe may .take the land from the sultan. The Greeks, hope they will ret 1t The 'Rals-ars are confident that they will win It. Latterly an International police, work ing for the porte. has been laboring to tranqutllz this wretched country. It has had only a qualified success. Th Macedonian auestlon will be more than ever the "Balkan war cloud" when th recent changes ere ratified and the Bui- ; frarlan are in full enjoyment of their ' ndependenc. .-