106 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE CALL TO ARMS 



"THE following message was sent by Scott Etter of Carlsbad, N. M., secretary of the 

 * Pecos Water Users' Association, to all Water Users' associations, concerning the 

 Smith Reclamation Extension bill: 



Congressional bill on passage very vital to Water Users. Members of the National 

 Federation of Water Users' Association will be in Washington next week to present 

 amendments to the bill as drawn. The bill as it stands is fatally defective to all. 

 Send representative if possible to assist Federation officials. If possible, telegraph 

 F. H. Sears, National Life Building, Chicago, how much financial aid you can con- 

 tribute to keep representatives in Washington to present our cause. Give the National 

 Federation authority to act for you. Bill may be placed on final passage in House 

 in about ten days unless we act. 



irrigated each year. Failure to comply with any 

 such regulation shall authorize an increase of ail 

 charges for" building, operation, and maintenance, 

 and drainage by way of penalty not exceeding ten 

 per centum for each year of such failure; 



"(b) Regarding prompt payment of all charges, 

 the addition to each annual charge of not exceeding 

 five per centum for collection, a rebate of such ad- 

 ditional charge if paid on or before the due date, 

 and a penalty not exceeding one per centum each 

 month thereafter during which the charge remains 

 unpaid ; 



"(c) Regarding credit for the amounts paid 

 before becoming subject to this Act, on account of 

 the building and drainage charges, and the adjust- 

 ment of future payments, their amount, and the 

 time when the first thereof shall become due; 



"(d) Regarding an increase of each annual 

 charge by not exceeding fifteen per centum if 

 water-right application is not made within one year 

 after public notice permitting the filing thereof, in 

 the case of any private landowner or of any person 

 whose entry is not subject to the reclamation law; 



"(e) Regarding suspension of the require- 

 ment of residence prescribed by the reclamation 

 law as to entrymen or private landowners for not 

 exceeding five years, upon compliance with such 

 extra reclamation requirements as the Secretary of 

 the Interior may specify ; and both the entrymen 

 and private landowners shall after such suspension 

 reside upon the land for three years. Failure to 

 comply with such extra requirements and with the 

 general residence and reclamation regulations shall 

 render the water-right application and correspond- 

 ing entry, if any, subject to cancellation with the 

 forfeiture of all moneys paid ; 



"(f) Regarding the method of determining the 

 charges per acre on the several projects so as to re- 

 cover all expendi^-^*' 'hich the Secretary of the 

 Interior shall frsible to 5 been made on account of 

 the project, -<ittee is thr 



"Sec*<f this system^ecretary of the Interior may 

 open to elation of "mporary rental basis prior to 

 the issuanc^ 6 . 1 " 5 m a, c notice, any withdrawn lands 

 for which wj s upovy be available. 



"Sec. 4. , m er entrymen under the reclamation 

 law holding rriiJ^e than one farm unit who make 



proof of residence, improvements, and cultivation 

 may assign the excess in accordance with the farm- 

 unit plat under the provisions of the Act of June 

 twenty-third, nineteen hundred and ten (Thirty- 

 sixth Statutes, page five hundred and ninety-two), 

 within one year after such proof and prior to the 

 issue of patent for one farm unit or within one year 

 after the issue of farm-unit plat if the same issues 

 subsequent to such proof. After such period of one 

 year the right of assignment shall terminate and the 

 entry shall be conformed to one farm unit. No per- 

 son shall hold by assignment more than one farm 

 unit prior to final payment of all charges for all the 

 land held by him subject to the reclamation law, 

 except operation and maintenance charges not then 

 due." 



SECRETARY LANE'S LETTER 



Secretary Lane's letter to the various Water 

 Users' Associations concerning what he hopes to ac- 

 complish under the Smith bill and other policies 

 which he has adopted, is as follozvs: 



I am sending you this letter in which I dis- 

 cuss various questions affecting all of our reclama- 

 tion projects, that you may know the effort that is 

 being made to meet your needs. This letter requires 

 no answer. It covers what appears to me to be 

 some of the more important problems confronting 

 both yourself and the Government. The question 

 always before us is, whether or not the United 

 States can successfully conduct a large business 

 enterprise upon business principles without in- 

 justice to its citizens and without imposing a too 

 heavy burden upon those with whom it deals. 



It may be true that hitherto the Government 

 has expected too much of water users, and it may 

 be equally true that water users have expected too 

 much of the Government. However that may be, 

 there is surely a safe middle ground where neither 

 shall expect too much of the other and where each 

 shall be ready to recognize the other's due on the 

 safe and solid basis of the needs and possibilities 

 of the one and the fair and just compensation of 

 the other; and all this without thought or sugges- 

 tion of largess or of imposition. I would deal with 

 you as you would deal with another, yielding noth- 

 ing as charity, but dealing together as men and 



