144 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION ASKED 



Officers of the Landowners Protective Association 



Lewis T. Carpenter, Counsel T. T. Powers, President Sam Barrett, Asst- Secretary 



H. A. Bustrin, Vice-President O. C. Thompson, Secretary Charles H. Akers 



By Sam Barrett 



(Phoenix, Ariz.) 



AT the inception of the Salt River Irrigation proj- 

 ect, the first important preliminary step was 

 the preparation by government engineers of an 

 estimate, purporting to show the probable cost of 

 the enterprise. The figure was placed at three and 

 three-quarter millions of dollars, and with this as a 

 basis, amounting to fifteen dollars per acre on the 

 land proposed to be reclaimed, the settlers in the 

 Salt River valley entered into a contract with the 

 government for the prosecution of the project. 

 Subsequently the scope of the work was enlarged 

 to cover the distributing system and to that end 

 the reclamation officials acting for the government, 

 purchased various privately owned canals, paying 

 therefor, in round numbers, something like a half a 

 million dollars. It may be said here that with one 

 or two minor exceptions, these canals, under the 

 conditions existing at the date of purchase, were 

 nearly valueless for their intended purposes. The 

 Reclamation Service immediately instituted a sys- 

 tem of improvements and extensions which are still 

 being prosecuted. 



The total cost of the project at this date is 

 close to twelve million dollars and the officials esti- 

 mate that at least one million more will be required 

 before the work is finished. In addition to this, the 

 water users themseves have paid in and expended 

 nine hundred thousand dollars for the construction 

 of a power plant, which is now nearing completion. 



Very early in the prosecution of the work many 

 evidences of incompetence and extravagance became 

 manifest. The offices swarmed with clerks, book- 



keepers, stenographers, draftsmen, engineers and 

 assistants of high and low degree, while the outside 

 work was literally clogged with foremen, straw- 

 bosses, timekeepers and teamsters, whose principal 

 duty seemed to be to lie under a wagon six hours a 

 day. Many expensive structures were erected, only 

 to be dynamited out in some cases, this occurring 

 three or four times with the same structure. 



This continued for several years and engen- 

 dered a widespread feeling among the settlers that 

 the business was not being conducted along the lines 

 of greatest efficiency. The board of governors is 

 the official representative of the Water Users, and 

 to inquiries propounded at different times by mem- 

 bers, as to the accrued cost of the project, the in- 

 quirers were more or less politely informed by 

 reclamation officials that it was none of their busi- 

 ness. 



This condition culminated in February, 1912, 

 in the formation of the Land Owners Protective As- 

 sociation, a non-official body of between five hun- 

 dred and six hundred Water Users, with T. T. 

 Powers, president ; H. A. Bustrin, vice-president ; 

 O. C. Thompson, secretary, and Sam Barrett, as- 

 sistant secretary. Charles H. Akers, managing 

 editor of the Arizona Gazette, and Lewis T. Car- 

 penter, attorney for the association, aided greatly 

 in organizing the association. 



The object of this asociation was to ascertain, if 

 possible, the exact status of the enterprise and to 

 procure the abatement of such abuses as might be 

 found to exist. In response to a petition from the 

 association, a sub-committee from the House Com- 

 (Continued on page 152.) 



