THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



121 



sued and that the government will not be plunged into 

 operations which must be slowed to a snail's pace for 

 lack of finances. Had this policy been adhered to under 

 the former administration there would now be no de- 

 mand for a national bond issue for completion of the 

 lagging government irrigation projects. 



Attention of readers is respectfully but 

 Bohm urgently directed to the series of articles 



Discusses now appearing in the AGE and relating to 

 Carey the Carey Act, the law that has resulted 



Act. in more good to the irrigable sections of 



the west than any other state or national 

 enactment. The writer, Mr. E. F. Bohm, of Cleveland 

 and Chicago, is a deep student of irrigation affairs and 

 his utterances upon the subject of the Carey Act are 

 well worth the attention of all readers of this journal. 

 Although not actively engaged in irrigation work 

 at the present time, Mr. Bohm is enabled to the better 

 discuss this subject in a broad and comprehensive man- 

 ner. It is the opinion of the editor that this series 

 of articles will constitute the most complete and valu- 

 able treatise ever presented to its readers or to the public. 

 To accommodate those who have already become inter- 

 ested in Mr. Bohm's work and are demanding the entire 

 series in handy form for future reference the IRRIGATION 

 AGE has arranged to print the matter complete in 

 pamphlet and when ready for distribution further, an- 

 nouncement will be made in these columns. 



President Taft is at bay. Urged on by 

 Secretary repeated attacks of the third term boom- 

 Ballinger ers, directed first against his policies and 

 Demands next against his personal and official 

 Investigation, integrity, the president has turned upon 

 his foes and will allow the search light to 

 play upon all correspondence and matters pertaining 

 to his cabinet office occupied by Mr. Ballinger. 



What effects may come from this investigation can- 

 not be predicted. Since Glavis made his charges and 

 they were greedily embraced by every enemy of the 

 administration and every agitator in the band of Third 

 Termers it is conceded that the inquiry will allow wide 

 scope. The action of the president in requesting the 

 search for evil doings in his department of the interior, 

 must be viewed as a preliminary indication that the 

 seekers after campaign material will be sorely dis- 

 appointed. The president is to be commended for his 

 firm and honest reply to his critics in asking an investi- 

 gation. 



Upon the result of this inquiry Forester Pinchot 

 must stand in the limelight either as a champion of the 

 public welfare, or a base fabricator conniving with poli- 

 ticians to discredit an administration by foul and infa- 

 mous means. Since the chief forester floated his famous 

 "water power trust" story at the irrigation congress in 



Spokane it is known that he has cherished a positive 

 and open enimity toward Secretary Ballinger and the 

 administration that aided in puncturing his cleverly 

 contrived romance of the Montana "water power grab." 

 Believing that Secretary Ballinger would demon- 

 strate his capability for the duties of the office he has 

 assumed, and that only motives of honesty can be 

 attributed to him in his official as well as his private 

 life, the IRRIGATION AGE has supported his attitude in 

 many matters. But from the secretary of the interior 

 this journal has no favors to ask and while it rests firm 

 in the belief that the inquiry will result in complete 

 vindication of his policies, an adverse finding by the 

 inquisitors will bring no effort on the part of this paper 

 to meliorate or condone the offense. 



Following in the wake of the hundreds of 

 Investigate legitimate irrigation enterprises in which 

 Wild-Cat capital has been invested by the purchase 

 Irrigation of bonds and from which promoters and 

 Securities. bond holders have realized profit without 

 unusual hazard, there may be expected a 

 swarm of wild-cat projects in which an innocent public 

 will be urged to invest its savings upon promise of large 

 interest and absolute safety of principal. Already this 

 school of sharks has appeared upon the horizon with 

 well organized plans for the capture of the unwary bank 

 account. 



No more is it the duty of a reputable class journal 

 to promote and augment the interest of the public in 

 its chosen field, than is it an obligation to protect its 

 readers against such forms of deceit and misrepresenta- 

 tion as may come to its notice or be unearthed by in- 

 vestigation of existing conditions. " 



To the publisher of the IRRIGATION AGE the clink 

 of gold is not unwelcome. But were that gold to be 

 purchased by prostitution of his editorial columns to 

 nefarious schemes for exacting monies from the pockets 

 of the people, the cost overweights the price and there 

 can be no bargain. 



Qualified representatives of this paper are now at 

 work, studying the financial horizon, ready to throw 

 the search-light of truth upon any stock-jobbing and 

 bond-juggling concern that may appear in the irrigation 

 field. Law suits must* be avoided and the editorial pen 

 must be smoothed at times, to mere intimation without 

 deductions from fact. Yet so far as it is possible for 

 this journal to use its editorial and news columns in 

 reasonable opposition, the illegimate 'in irrigation bond 

 schemes shall not flourish. 



As a foreword to the thousands of new readers who 

 have been placed on our mailing list, it may be stated 

 that the editor will be pleased to give any information 

 relating to, or advise, any investors in regard to the 

 basic values of bonds. Since a reputable bond house, 

 however, has greater facilities for investigation than this 



