THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



39 



Senator Gibson of Montana represents 

 Senator some of the people of Montana together 



Gibson. with a few railroads, and is one of the 



supporters of Mr. Maxwell's doctrines. 

 He believes that the land laws are bad, that the people 

 of the West are not capable of enforcing their provi- 

 sions, and that they should be repealed. So does "Ozone 

 George." There are others who believe that the land 

 laws are good, but that their administration has been 

 too lax. 



The AGE belongs to the latter class, although we 

 believe that many of the land laws could be improved 

 by slight amendments. Mr. Maxwell's clients would 

 doubtless profit should the land laws be repealed. Land 

 scrip would double in value and railroad lands would 

 sell quickly at advanced prices. How about the home- 

 seeker who can only irrigate a few acres of his homestead 

 along a narrow strip of valley, and who needs more 

 land for a few head of cattle or horses? He can buy 

 of the railroad "scrip" a few acres if he has the 

 money. 



Returning to Senator Gibson and the part he has 

 taken in the campaign favoring the repeal of the land 

 laws. He has become so conspicuous by his recent utter- 

 ances at the Irrigation Congress at Ogden, and by 

 printed matter which he has furnished the public, that 

 even the Secretary of the Interior, who once recom- 

 mended the repeal of these laws, has said nothing for a 

 month or more about the matter. Evidently, Senator 

 Gibson's attitude has so impressed the Secretary that 

 the latter has come to believe that the hotbed of fraud 

 under the laws must lie in the Senator's immediate 

 neighborhood, for he has withdrawn all lands from 

 entry, under the laws which are so iniquitous in the 

 eyes of Mr. Maxwell's champion in the Senate, in the 

 Great Falls Land Office. It remains to be seen whether 

 the Secretary will employ the same methods elsewhere. 

 We doubt his authority to carry out such an order. He 

 has no good reason for so doing and is limiting Acts of 

 Congress in a way that establishes a dangerous prece- 

 dent. We hope that Senator Gibson will enjoy the re- 

 lief that is sure to come to a man who has won a partial 

 victory. Lands in the neighborhood of his home can not 

 be disposed of under the Desert Act, the Timber and 

 Stone Act, or the Commutation Clause of the Home- 

 stead Act. 



When a man builds a house he secures the 

 Merit services of an expert along that line: 



Sometimes when he wishes to have a record kept of 

 Counts. his business transactions he hires a book- 



keeper: when he desires to beautify his 

 grounds he makes a contract with a landscape gardener. 

 Our best governed cities and states require certain 

 qualifications for eligibles for the various administrative 

 offices. The government generally demands that each 



man have some fitness for the place he occupies, but 'n 

 some instances a man, temporarily at least, secures an 

 office where technical qualifications are required through 

 intrigue or political influence, regardless of his ability 

 to perform the work that is presumed to devolve upon 

 him. 



We have given Mr. George H. Maxwell some study 

 and believe we understand his methods and believe we 

 know why he has certain convictions. In this study we 

 have necessarily been forced to look up the records of 

 some of the men who have been closely associated wich 

 him. Some of the developments following this investi- 

 gation have been interesting, and we propose from time 

 to time to discuss them frankly in the columns of the 

 AGE. 



One man who was advertised extensively by Mr. 

 Maxwell's organs is at present at the head of the re- 

 clamation service. Mr. Newell may not have intention- 

 ally permitted himself to be influenced by Mr. Maxwell 

 in the past eighteen months, but from the evidence we 

 have before us it would seem that an understanding has 

 existed between the two men from the beginning of the 

 struggle for position and extended influence which began 

 in Chicago during the memorable session of the Irriga- 

 tion Congress several years ago. 



It would be presumed that Mr. Maxwell would want 

 a man at the head of the reclamation service who did 

 not know too much about irrigation or engineering con- 

 struction work. A man that was thoroughly qualified 

 in such work would not be liable to take the advice of a 

 professional lobbyist, and Mr. Maxwell knew this when 

 he published Mr. Newell's record far and wide during 

 the spring of 1902. 



In looking up Newell's professional career we find 

 that he has had no experience in the work he now as- 

 sumes to direct. If any of his friends, or if he can 

 furnish us with more information we will be glad to 

 publish any and all details. He broke into the Ameri- 

 can Society of Civil Engineers in some way, but it was 

 not because he had done such work as would warrant 

 his being accepted as a member. 



He graduated from the Boston School of Tech- 

 nology as a Mining Engineer and Geologist, and went 

 to the mountains of Colorado, where he worked for about 

 three months. He worked in the East along the same 

 lines for several months longer and then accepted a 

 place with the Geological Survey. The Division of 

 Hydrography was created later and he was promoted 

 to the position of chief. What is the Division of Hydrog- 

 raphy? The principal work of the Division consisted 

 in measuring streams, and this is what Mr. Newell did 

 until called to construct canals and reservoirs on a large 

 scale for the Government. If ten or twelve years' work 

 guaging streams makes a civil engineer of a geologist 

 and mining engineer, we are greatly deceived as to the 

 character of the apprenticeship under the Geological 

 Survey. 



