THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



109 



cess of the Federal projects, for as Mr. Newell has 

 frequently said in the past, 'it is these associations 

 which must take over the management of the com- 

 pleted projects, once the settlers get title to their 

 lands and water. The Water Users insist that if 

 they are to permit their associations to be robbed 

 of all their functions and become mere empty shells, 

 the associations will .be in no condition to assume 

 the management of enterprises involving the mil- 

 lions now invested in these great plants. If the 

 associations are unable to do this, the projects must 

 continue under the paternalistic management of the 

 Government, a condition to which no independent, 

 red-blooded American farmer can look with favor, 

 and a condition which the project settlers declare 

 means ultimate bankruptcy for them and failure of 

 the projects. 



The National Federation of Water Users' As- 

 sociations made numerous other recommendations 

 and suggestions for improving conditions on the 

 projects at the suggestion of Secretary Lane. The 

 executive committee has pushed the "fiscal agency" 

 recommendation a little more vigorously perhaps 

 than any of the others because while on its face it 

 involves little money, its very heart-blood is the 

 principle of home rule, of representation as well as 

 taxation, and it strikes directly at the burden of the 

 bureaucracy, from under which every settler is 

 anxious to get. 



Until late in 1912, the Water Users' associations 

 on the various projects made all collections of an- 

 nual payments and maintenance charges. These 

 moneys were turned over to the receiver of public 

 moneys of the land office in the district where a 

 project was located. As a result the farmers at- 

 tended the meetings of the Water Users' associa- 

 tions ; knew their officers well ; made their com- 

 plaints to these men, and in turn, those complaints 

 reached the Department of the Interior in such form 

 as to demand and necessitate attention. The farm- 

 er's business and troubles were also those of his 

 association, and as a result many wrongs were 

 righted at Washington or by the local representa- 

 tives of the Reclamation Service. 



Then suddenly out of a clear sky, and appar- 

 ently without any of the western representatives in 

 Congress realizing its purport or far-reaching pos- 

 sibilities, came a new law, placing in the hands of 

 the Reclamation Service the power to make the col- 

 lections of water right and maintenance payments. 

 No particular arguments as to the crying need for 

 this change ever reached the ears of the water users. 



Under this law. Fiscal Agents, drawing $1,400 

 a year, were appointed for the various projects. On 

 many of the projects, two of these men were in- 

 stalled. On others only one. The farmer must 

 now make his payments to these agents. As with 

 all other costs and expenses attached to a Govern- 

 ment project, he also has to help pay their salaries. 



As long as this money is to be paid out, the 

 Water Users' associations ask Secretary Lane to 

 name the associations as Fiscal Agents and turn the 

 salaries, now paid to Federal employes, into the 

 treasuries of the associations. The associations con- 

 tend they are able to give sufficient bond, as they 

 did in the past, and to handle these collections in a 

 proper manner. With $1,400 to $2,800 a year, the 



Water Users declare they can pay the salary of a 

 competent secretary, who will devote his time to 

 the interests of the settlers as well as make the col- 

 lections, and thus they can keep their associations 

 alive and prosperous and school their members in 

 the duties which they must assume once the projects 

 are turned over to the farmers, as provided by law. 



THE BELLE FOURCHE SUIT 



Commissioner O'Donnell Suggests a Plan to Ad- 

 just It 



As the result of a conference between I. D. 

 O'Donnell, Supervisor of Irrigation and member of 

 the Reclamation Commission, and the directors of 

 the Belle Fourche Valley Water Users' Associa- 

 tion at Newell, S. D., at least part of the Belle 

 Fourche suit may be adjusted out of court. Mr. 

 O'Donnell promised to co-operate with the settlers 

 in accomplishing this and the directors, in turn, 

 adopted a resolution under which such negotiations 

 may be taken up. The association will be repre- 

 sented by O. E. Farnham, secretary of the local 

 organization, who is also secretary of the National 

 Federation of Water Users' Associations. He will 

 be assisted by K. H. Ely. 



Mr. Farnham has been one of the attorneys in 

 the suit of the Belle Fourche Water Users. This 

 suit, begun originally in the state courts, is now 

 in the United States District court. Mr. Farnham 

 and his fellow attorney, Chambers Kellar, obtained 

 an injunction from Federal Judge Elliot restraining 

 the Reclamation officials from making any collec- 

 tions for water rights, betterment or operation and 

 maintenance charges or recommending the cancel- 

 lation of any homesteads for failure to pay such 

 charges. 



If permitted to go, in full, to final decision, this 

 suit would bring definite ruling on many important 

 questions now before the Federal Water Users. 

 Violation of the contract between the Secretary of 

 the Interior and the Belle Fourche association in 

 ' the collection of building charges before the project 

 is completed is charged in the complaint ; extrava- 

 gance in administration expenses, overhead charges, 

 betterments and construction is also charged, and 

 the bill of the plaintiffs further demands that the 

 court rule on how the charges, piled up by the 

 Reclamation office at Washington and its numerous 

 branches, shall be apportioned. 



ON THE FIRING LINE 



To the five men who compose the Executive 

 Committee of the National Federation of Water 

 Users' Associations belongs a major portion of the 

 credit for promised reforms and beneficial changes 

 in the Reclamation Service. They have been on the 

 job night and day, most of the time at their own 

 expense, fighting for the rights and in the interests 

 of the settlers. They have made official Washing- 

 ton see a "great light." Once every Federal Water 

 Users' association becomes a member of this or- 

 ganization and all are contributing their pro rata 

 share of its expenses, the settlers' interests will 

 become of far more importance in Washington than 

 they have in the past. 



