THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



169 



REAL DEVELOPMENT FOLLOWS BURST BOOM 



Irrigation Prospects for 1914 in West Are Very Bright Lane Conference Helps 



By GEO. J. SCHARSCHUG 



Grain Elevators at Sidney, Mont., in the Heart of the Lowr 

 Yellowstone Project 



THE i r r i g a tion 

 projects of the 

 West are on the eve 

 of the most promising 

 year of their exist- 

 ence, unless all signs 

 fail. It is to be a. year 

 of real, construc- 

 tive advancement ; 

 of stabilizing and re- 

 juvenating finances of 

 projects, looted, mis- 

 managed or under- 

 financed by promot- 

 ers, anxious to make 

 quick and big profits. 

 It is to be a year in 

 which a number of 

 new projects will be 

 put under way. It is 

 to be a year of activ- 

 ity on the Federal 

 projects, several of 

 which should be well 

 on the road to com- 

 pletion before 1914 ends. And better yet, it prom- 

 ises to be a year of greater crops and more pros- 

 perity for the farmers on the projects. 



It will not be a boom year. 



The boom days in the irrigation field are past. 

 Irrigation has settled down into the straight and nar- 

 row path of clean, substantial business, and the de- 

 velopment this year, the financing, the sale of prop- 

 erty will all be on stable lines. 



Booms are costly, and the West has had many 

 of them, but from no boom has the West recovered 

 so quickly and with such evidence of greater devel- 

 opment on sane lines as it is doing from the irriga- 

 tion boom. This is because irrigation is right to 

 begin with ; it means increased wealth to the nation 

 as well as to the farmers ; it means reclamation of 

 that which otherwise would be of little or no value, 

 and it is founded upon land values, the basis of all 

 actual wealth. 



There are many elements entering into this re- 

 vival of irrigation affairs. 



The greatest of these, perhaps, is the master 

 stroke of Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane 

 in calling a Conference of Governors of the eleven 

 arid states and delegates from the various irrigation 

 projects at Denver, Colo., on April 9. Financiers and 

 bankers throughout the nation who have had a hand 

 in financing projects in the past have been invited 

 to attend. Holders of irrigation stocks and bonds 

 throughout the South and East have been urged to 

 be there. Still other men of money, who may become 

 interested in the future, have been notified of the 

 meeting. Officials representing various branches of the 

 United States Government will attend. The Secretary 

 will be unable to be present, but will be represented per- 



sonally by First As- 

 sistant Secretary of 

 the Interior Jones. 



The Secre t a r y 

 sizes up the problem 

 with which this Con- 

 ference must deal in 

 this paragraph of his 

 letter to the Gover- 

 nors: 



"It appears, 

 therefore, that no fur- 

 ther large develop- 

 ment can now be ex- 

 pected unless it is (a) 

 by the use of public 

 funds, state or nation- 

 al, upon which no 

 profit or interest is 

 required, or (b) by 

 the use of funds pro- 

 cured by taxation, as 

 in the case of irriga- 

 tion districts, and 

 where, also, the ques- 

 tion of profit and interest on the works themselves is 

 the increased land values and productivity of the soil." 

 It is upon the first part of the Secretary's sug- 

 gestion that the hopes of several western governors 

 and other leaders for real material progress is based. 

 It means Federal and state co-operative financing for 

 the completion of Carey Act and private projects, 

 now on financial rocks, and for the development of 

 additional projects which are recognized as feasible 

 but for which capital hitherto has not been available. 

 If Secretary Lane can have matters so whipped 

 into shape at the Denver conference that he can put 

 the whole situation before Congress, backed by a 

 united West, he should have little difficulty in ob- 

 taining the $100,000,000 which he believes is neces- 

 sary, or three times that much, in order to carry on 

 the government's share of the proposed co-operative 

 financing. 



In the past, Southern and Eastern members of 

 Congress have had among their numbers many 'who 

 were hostile to Federal reclamation of the Western 

 states. If they are hostile to any demand the Secre- 

 tary may make for money to help finance partially 

 completed Carey Act and private projects, they will 

 in almost every case be fighting their own people. 

 They cannot afford to do this. 



The majority of the stocks and bonds of the irri- 

 gation projects upon which interest has been defaulted 

 are held in the East and the South. Wall Street 

 holds large blocks. Millions are held in ' Chicago. 

 The bankers and financiers do not want to lose all 

 they have invested in these stocks and bonds, and will 

 therefore be glad to urge their senators and repre- 

 sentatives to support such a measure. 



It is proposed to raise the money needed by an 



