THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



423 



ministrative changes." The change mentioned in our 

 earlier lines seems to be the only particular change men- 

 tioned in this connection, and it is our impression that 

 this does not go far enough, as there are many opportuni- 

 ties for changes to better the reclamation law. 



The resolution also recommends that complete 

 plans and specifications for any project should be 

 delivered to the project water users' association 

 before such work is begun, and that itemized' 

 semi-annual reports of all charges and expenditures under 

 each reclamation project should be furnished to the water 

 users' association under such project. 



The resolution, moreover, favors the appointment of a 

 consulting engineer under each project, to be selected by 

 and paid by the project water users' association, who will have 

 access to the plans, specifications and accounts, but who 

 will be without supervisory power. This latter recommen- 

 dation is of the utmost importance to the members of the 

 water users' associations, as it will enable them to keep in 

 close touch with all of the development work on the 

 project through such an official who may ask for and 

 secure such information where the individual water user 

 would probably be ignored by the local project engineer. 



A leading magazine published in a cen- 

 Slandering tral state has evidently been imposed 



A Well on by writers who are either irrespon- 



Developed sible or lacking in information, in an 



Irrigated Valley, article which recently appeared con- 

 cerning the Los Angeles acqueduct in 

 the Owens Valley of California. A certain Mr. Wm. 

 Atherton De Puy recently published an article in which 

 he states: 



"The city of Los Angeles has recently acquired, as a 

 storage reservoir, a stretch of barren desert known as 

 Owens Valley. As far as the eye can reach this valley is 

 a barren and alkaline waste. All effort to develop this 

 valley into a community in which men could earn a liveli- 

 hood has failed. It appears to be an absolutely useless 

 portion of waste land." 



That Mr. Du Puy has never seen Owens Valley is evi- 

 dent from the tenor of his article. 



The Owens Valley is one of the most delightful sec- 

 tions in the western country, and wherever water has been 

 applied the land shows wonderful capacity for the support 

 of agricultural pursuits and orchard development. 



The writer spent some time in the Owens Valley a 

 year or more ago, and saw a territory well irrigated and 

 under a high state of cultivation near Bishop and Inde- 

 pendence. 



In this valley are many thriving towns, the two most 

 important being Bishop and Independence There are also 

 very many well developed ranches on the mountain 

 plateaus as one goes up westward from the Valley. The 

 writer has in mind one ranch immediately west of Big 

 Pine which is in a high state of cultivation, and al- 

 together one of the most delightful spots that he has 

 ever visited. 



It will occur to those who are familiar with this 

 famous section of the west, that men of intelligence suffi- 

 cient to write good descriptive English will allow them- 

 selves to be misled by conniving individuals who are evi- 

 dently trying to belittle a section for the benefit of larger 

 interests who wish to control the water supply. This is 

 evidently the basis of the article. 



People of Owens Valley should take some steps to 

 correct misstatements of this character. 



The Twentieth National Irrigation Con- 

 The Twentieth gress has come and gone, and those 

 National who attended will have no regrets on 



Irrigation the score of lack of entertainment, eith- 



Congress. er from the citizens of Salt Lake City 



oc through the speeches and various 

 papers delivered at the various sessions of this congress. 



Many topics of importance were handled, and it is our 

 intention to touch upon them from time to time during the 

 coming months. 



One subject in particular which was discussed 'by the 

 daily newspapers of Salt Lake was the governmental man- 

 agement of reclamation projects. 



This was bitterly attacked by John C. Bell of Colo- 

 rado, who referred to some of the government agents con- 

 nected with the operation of projects and compared them 

 to an old-time mail carrier who would refuse to turn out 

 for a person on the road because he was employed by 

 Uncle Sam. Mr. Bell declared that an agent of the gov- 

 ernment is more liable to abuse the public than an agent 

 of a corporation, and insisted that many projects are 

 brought into disrepute merely through the incompetency 

 of government representatives. 



Mr. Bell went on to say that men at the head of these 

 irrigation projects, like Mr. Newell and others, do not 

 believe what they hear concerning their local representa- 

 tives because they do not investigate, complaints. He 

 further stated that the people on projects with which he is 

 familiar are up in arms against the government agents or 

 representatives of the Reclamation Service. He stated 

 that the people lacked confidence in them and criticised 

 them very severely. 



It is doubtful if Mr. Bell has made inquiries as to 

 whether or not Mr. Newell has made investigations. It 

 is our impression that Mr. Newell would be very glad in- 

 deed to investigate and correct any flagrant abuse of pow- 

 er on the part of a government agent in his department. 



There is, however, a tendency, particulary among en- 

 gineers, to clannishness, or, to put it more properly, a sort 

 of a professional reserve that prevents one engineer from 

 giving information concerning another where it would be 

 injurious to his co-worker. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE is well aware that it would be 

 difficult, for instance, to criticise and get results on such 

 a project as the Belle Fourche, in South Dakota. The 

 government officials on this tract form a sort of a close 

 corporation and, while many of them are high grade men 

 who understand that there are incompetent ones among 

 them, and who may also understand that there are men 

 among them who are inclined to be discourteous to the 

 settlers, would not admit that much to a superior officer 

 like Mr. Newell, and this in turn leaves the entire force 

 open to severe criticism. 



The sooner the average engineer on a project learns 

 that a kahki uniform and a cow-boy hat does not constitute 

 authority nor always indicate a high grade of intelligence, 

 just so soon will the service be bettered. 



It is unquestionably the duty of officials higher up to 

 look after conditions of this character and make it as easy 

 as possible for settlers upon the tract who may have 

 other difficulties to overcome. There is, perhaps, no more 

 disagreeable feature to be encountered in the development 

 of a new tract on the part of a new settler than the arro- 

 gance and overbearing attitude of a stripling engineer. 



It is the opinion of the editor of IRRIGATION AGE that 

 all complaints should be made direct to Mr. Newell, who 

 would, no doubt, be glad to investigate. 



