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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Secretary Ballinger has held Newell in line to his work, 

 rather than allow him to canter over the country as hereto- 

 fore. 



It is noticeable, too, that the quantity of press matter sent 

 out concerning the reclamation and forestry department has 

 been much reduced and, in fact when we get news about either 

 of these departments now it is news rather than gush and 

 praises of the individual at the head of each organization. 



Senator Carter will, no doubt, put his report in the hands 

 of the press for general circulation and it will no doubt 

 demonstrate that Newell is incompetent and unfit for the 

 position he holds, as the AGE has always maintained. 



Irrigation investments have grown with- 

 Allurements m the past years to be a favored form 



For of investing money in the West, and. 



The like all other speculation, offers allure- 



Unwary, ments for the unwary, as well as the 



solid investor. In great movements, such 

 as that of irrigation during the past ten years, great op- 

 portunities have been offered to the unscrupulous pro- 

 moter of wildcat schemes to separate unsuspecting indi- 

 viduals from their hard-earned money. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE has known of many instances 

 where money was being secured in very large sums 

 through a sort of half-lottery system a system not quite 

 close enough to the designation "Lottery" to bring the 

 promoters within the law. It has on several occasions 

 been the intention of the editor of this journal to expose 

 these schemes, and this would have been done long ago 

 had it not been for the fact that there was a possibility 

 of injuring by such exposure the reputable and sub- 

 stantial irrigation projects throughout the country. 



It would have been better, perhaps, to warn tlie public 

 in the early stages of rapid development and to have given 

 them definite knowledge of one or two of these wildcat 

 projects. 



Schemes of this character usually fall of their own 

 weight, and this has proved true in recent cases that 

 have come to our attention through the columns of 

 western journals. 



One of the alleged wildcat projects of the western 

 slope in Colorado has been overtaken by litigation. This 

 was known as the Escalante Irrigation Reservoir Com- 

 pany of Delta County, for which a receiver was this week 

 appointed by a local judge upon request of stockholders 

 who alleged fraud in the methods of the promoters in 

 filing upon and acquiring land under the proposed sys- 

 tem. 



Injunctions were also issued against several other 

 irrigation and ditch companies of Delta County. Some 

 of the promoters are at present under bonds to appear at 

 the February term of court to answer to an information 

 filed in September against them, and they will be given 

 an opportunity to explain their connection with the 

 alleged irregular selling of stock. 



It is charged that many farmers and investors of 

 western Colorado have been victimized. 



These facts are set forth in the columns of THE AGE 

 to emphasize to its readers the advisability of using great 

 caution in investing in prospects about which little is 

 known, and whose promoters are still less known. 



The fact of the matter is that a great many people 

 purchase lands and stock without ever having investi- 

 gated the quality or productibility of the lands, or the area 

 upon which the stock value is based. 



There are very few people who would walk into the 

 office of a reputable real estate man of any city and ac- 

 cept his mere word as to the quality and value of a piece 

 of land which he contemplated purchasing, and THE AGE 

 cannot understand how these same individuals are often- 

 times induced to purchase from persons unknown other 

 than through well-worded advertisements, lands and 

 bonds of questionable value and of which they have no 

 definite knowledge other than that given by the seller. 



If the writer of this article were to state to some 

 friend that he had a piece of land for sale at some point 

 nearby Chicago, specify its location, quality of the soil and 

 its value, he would consider the possible purchaser a man 

 of very little sense and discernment if he would accept 

 his mere statement and lay down his money for it. Why, 

 then, should people who are desirous of securing land 

 for western homes accept the statement of a comparative 

 stranger, The answer is simple to those who understand 

 the inordinate craze for western land. The main thought 

 is to secure a land holding in some desirable locality in 

 the west and less thought is given to the individual offei- 

 ing it than to the quoted merits of the prospect nr the 

 lands offered. 



Many complaints come 'to this office from people who 

 have purchased lands and now find that they have been 

 deceived. 



There is no remedy that we know of unless they ap- 

 ply to the government officials and have the sellers of this 

 class of property investigated. 



If a man is selling land of questionable value for a 

 good price through newspaper advertising and the mails, 

 the Post Office department may readily get him. If, on 

 the contrary, a man is selling lands from his office direct 

 to the individual, who accepts the seller's statement of its 

 value without further investigation, there is no recourse, 

 except by some suit at law for obtaining money under 

 false pretenses, which is often a long drawn out and ex- 

 pensive procedure. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE is not inclined to go into this sub- 

 ject often or too deeply, but offers these suggestions as a 

 protection to those who may be of the class above de- 

 scribed. 



IRRIGATION PROMOTERS ARE INDICTED. 



Charged with using the United States mails to further 

 an irrigation scheme in Colorado, declared in a statement 

 issued by the Interior Department to be "wildly and 

 flagrantly fraudulent,' seven resident- of that state have 

 been indicted as a result of the combined efforts of the 

 Interior and Ppstoffice departments. The men are held 

 under $2,500 bail. 



Their names as given out by the Interior Department 

 are: J. Albert Wright, Frank White, John Gould, Corydon 

 A. Woody, Homer A. Gibson, Robert W. Rose and Sam 

 M. Baker, all of whom are said to be officers in one or 

 more irrigation companies. 



The charge, it is said, is that they procured about fifty 

 citizens to make desert land entries in the Montrose, Col., 

 land district upon the representations that the several 

 corporations would construct an irrigation enterprise 

 which would irrigate the lands. 



Entrymen were procured, but before making the 

 entries they were required, it is ;aid, to agree or contract 

 to deed to a land and irrigation company, when patent was 

 secured, all of the land except ten or twenty acres of the 

 :i20 acres in each entry, in return for which the company 

 was to furnish the entryman his water supply. The land 

 involved in the case is valued at approximately $160,000. 



Reports on the entries were submitted by the general 

 land office, following which the matter was turned over 

 to the Po?toffice Department, resulting in the indictments. 



