136 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



endeavor the maximum number of homes possible to 

 maintain upon the areas will result. Experimental 

 expense may be paid from the rental funds. 



SECURITY of possession of sufficient pasturage for a 

 given number of stock for a period of years will in- 

 spire building thousands of substantial homes where 

 now are crude ephemeral structures, and the number 

 will increase whenever improved methods and culture 

 are evolved, or new or more prolific forage plants are 

 substituted for native herbage. 



FURTHER consideration for a successful issue of 

 the experiment (which is in line with policies we have 

 advocated for several years) is ample apology for ex- 

 pressing further opinion. The new department could 

 better exercise its prerogatives if independent. Coali- 

 tion of departments often merits and suffers criticism. 

 Co-ordination rather than beaurocracy is the American 

 ideal. 



LAND COMMISSIONER Ross of Washington, while at 

 Portland last summer, made some interesting state- 

 ments in relation to federal policies and forest re- 

 serves. It appears many townships in the northwest 

 country, which have been included in forest reserves, 

 are unsurveyed. At periods timber from a reserve 

 is sold, which strips the entire area, including (what 

 would be if surveyed) sections 16 and 36 of each tuwn- 

 ship, which are school lands belonging to the state. 



BY TAKING advantage of its unsurveyed condi- 

 tions, the school fund of the state is depleted for the 

 edification of the forestry service, and thereby Mr. 

 Pinchot is able to show increased returns from his 

 division. To extract glory at the expense of school 

 children is about on the level with Mr. Newell's attri- 

 butes and his abortive attempts to crush the spirit of 

 the Occident, and the action of some of the subordi- 

 nates of Mr. Richards who attempt to build up reputa- 

 tions for vigilance and integrity by misrepresenting the 

 character of the inextinguishable winners of the West. 



WE ARE in a position to assert that at least one of 

 Mr. Richard's special agents has fabricated in his re- 

 ports and imputed fraud to well-intentioned and hon- 

 orable citizenship, who unfortunately poor, are unable 

 to cope with so formidable and valiant a foe as their 

 beloved government. 



THE danger and injustice of bureaucracy is illus- 

 trated by the foregoing. It has been stated that in- 

 formation volunteered by a reclamation engineer is taken 

 as sufficient basis for adverse reports. An attache of 

 the Land Department, whose anxiety to make a show- 



ing, or whose carelessness is unfortunate, or whose 

 bump of caution is not stirred by such intrusive friend- 

 ship, may be excused once if when apprized of errors 

 he will right the wrongs by modified reports garnered 

 from uncolored evidence. The exalted motive of the 

 original informant in cases under the North Platte 

 project being so evident, ought to be sufficient to prevent 

 a recurrence. The land department can ill afford to be 

 a catspaw of sore-headed sinecures. It ought to protect 

 settlers on public domain from persecutions emanating 

 with reclamation incompetents, who are smarting under 

 criticism. 



WE APPRECIATE that some subordinates may not 

 possess equilibrium essential to check their imagina- 

 tions, but in this instance the persecutions are aggra- 

 vated by the same person or an associate loaning Mr. 

 Byrd pictures of presumed offenses, who grouped and 

 labeled them "fraudulent" and sent such erroneous 

 conceptions broadcast through "magazine sections" for 

 country papers. 



A PERTINENT question at this juncture is: Who 

 pays for these free "magazine sections"? One of two 

 alternatives are obvious and inevitable. The corporate 

 interests, which Mr. Maxwell confessed before a; con- 

 gressional committee he serves, or subterannean avenues 

 of graft. 



THE latter apprehension is augmented by bonus 

 guaranteed contractors on the Interstate Canal and by 

 expensive engineering. Why should it cost the gov- 

 ernment two hundred dollars ($200.00) a mile for en- 

 gineering where a similar work . by private enterprise 

 costs only one hundred dollars ($100.00) per mile? 



INCAPACITY or lack of rectitude seems destined to 

 make some federal works more burdensome to water 

 users than is necessary. It is asserted that one error 

 (so called from charity) which might have been avoid- 

 ed by a business bureau has cost one project approxi- 

 mately $75,000, or $1,500 per mile. It is the referred 

 to bonus to construction contractors to finish work five 

 or six months ahead of contract time. This is found 

 necessary to complete a section of canal to supply water 

 at a date which the United States had previously 

 pledged to deliver it. These overlapping contracts, 

 both supervised by the same lieutenants, managed to 

 pass the usually vigilant eye of the honorable Secretary 

 of the Interior without detection, he evidently reposing 

 confidence in his subordinates' efficiency. Results em- 

 phasize our earlier call for a business bureau. 



WE ARE inspired to inquire wherein repeal of all 

 land laws, except the homestead act, will aid national 

 irrigation. Lands under any proposed federal canal 



