THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



199 



The IRRIGATION AGE is not in a position to offer 

 suggestions other than to say that it would be perhaps 

 better to allow a prospective settler the amount repre- 

 sented by his first, second or third year's payment on 

 his water right, thereby giving him the benefit of the 

 money which would otherwise go to the pockets of 

 colonization agents. On the other hand, it is possible 

 that this plan would not work, as it would permit of 

 no expenditure -to bring facts concerning the cost of 

 settlement upon land, and the expense encountered up 

 to the time the first money crop is produced, clearly 

 before the eyes of the man of the East, who has saved 

 up a given sum and who will not move West without 

 knowing definitely how far this money will reach in 

 establishing a home in a new country. Another solu- 

 tion of this problem would be to allow colonization 

 agents from $3 to $5 per acre with the understanding 

 that they were to fully exploit the attractions and pos- 

 sibilities of a given tract under a reclamation project. 



It is very clear that this matter must be taken up 

 soon and presented to Congress at its next session, 

 otherwise untold values in water will be running to 

 waste through government canals by allowing the set- 

 tlers who could utilize it advantageously, to remain in 

 ignorance of the facts, and as stated above, these facts 

 should be clearly put before the public by the right 

 system of advertising. 



Mr. Briggs will make this matter clear to our 

 readers in his forthcoming article, and state some defi- 

 nite plan whereby this change in the law may be se- 

 cured at an early date. If any of our readers are in a 

 position to offer suggestions along this line we will be 

 very glad to publish same in future issues of IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



BY G. L. SHUMWAY. 



Congressman Mondell of Wyoming has the sleuths 

 of the land department on his trail. Mr. Mondell was 

 so inconsiderate that he opposed the pet scheme of the 

 Forest King of levying tribute upon the beefsteak that 

 reaches the table of the workingman and others. 



The Forestry Department controls the price of 

 building materials to us common laymen by compelling 

 with its restrictions, all custom mills to close and forc- 

 ing all builders to pay tribute to F. W. Weyerhouser. 

 By its restrictions coal barons are given opportunity to 

 advance prices of fuel. It seeks by establishment of 

 lease reserves to advance the price of roasts and steaks 

 that get to the consumer's table. 



a united effort cannot be made for remedial legislation. 

 This meeting should be well attended. The governor 

 has shown a strange temerity in these days, however, 

 by assuming that anything might be the right thing 

 that has not for its original conception the fertile brain 

 of some bureaucratic specialist at Washington. Look 

 out for federal sleuths. Governor Buchtel. 



It is devoutly hoped that our executive govern- 

 ment will have representatives at the meeting not to 

 dictate or even participate but to learn. Not to tell 

 the West what they will give us, for we do not believe 

 in coercive government, but to obey the will of the 

 people who know of what is best. At the last meeting 

 of the irrigation congress Forester Pinchot took the 

 rostrom, and throughout his discourse ran the dis- 

 cordant note of dictation. We will give you this or 

 that. "We" (the usurper) taking away our lawful 

 heritage of free land, and then with condescending 

 mannerism, will give it back to those who will be good. 



Now this coming Denver meeting should be free 

 from such offense. Representatives of our executive 

 government should be there, should offer suggestions 

 if requested, but should offer no jntimation of what 

 would be or would not be acceptable to the adminis- 

 tration. 



From a distance the press reports of the Binger 

 Hermann trial seem to indicate complicity and perhaps 

 crime, but press reports of the Nebraska trials are so 

 perverted, we would prefer not to pass judgment upon 

 the ex-commissioner. It would seem that men en- 

 gaged in the dissemination of news would rise above- 

 the lot of common slanderers. That even if a federal 

 employe gives out an item of presumed news, reporters 

 would subject it to the same sifting process that an- 

 other's information must endure. 



Convictions at Omaha are monstrosities of jus- 

 tice, and the fault lies with the administration. Mr. 

 Roosevelt, with his inherent impulsiveness, accepted as 

 fact such misinformation garnered by fly-by-night ir- 

 responsibles. Upon it he discharged a United States 

 marshall of unimpeachable integrity and a United 

 States attorney of equally high standing, and prac- 

 tically rebuked a federal judge, and thereby exonerated 

 a maudlin secret service agent who did not even need 

 to substantiate his reports with an affidavit. 



Governor Buchtel of Colorado has called a conven- 

 tion of representatives of public land states to see if 



Arthur Wallace Dunn, a staff reporter of the 

 Woman's National Daily of St. Louis stated a condi- 

 tion very concisely, when he said "the trials of these 

 presumed offenders are made in the press." Recently 

 all the western papers have contained scare headlines 



