16 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



"As one of the most influential eastern members 

 of the House of Representatives, who is a friend of 

 national irrigation, provided it makes homes, has said 

 of this bill: 



" 'It has no more chance than ice in hades !' * 



The 17 western members who framed the National 



irrigation act can answer for themselves whether "the 



whole movement was a scheme of speculators and land 



grabbers to loot the National Treasury for selfish, private 



?rofit." That is Mr. Maxwell's statement, not mine, 

 f I had said it, I would have expected to be charged 

 with opposing the bill and would have been chary about 

 charging opposition on the part of others. 



For more than four years, Mr. Maxwell has been 

 before the country as the head of the National Irriga- 

 tion Association. He has maintained expensive offices 

 in Chicago and Washington. He has carried on a cor- 

 respondence bureau from the first named city and run 

 a press bureau and published a paper in Washington 

 in which he has praised his supporters and abused those 

 whom he dislikes. He has given his entire time to his 

 propaganda. It is fair to ask who has furnished the 

 money for this censorship of Congress and of public 



"This so-called association seeks $5 annual sub- 

 scriptions from eastern merchants and manufacturers, 

 and probably does succeed in getting' a few possibly 

 enough to pay the cost of obtaining them. No financial 

 statement is ever rendered to the public. The real con- 

 tributors to the funds of this 'association' have been the 

 five great transcontinental railroads the Great North- 

 ern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific 

 and Santa Fe lines, each of whom contributed $6,000 

 a year, making a fund of $30,000 a year in addition 

 to the 'pick up' from other sources. It has the sym- 

 pathy, and possibly the material aid of private owners 

 of large tracts of irrigable land, some of whom are in 

 Congress. It has the influence to secure prominent poli- 

 ticians to serve as 'presidents' and 'vice presidents,' 

 whose functions are to preside at public meetings and 

 make irrigation speeches. The real power is in the 

 'executive chairman,' which is a prominent office filled 

 by George H. Maxwell, well known in this State." 



I am informed that substantially the same charges 

 were made before a congressional committee. Mr. Max- 

 trcll lio.-i iierer publicly denied them, and I know that 

 lir ecu IK. I truthfully deny some of them. 



officials, and what has been the real influence which 

 controls his activities? The San Francisco Chronicle, 

 in an editorial, answered these questions : 



" 'George H. Maxwell of San Francisco, who has 

 been prominent in the National Irrigation Association 

 for years, is the uncompromising foe of the bill and 

 declares that it can not pass. The organ of the irri- 

 gation association has published an article against the 

 bill, and this is being used by the eastern enemies of 

 irrigation to show that the western people do not agree 

 among themselves.' 



"It is quite time that this so-called 'National Irri- 

 gation Association' should be unmasked. It is an asso- 

 ciation of five transcontinental railroad lines, which each 

 contribute $6,000 per annum to the concern, and it is 

 nothing else whatever. Its a;gent is this man Maxwell, 

 who spends money lavishly in Washington and else- 

 where, ostensibly for the 'association,' and we challenge 

 the proof that the association has ever received any 

 income worth mentioning except from the treasuries of 

 these railroads. If it is a public association, main- 

 tained in the public interest, why does it not issue the 

 financial statement usual in such societies ? It does not 

 dare to print such a financial statement, and it can not 

 be got to do so. This is no secret. It is perfectly well 

 understood at Washington." 



In a subsequent editorial, the Chronicle was even 

 more explicit: 



There is no reason for criticism of the railway man- 

 agers for contributing to a movement for irrigation 

 development. They have, I believe, contributed to the 

 support of Mr. Maxwell's association for the same rea- 

 son that they give reduced rates to home seekers, because 

 they have the same interest as the public in the settle- 

 ment of the vacant lands to which their lines run. But 

 Mr. Maxwell, with one hand reaching for the railways' 

 contribution, and the other for the $5 annual dues of 

 members in his association, while declaring that "the 

 National Irrigation Association stands for a principle 

 and will inflexibly adhere to it" is another affair. 



Since the passage of the act Mr. Maxwell's activities 

 have increased rather than diminished. The character 

 of his labors is described in the Denver Republican of 

 October 10, as follows : 



"Since then he has apparently assumed full charge 

 of the work in the West, although not carried on the 

 government pay roll or in any wise in the employ of 

 Uncle Sam. He has been everything and all of it, de- 

 ciding where reservoir sites are to be selected and when 

 they are to be built. In sonic sections of the arid region 

 the impression prevails that he is a sort of foster child 

 of Uncle Sam, and whatever he says goes with his 

 gifted parent. There is no foundation in fact for the 

 impression, but Mr. Maxwell does nothing to destroy 

 the delusion. As a matter of fact, he does what he 

 can to encourage it bv adroitness and indirection." 



