THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



103 



because of our long acquaintance and friendship 

 with him and of our knowledge of his past work, 

 that he will tell the truth and in good, plain English. 

 He will permit no soft-tongued publicity man or 

 statistician of the Reclamation Service to bunko 

 him; he will not be bulldozed by any high and 

 mighty official of Washington ; he will not be 

 swayed by those who throw discretion to the winds 

 and demand foolish things of the United States 

 Government, but he will write without fear and 

 without favor, hoping only to benefit those hardy 

 men and women who are struggling to build up 

 homes for themselves out in the desert West, 

 through the aid of Government irrigation. THE AGE 

 believes this department will prove of real help to 

 the Water Users. 



The farmers and water users under 

 Secretary . reclamation projects, judging from 

 Lane's a declaration of policy made by Sec- 



Difficult retary Lane during the hearing at 



Position Washington, also at the meeting of 



governors in Colorado, and a reitera- 

 tion on his return to Washington, following a visit 

 to nearly all of the projects, were of the opinion that 

 under this administration a plan would develop 

 which would allow them such leniency in payments 

 as to make it possible, with reasonable endeavor, for 

 each settler to live comfortably and come "into the 

 clear" before old age and its attendant infirmities 

 precluded the possibility of the peaceful enjoyment 

 of the results of his efforts. They expected that a 

 fixed and definite policy would be adopted in the 

 interpretation of the Reclamation Law whereby un- 

 certainty, which is retarding the development of 

 the projects, would be avoided. 



The settlers expected also a curtailment of the 



large number of officials and office help employed, 



in many of the cities throughout the West, whose 



salaries eventually come from the labor of these 



settlers. 



It was also hoped that there would be fewer 

 of the bureaucratic red tape methods employed. 



THE IRRIGATION* AGE has fought for years in an 

 effort to protect the settler, particularly in the mat- 

 ter of methods used in the organization of water 

 users' associations, and its editor is heartily in sym- 

 pathy with the effort of these associations to obtain 

 the powers they seek, to have a defined purpose and 

 to avoid being treated as a whole like departmental 

 nuisances by that branch of the Government that 

 compelled their organization. 



It was the opinion of members that each asso- 

 ciation would be given power to make their collec- 

 tions for the Government not only for charges due 

 the Government, but for its own expenses as well ; it 



was the opinion of the officers of each association 

 that they would be given some voice in the opera- 

 tion and maintenance of their projects, and that 

 their recommendations would have the weight to 

 which they are entitled. 



The settlers have believed that their Water 

 Users' associations would be encouraged and given 

 authority to operate and maintain marketing estab- 

 lishments, that they would in some way be enabled 

 to utilize their almost perfect organization to carry 

 out some scheme of farm credits, adopted after some 

 of the European systems, Americanized to suit their 

 particular conditions. They expected in this man- 

 ner to be enabled to develop their water power and 

 other public utilities, and have hoped that the Gov- 

 ernment, by doing these things, would be relieved of 

 the unrest and criticism of bureaucratic rule, as it 

 would place nearly all these matters of operation in 

 the hands of those who are paying for the works, 

 thus placing the burden upon the people, where it 

 belongs. 



They also expected a constructive administra- 

 tion in these matters, in so far as it was in the 

 power of the secretary to grant, and when he did 

 not have this power they had expected his aid and 

 the aid of the administration in the enactment of 

 such laws as would make these things possible. 



When the settlers and land owners of Federal 

 projects conveyed their lands to the Water Users' 

 associations in trust to be sold in accordance with 

 the terms of the act, and subscribed for stock, and 

 when those corporations entered into solemn con- 

 tracts, agreeing to guarantee the payment of the 

 estimated cost of the project, and when the private 

 land owners and entrymen made application for 

 water and were issued water right certificates upon 

 the payment of a specified sum, being their pro rata 

 portion of the estimated cost, they had confidence in 

 their Government, and believed that the people 

 would see that its obligations were carried out. 



Gradually it began to appear by public notices 

 and orders issued by the successive secretaries of 

 the interior that these contracts, obligations and rep- 

 resentations on the part of the Government were 

 considered as naught, and no order, public notice or 

 the law itself has ever been interpreted, in the com- 

 mon acceptation of the meaning of the English lan- 

 guage. Consequently it is not strange that the air 

 has been charged with unrest and dissension in re- 

 gard to the service, it being expressed in open 

 declarations that engineers were not fit for opera- 

 tion after the works were completed. 



With all these things in mind, the settlers have 

 been patiently waiting, full of hope for the future, 

 that in the new administration they would now 

 realize the dreams expressed in the spirit of the 



