198 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



It was during the 'campaign of education' that was 

 being so vigorously and systematically conducted 

 throughout southern Idaho in the interest of the Boise- 

 Payette project. The campaign had been in progress 

 for some time, meetings had been held up and down 

 the country, in the towns and villages, at the country 

 school houses and wherever it was possible to gather 

 an audience. These meetings had been addressed by 

 the local officials of the service and hired venders of 

 eloquence and such county and district officials as could 

 be induced to lend their services, and yet there were 

 many obdurate farmers who had failed or had declined 

 to appear at the reclamation headquarters and sign 

 over the titles to their farms and homes and, sign away 

 their birthrights. So it was decided to hold a series 

 of climax meetings and spring upon the unsophisticated 

 'sagebrusher' some of the much-advertised chief officials 

 from Washington. The local papers began a week or 

 two in advance to announce with all possible blandish- 

 ments the coming of these official sunbursts under the 

 caption of 'press news' dated at Washington. They 

 finally came and a public meeting was announced for 

 a certain evening in one of the leading towns of the 

 district. In addition to columns of advertising mat- 

 ter and adulatory personal notice in the town papers, 

 posters and handbills were distributed throughout the 

 town and surrounding country. In the- evening the 

 brass band paraded the principal streets and afterward 

 'rendered a number of selections in front of the opera 

 house.' The audience was large, well composed, and 

 the ladies were there in their Sunday best. The dis- 

 tinguished citizens were assembled on the stage and 

 the mayor presided. After one or two short addresses 

 by the local lights, the mayor made his introductory 

 speech and closed by saying, "and now, ladies and gen- 

 tlemen, I have the flattering honor to introduce to you 

 the Hon. Professor Frederick H. Newell, the chief 

 engineer of the United States, and the greatest living 

 authority on irrigation in all the world. Ladies and 

 gentlemen, you will now listen to Dr. Newell.' 



"While this was being uttered the honorable "doc- 

 tor's" countenance was so beaming with unctious de- 

 light that it actually became radio-active under the in- 

 fluence of which the very thoughts in the minds of 'Dr.' 

 Pinchot and 'Dr.' Ross, who sat near by, were revealed 

 to those in the rear seats of the audience. 



"The aphorism, 'a stream will not rise above its 

 source,' was never more applicable than to the United 

 States Reclamation Service." 



Among the many clippings to reach our 

 Misleading hands, one in particular, which is quoted 

 Telegrams, below, arrests notice. This clipping bears 



all the earmarks of the Maxwell-Newell 

 press bureau, and evidently emanates from that source. 

 To those of our readers who are posted, much may be 

 read between the lines. "Whom the Gods would destroy 

 they first make mad." 



We wonder how the administration authorities at 

 Washington will take the implied criticism contained 

 in the following telegram from a subordinate and we 

 are also anxious to know how the Congressmen and 

 Senators will take it when their attention is called 



to the fact of its origin. These two bodies have the 

 power to ascertain the source of all of this newspaper 

 criticism. It will readily be seen by reading the fol- 

 lowing telegram that Maxwell-Newell & Co. are not 

 at all pleased with the appointment of Mr. C. E. 

 Grunsky, late commissioner of the Panama canal, as 

 advisor to the head of the United States Geological 

 Survey. 



This crowd wish to convey through the telegrams 

 which they are sending forth to the leading newspapers 

 throughout the West that Engineer Grunsky is only a 

 side issue, has been appointed supposedly as a sort of 

 an advisor to the Interior Department and the Presi- 

 dent, with no authority over the men employed in the 

 Reclamation Service. 



The combination who are sending out this class 

 of matter are very well aware of the fact that the 

 President and the Secretary of the Interior have not 

 placed a man in so an important a position as that 

 now held by Mr. Grunsky without giving him some 

 authority over all employed in that particular bureau. 

 It is evident that the object in sending forth such tele- 

 grams as this is to mislead people throughout the West 

 so they may believe that it is still necessary to com- 

 municate with or keep in touch with the Newell, Max- 

 well & Pinchot combination in order to secure proper 

 attention and their rights. 



There is no doubt but under the able manage- 

 ment of Mr. Grunsky the affairs in the Reclamation 

 Bureau will take a decidedly better turn and much 

 good work will be accomplished. 



The following is a copy of the telegram mentioned 

 above, which was wired from Washington to a promi- 

 nent Idaho daily : 



"President Roosevelt caused quite a flurry in official 

 circles by the recent appointment of C. E. Grunsky, 

 late a Panama canal commissioner, as consulting engi- 

 neer of the Reclamation Service at a salary of $10,000. 

 The appointment is applauded in some quarters, else- 

 where it is severely denounced. The President's critics 

 say that he had no authority of law for creating such 

 a high-salaried office without the sanction of Congress. 

 They point out that under the President's order the 

 consulting engineer of the Reclamation Service will 

 receive $6,000 a year more than the chief engineer 

 and head of that burean; will receive $5,000 more 

 than the director of the geological survey, the next 

 highest officer, and will get $2,000 more than the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior. 



The fact is Mr. Grunsky will be paid out of the 

 Reclamation fund. The national irrigation law gives 

 the President full authority to appoint such officials as 

 may be needed to build the great Government irri- 

 gation works; there is no restriction as to number or 

 salary. Under this sweeping authority Mr. Grunsky 

 was appointed, at the earnest solicitation of Director 

 Walcott, head of the Geological Survey. 



There are some Senators and some Representa- 

 tives who "have it in" for the Reclamation Service. 

 These men made an effort in the last Congress to pass 



