170 



THE ISEIGATION AGE. 



issue of low interest- 

 bearing Reclamation cer- 

 tificates or bonds, the 

 money to be returned to 

 the United States Treas- 

 ury through the payments 

 for land and water under 

 the projects. 



As Secretary Lane 

 suggests, neither nation 

 nor state can hope to 

 make any monetary profit 

 from such financing and 

 both will lose considera- 

 ble interest money, but 

 the loss of the latter will 

 more than T>e repaid to 

 the nation and the states 

 indirectly, it is true, 

 through taxes on the in- 

 creased value of the lands 

 and through the benefits 

 accruing from a prosperous and satisfied citizenship. 



A system under which the money put into the 

 co-operative financing will be handled is yet to be de- 

 vised, and it is something which must require the 

 best thought of the leaders in the Conference. It is 

 generally agreed that the rights of the settlers should 

 be protected most thoroughly. The settlers, no doubt, 

 will demand and are entitled to a voice in the expend- 

 iture of public funds on their projects. Steps should 

 also be taken to avoid falling into the pitfalls, from 

 which the Federal Water Users are now trying to 

 extricate themselves. Chief of these is the danger of 

 bureaucratic rule by Federal and state departments, 

 with their vast overhead expenses and the ever-grow- 

 ing desire of each one of the little rulers in the bu- 

 reauracy to make his job last as long as possible. 



With the aid of Comptroller W. A. Ryan of the 

 Reclamation Commission, who has had wide oppor- 

 tunity to observe financial methods and affairs, and 

 with the knowledge he has gained in dealing with the 

 Federal projects, Secretary Lane no doubt will be able 

 to suggest a plan, when the time comes a plan that 

 will combine democracy in organization with business 

 efficiency. 



Refinancing of the projects is only one of the 

 topics to be discussed at the Conference. It is ex- 

 pected to lead to more uniformity among the states 

 in their laws and procedure concerning irrigation mat- 

 ters, a renovation of Federal policies in dealing with 

 the natural resources of the Western states and other 

 developments, which will add to the general welfare 

 of the West and the nation. 



The Governors of all the arid states are working 

 enthusiastically for the success of the Conference. 

 Several have already named fifty or more delegates 

 and are planning to be present themselves. 



"In the future," said Governor Ammons, of Colo- 

 rado, who has done much to make the meeting a 

 success, "we may seriously anticipate that matters 

 touching our natural resources are to be Constructive 

 so far as the general government is concerned. I 

 expect to see one of the largest gatherings of the in- 

 fluential men of the West that has ever come together 

 in the history of the country. The fact that the con- 

 vention of Western Governors is to assemble in Den- 



CROP PROSPECTS ON THE COAST 



'T'HE following dispatch concerning conditions on the 

 Pacific coast was received by the Irrigation Age on 

 March 24: 



Fifteen hundred miles of Pacific coast valleys and 

 uplands, reaching from British Columbia to the 

 harassed Mexican border, predicted today in expert 

 reports, the mightiest harvest in the summer of 1914 

 that the extreme west has ever seen. 



Seemingly, nearly every product of the temper- 

 ate and torrid zones is likely to surpass itself. The 

 Washington wheat crop is expected to jump the rec- 

 ord of nearly 53,000,000 bushels made in 1912, while, 

 barring unforeseen bad luck down in the Imperial 

 valley, close to Mexico, planters predicted a yield 

 of 85,000 bales of cotton a bale to the acre. 



Bountiful rains, besides going far to insure a great 

 year in agriculture, encouraged the planting of ex- 

 tensive areas in new orchards. Lemons, oranges, 

 raisin grapes, apricots, prunes, apples, and peaches 

 all were reported "excellent." 



ver the same week indi- 

 cates that the attendance 

 is going to be extra large. 

 We hope to get results 

 that cannot but help to 

 develop the states of the 

 West in the matter of nat- 

 ural resources." 



John M. Haines, 

 governor of Idaho, says 

 in a letter to the IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE: 



"We, in Idaho, hope 

 for great things to grow 

 out of this Conference. 

 We do not. know, of 

 course, just what recom- 

 mendations will be made, 

 but we trust that the out- 

 come will be a practical 

 working plan whereby 

 the credit of the United 

 States and of the states may be used jointly in the 

 construction and completion of irrigation enterprises 

 in the West. 



"I believe that the Carey Act projects, which have 

 heretofore been partial failures, should be the first 

 to receive attention, and that the rights of the settlers 

 should be given first and foremost consideration. I 

 should like, if possible, to see these projects handled 

 in such manner that the people who honestly invested 

 in irrigation bonds on the representation, even though 

 made without authority, that the state stood ready to 

 guarantee their investment, should receive some re- 

 turn on the money thus advanced by them to pro- 

 mote irrigation development." 



But the Governors' Conference is not the only 

 ray of sunshine on the horizon of ^irrigation affairs. 

 Here are just a few others, indicative of the way the 

 wind is blowing: 



The financial program of the Federal Reclama- 

 tion Service provides for the expenditure of $23,460,- 

 555.05 in sixteen states. 



San Francisco and Sacramento capitalists are 

 ready to begin work on an extensive system of reser- 

 voirs to irrigate lands in El Dorado and Sacramento 

 Counties, California. 



The United States Sugar and Land Company is 

 installing a million-dollar electrical power plant and 

 irrigation system in the Arkansas valley, near Garden 

 City, Kansas. Forty thousand acres of land will be 

 placed under water. 



The Kuhns, who financed the Twin Falls, Idaho, 

 and other big projects, have let it be known that so 

 far as the financial end of their irrigation companies 

 is concerned, they are rapidly getting firmly upon their 

 feet again. 



The Department of Justice at Washington has 

 overruled the Treasury Department and declared that 

 incomes derived from bonds of irrigation districts are 

 exempt under the income tax law. This means that 

 this class of securities will find much more ready sale 

 than they have for some time. 



These items are just a few straws, picked from 



a day's stack of news of irrigation affairs. It might 



be greatly enlarged, but it is not necessary. All show 



that while irrigation financing has been dealt some 



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