THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



203 



have been made to creaie popular support and favor 

 for this scheme, the unstinted use of money, the em- 

 ployment of every agency and influence that could pos- 

 sibly be invoked or enlisted, the use of specious argu- 

 ment, the appeal to civic and local pride and the con- 

 stant reiteration of the statement that the funds that 

 were available for this project and that could be used 

 for none other within the Stale of Idaho, would be 

 diverted to other States unless secured at once, and 

 the resort to sensational methods usually adopted by 

 fake advertisers, there is every reason to believe that 

 there is some inspiration and actuating influence behind 

 this project other than public spirit or philanthropy. 

 However, one does not have to look far to discover 

 evidences of the promoting influences. 



As the project was first outlined to the confiding 

 public it involved an expenditure of some $5,000,000, 

 and was to reclaim practically all of the land in the 

 Boise and Payette valleys including the lava overflow, 

 the escarped and rocky slopes of the foothills, surfaces 

 vertical as well as surfaces horizontal, "any old thing" 

 so long as it counted into acres, and a given number 

 of these acres was to support its quota of a "dense pop- 

 ulation," all to be made individually and collectively 

 wealthy by the great and benevolent Uncle Sam. Un- 

 der the influence of the music of brass bands and 

 through the eloquence of hired "spell binders" at the 

 country cross-roads as well as at the festive banquet 

 board, the project grew and it grew until it attained 

 colossal proportions, variously stated to cost from $10,- 

 000,000 to $20,000,000. It was officially affirmed, re- 

 peatedly, that this gigantic project could and would be 

 completed within the short space of two years and 

 then all the blessings so glowingly described would 

 immediately follow; but it was never intimated that 

 the consummation of such project would require the 

 refunding of all the money expended, including the 

 frills and the fiddler's expenses, or that it would place 

 a blanket mortgage over the community that would 

 abide to vex a generation yet unborn. Even the modest 

 estimate of $5,000,000 proposed in the beginning would 

 require the refunding annually of $500,000 for ten 

 years and to undertake this would bankrupt a com- 

 munity wealthier than the residents of Boise valley. 

 In all the discussions and proclamations relating to 

 this great project few references have been made to 

 the question of increasing the water supply, and when 

 it is. remembered that there are miles of ditches that 

 are idle during a part of the year for want of water 

 and that the river is practically dry at times, it cer- 

 tainly does seem that the reasonable and sensible thing 

 for the Government officials to do is to devote their 

 efforts to the consideration of the storage of water and 

 the construction of reservoirs and leave the farmers 

 to manage their own domestic affairs and construct 

 and operate their own ditches. 



It is now announced that the Boise- Payette project 

 is to be realized, having been submitted to the authorities 

 at Washington and approved by them, not, however, as 

 a $10,000,000 or even $5,000,000 hallucination, but a 

 paltry $1,300,000 scheme and therefore it is not to be 

 expected that all of the citizens of Boise valley will be 

 made "rich" just a few, those that it was designed 

 to benefit. 



The project, as it is to be, according to the latest 

 announcement, consists of a reservoir located at the 



lower end of the Boise valley, which, of course, will 

 be of no advantage except to those lands lying below 

 it at the extreme end of the valley (lands belonging 

 to the coterie of land speculators already referred to), 

 and this reservoir is to be supplied through the Riden- 

 baugh canal, which, of course, will have to be pur- 

 chased and enlarged. 



The Ridenbaugh canal is one of the oldest on the 

 river, although its point of diversion is lower than some 

 of the- others. The selection of this canal for the pur- 

 pose of supplying the proposed reservoir, it is alleged, 

 was to avoid interfering with the interests and opera- 

 tions of the Barber Lumber Company, the dam and 

 water power of this company being located above the 

 intake of the Ridenbaugh canal. It has been supposed, 

 and so stated repeatedly by the reclamation officials, 

 that the New York canal, which is the highest cana) 

 in the valley and taking water from the river some 

 three or four miles above the Barber Lumber Com- 

 pany's dam, would be taken over by the Government 

 in carrying out the design of the Boise-Payette project, 

 as this canal would cover practically all of the land 

 in the valley on that side of the river, 100,000 acres of 

 which lies above the Ridenbaugh canal, and would also 

 supply several proposed small reservoirs and also the 

 one that it is now proposed to construct at the lower 

 end of the valley, but to divert this water at a point 

 above the Barber Lumber Company's dam would be to 

 rob that company of a portion of its water power, 

 hence the decision to abandon the New York canal 

 and the 100,000 acres covered by it. The selection of 

 the Ridenbaugh canal and its enlargement would be 

 of no benefit to the farmers living under it and now 

 supplied by it, as the supply taken from the river is 

 not increased and the reservoir is too low to be of any 

 value to them, and for them it is simply a question 

 as to whether it is preferable to have the Government 

 control and operate the canal or for them to do it. 



So it would appear that this much-advertised and 

 much-exploited Boise-Payette project turns out to be 

 a "pipe dream" for most of the people living in these 

 valleys, and is to be materialized only for the benefit 

 of a few interested owners of land in the lower end of 

 Boise valley. Now that the real purpose of the project 

 is disclosed, there are some sore and disappointed peo- 

 ple, and rumor is rife with all sorts of ugly charges 

 of chicanery, jobbery and graft. It is asserted that the 

 Government engineers have been employed by the Bar- 

 ber Lumber Company and the land speculators to con- 

 nive and contrive in their interests. These are ugly 

 rumors and the Washington officials owe it to them- 

 selves and to the public to investigate the matter thor- 

 oughly and without any attempt at whitewashing either. 



The following incident will serve to illustrate not 

 only the methods of the Reclamation Service but some 

 of the personal characteristics of some of its officials. 

 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 





