38 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



We are presenting in this issue the first 

 Pumping for installment of Bulletin No. 45, issued by 

 Irrigation. the New Mexico College of Agriculture 



and Mechanic Arts, on "Pumping for 

 Irrigation from Wells." This bulletin was prepared by 

 Professor John J. Vernon and Francis E. Lester, and 

 treats a subject of vast importance to all interested in 

 agricultural pursuits in valleys where a well defined 

 underflow is found. This bulletin will be reproduced in 

 full in the columns of THE IRRIGATION AGE during the 

 six months to come, and will be finely illustrated by 

 photographs taken during the different stages of the 

 work. 



Proceedings No one, so far as THE IRRIGATION AGE 

 Eleventh has been able to learn, has seen a copy or 

 Congress. any parts of the proceedings of the 

 Eleventh National Irrigation Congress 

 held at Ogden, Utah, September 15-18 of this year. Is 

 it possible that the gentlemen having the matter in 

 charge will let the work drag along as it has in previous 

 years, so that it will not reach the public until it is so 

 old that the information contained therein is valueless ? 

 The gentlemen of Ogden having this matter in charge 

 should know from past experience that a report of the 

 proceedings issued but a month or two before the 

 Twelfth Congress will make them practically useless 

 except as historical records. 



George H. Maxwell took on a strange atti- 

 Perplexing tude when he worked so strenuously to 

 Attitude. forward the repeal resolution movement 



at the Ogden Congress. He failed, as he 

 should have, of course; but neither success nor failure 

 could have explained to the delegates who know his his- 

 tory, and particularly those who listened to his 

 harangue at Colorado Springs in 1902, how a man who 

 puts himself on record before a body of nearly 500 in- 

 telligent gentlemen who were delegates to the Tenth 

 Congress, as of the positive opinion that the Irrigation 

 Congress had no excuse for living or continuing as an 

 active force after the National Irrigation Law was 

 passed. 



This "took on," we say, "a strange look" when he 

 worked so- vigorously on his repeal resolution in a body 

 which the year before he had classed as "renegades and 

 dead ones." This sudden activity on Maxwell's part 

 was not easily explained to those who were acquainted 

 with the inside facts, and it is the opinion of the AGE 

 that had his actions at Colorado Springs been pro- 

 claimed before the delegates at Ogden he would not have 

 been allowed to speak at all. Maxwell's days as a self- 

 appointed boss are numbered, but he dies hard, as evi- 

 denced by the manner in which he is "working" the com- 

 mercial clubs through those states where no legislative 

 session will be held this year. 



In conversation recently with the publish- 

 Be Wary, er of a prominent daily newspaper, who 

 Gentlemen, has spent the past month in Washington, 



it was learned that a feeling approaching 

 panic has come over those who have watched the first 

 work of the Reclamation service since funds have become 

 available. Our informant stated that a leading senator 

 had stated to him that the handling or preparation for 

 disbursement of the immense fund set aside by the law 

 is, in a mild sense, appalling. To illustrate the con- 

 dition, it was stated that the money is being apportioned 

 for various projects with the abandon of a schoolboy on 

 a holiday. One story tells how the modest sum of 

 $2,000,000 is inserted in one, or a combination estimate 

 as "incidentals." 



How about this, gentlemen of the Geological Survey 

 and Hydrographic division ? Is there any foundation of 

 truth in these stories, or are they merely vaporings of 

 disgruntled aspirants to your official positions? The 

 public has its eye on you, gentlemen, so be wary be 

 wary. 



Mr. Newell is a disciple of Mr. Maxwell's 

 A Disciple, in matters relating to the land laws. In 



fact, Mr. Newell shares the fears of Sena- 

 tor Gibson that fraud is very common under the provi- 

 sions of these laws, and while he is under the Interior 

 Department he admits that the laws should be repealed. 

 He does not believe that they can be enforced, but he 

 believes he can carry out the provisions of a new law 

 under which great irrigation works are to be built, know- 

 ing that he does not have the training or experience that 

 would secure him even a moderate position in the same 

 kind of work outside of government service. Mr. Newell 

 does not seem to have any confidence in the ability of 

 the present Commissioner of the General Land Office. 

 The AGE must again differ with the "Chief Engineer" 

 of the reclamation service. Mr. Richards has been 

 connected with the government at various times for the 

 past thirty years, either as a surveyor of public lands, 

 a United States Surveyor General, or an officer of the 

 General Land Office. He has come up from the ranks 

 and understands the practical side of his work, and no 

 other Commissioner of the General Land Office has been 

 so thoroughly qualified. 



Reports came from Washington during October that 

 Mr. Richards would recommend the repeal of the land 

 laws that are objectionable to Senator Gibson, Mr. Max- 

 well and Mr. Newell. His report has since been made 

 public, and what does he recommend? He does not 

 deny that there has been some fraud under the operation 

 of these laws, but like a capable and courageous man, 

 lie asks for more assistance in order that claims may be 

 inspected and thus prohibit title passing until the law 

 has been strictly complied with. We are not in doubt 

 as to the source from which the original report of Octo- 

 ber emanated. 



