370 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



appeal has been taken by the bondholders from the 

 decision of the lower court in the matter of the 

 contractor's suit before mentioned, but has not been 

 heard, but even with the decision of the Appellate 

 court, nothing will have been determined, unless 

 the Chicago banking bondholders see fit to change 

 their attitude, as indicated recently by a leading 

 member of their committee, when he stated that 

 "they would carry the case to the United States Su- 

 preme Court, if necessary." Through it all certain 

 cardinal facts stand out clearly there are settlers 

 upon the ground who must take their chances upon 

 the erratic flow of the river, with due regard to 

 earlier priorities and with no stored water for late 

 irrigation- some seven or eight hundred entrymen, 

 all told, have paid to the defunct company several 

 hundred thousand dollars which should have been 

 held in escrow by the state, in the meanwhile losing 

 interest upon their investment, not to speak of the 

 loss of opportunity to found a home, for many of 

 them the only opportunity that will ever have been 

 presented. These payments, in all probability a 

 total loss, so far as the company making restitution 

 to the entrymen is concerned, the money spent upon 

 the dam system apparently irretrievably lost, so 

 much of the distributing system as was completed 

 doubtless suffering much damage from non-use and 

 lack of maintenance, the equities in the properties 

 the bone of contention, and of seemingly endless 

 litigation, the name of the state besmirched. With 

 it all one hears no word about the interests of the 

 non-resident entrymen. And what has the state 

 done through all these perplexities? Has it fol- 

 lowed the statutes governing cases where work is 

 not complete within the contract period? Has it 

 made any effort to collect upon the meager bond of 

 $175,000.00? Not unless it has done so within the 

 very recent past. It has built a temporary spillway 

 to save the valley below it and, through the re- 

 ceiver, has delivered some flood water to settlers 

 upon the ground. In the last legislature a bill was 

 introduced to refund to entrymen the first pay- 

 ments to the state (25 cents per acre), but it was 

 very sensibly withdrawn and I, personally, op- 

 posed its passage to the full extent of my ability. 

 No efforts toward resumption of construction or of 

 completion of the works and the people who were 

 mulcted out of a quarter of a million dollars for 

 "first payments," not to speak of traveling expenses, 

 locator's fees, and their time, may wait and abide 

 their fate. Is it any wonder that "Idaho gets one 

 permanent settler where she should have a hun- 

 dred," as quoted from a recent public utterance of 

 Governor Haines? 



It seems that there must be a very real reason 

 for the tremendous excess of unirrigated land under 

 ditches, as shown by the latest census reports, not- 

 withstanding the many thousands spent, in the past, 

 upon "bureaus of immigration." As an example of 

 what might have been done, witness the Wyoming 

 Act (S. L., 1911), which provided that "no water 

 right contracts may be sold until water is ready for 

 delivery," also the "regulations" of other states pro- 

 viding that the "literature" of Carey Act companies 

 must be submitted to the board for approval before 

 going into the hands of the public, upon the theory 



that it were better to call a halt upon so-called "de- 

 velopment" if it cannot proceed without scandal. 



It is dangerous to indulge in generalizations, 

 but it is entirely safe to say that the vast majority 

 of entrymen, not only upon the "Big Lost" project, 

 but upon others, and in all the "Carey Act" states, 

 have been led to enter land, in the past, almost en- 

 tirely upon the strength of the carefully nurtured 

 belief that the state or federal governments, or 

 both, were "back of" these enterprises, in a real 

 sense. Examples beyond the Big Lost River pro- 

 ject are not necessary to point the moral of this tale, 

 neither are they wanting, but it appears self-evident 

 that the states, in their trusteeship of these great 

 estates, are certainly under the most elemental obli- 

 gation to protect both entrymen and bond buyers 

 if need be from the effects of the chicanery and mis- 

 representation that has prevailed in the past. In 

 the case of the "Big Lost River" project, your state 

 is under a direct moral resonsibility to see that the 

 entrymen secure, at the earliest possible date, and 

 regardless of any saving clause in the statutes, 

 what they were promised for 1912 the completion 

 of the system and delivery of water for equitable 

 interests, in both of which they have already paid 

 $4.25 per acre. There is positively no line of argu- 

 ment or of reasoning by which this statement can 

 be refuted. Every entryman under this project 

 looks to the state to "make good" for its previous 

 attitude of indifference which made the crash pos- 

 sible and, in his heart, feels that the state, if it does 

 not soon demonstrate its good faith, will stand 

 charged with turpitude. Immediate action should 

 be brought to collect upon the contractors' bond of 

 $175,000.00 and, if necessary, a special session of the 

 legislature called to provide funds for' the speedy 

 completion of the system by the state, thus follow- 

 ing the precedent recently established by the legis- 

 lature of Oregon in appropriating the sum of $450,- 

 000.00 towards the completion of the bankrupt and 

 unfinished "Columbia Southern" Carey Act project. 

 Respectfully submitted, 



EDWARD BOHM. 



Author "The Carey Act Manual," "Irrigation 

 Finance," member Executive Committee National 

 Irrigation Congress. 



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