THE IKRIQATION AGE. 



11 



vent the proposed diversion. He advises that the con- 

 troversy should be thrown into the United States court, 

 and his Wyoming constituents are wise enough to know 

 that a step in time saves the other point in law. They 

 prefer not to await the day when Colorado companies 

 shall have begun operations and the decision of the 

 court must involve tangible property. 



In a recent interview as published under 

 "Into copyright in the Washington Times, 



Little James J. Hill, the versa-tile railroad 



Pickles builder, took occasion to utter several 



of Money." truths regarding the government reclama- 

 tion service. In his usual terse and ex- 

 plicit language, Mr. Hill reviewed the present situation 

 in this department as follows : 



"When the government went into the irrigation 

 business, taught, I am proud to say, by the railroads, 

 which at their own cost initiated the work and educated 

 the people in a knowledge of its importance, the rec- 

 lamation service did not divide its resources into little 

 pickles of money and spend them in laying in a few 

 stones of a dam in each one of all localities where lands 

 were to be irrigated. It arranged projects in the order 

 of their importance, engaged its engineers and spent 

 its funds upon a: few of them at a time, and thus it 

 achieved great practical results." 



Prom his keen understanding and his policy of 

 forming an intimate acquaintance with the details bear- 

 ing upon development, Mr. Hill would probably be able 

 to make other and even more trenchant criticism of the 

 government service, past and present, if he so desired. 



Is the government reclamation service, 

 Schemers crippled in its progress by the improvi- 

 Assail dence of a former administration and by 



Bond reckless incapable heads, soon to become 



Issue. a buffet in the hands of political trick- 



sters, a butt for chicanceiy and intrigue ? 



Few among those thousands who have greeted 

 President Taft during his rapid progress through the 

 west have paused to reflect upon the real motives for 

 his strenuous journey and his Herculean task at speech- 

 making. It was more than a social visit ; it was a brave 

 struggle to regain the confidence of the west and turn 

 its heart from the worship of false gods and its tongue 

 from the rehearsal of false teachings. 



Powerful political interests are today bending 

 their every energy to discredit the president's policies. 

 His Secretary of the Interior became the first object of 

 attack and the tricksters chuckled as the press seized 

 upon the "water power trust" bogey to hurl their broad- 

 sides of unwarranted abuse at Mr. Ballinger. An irri- 

 gation congress and two conservation congresses gave 



the rostrum to a government employe who, under the 

 guise of a plea for forestry preservation, threw broad- 

 cast his seditious utterances against the present admin- 

 istration. 



Failing in this nefarious scheme and daring no 

 longer to play upon the credulity of the west, this trick- 

 ster hurried to a conclave of his fellows in the east- 

 Minister Crane's summary recall and dismissal from 

 the diplomatic service supplied ammunition for an at- 

 tack upon Secretary Knox. 



Then from Spokane flashed the president's speech 

 on conservation and his pledge to advocate the issue of 

 $10,000,000 in government bonds for the prosecution of 

 work on reclamation projects into which the government 

 is recklessly plunged by an extravagant and improvi- 

 dent predecessor. 



. Before the president's speech was twenty-four hours 

 old his enemies had concluded their plans. Newspapers 

 in the east, ignorant of the nature of this proposed bond 

 issue, raised the howl of paternalism and sectional favor- 

 itism. From states wherein reclamation by drainage 

 has been discussed, came caustic criticism of the presi- 

 dent's pledge. 



Western admirers of Ex-president Eoosevelt and 

 his policies cannot fail to condemn these disreputable 

 attempts of third term boomers to embarrass and 

 harass the present administration. President Taft has 

 pledged his effort toward the $10,000,000 bond issue for 

 the prosecution of dilatory reclamation work. It is not 

 a loan of funds, it is a loan of credit by the government 

 to remedy the evil resulting from its own indiscretion. 

 New hope has been born in the breasts of those settlers 

 who have invested their savings in land on government 

 irrigation projects, and if the plan matures the great 

 sum of food production will be increased. 



Can a band of political tricksters create a strife 

 that shall retard the west and deprive it of the mere 

 loan of financial credit? 



Open criticism may be consistently directed at that 

 past administration wherein the young and inexperi- 

 enced, possessing energy but not wisdom, were permitted 

 free rein to project and enter upon vast engineering 

 works for the completion of which there were neither 

 present nor prospective funds. As a demonstrative 

 stage-dance with the lime light of publicity playing in- 

 cessantly upon the actors and with public favor ready 

 to spring into rapturous applause at each new gyra- 

 tion, the former administration was a pleasing drama. 

 But since it is found that the box-receipts were in- 

 sufficient to the cost of the performance, the Ameri- 

 can public is awakening from its spell. 



Must the poor settler, the easterner who was led 

 by fair promises to settle upon government land, suffer 

 for this wanton deception? He invested his meager 

 earnings in government land under the irrigation 



