172 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



20 YEAR BILL MERRILY ROLLS THROUGH SENATE 



THE United States Senate passed the Twenty- 

 Year Reclamation Extension bill on March 18. 

 It is not expected to come up in the House for 

 passage for several weeks, and it may be late in the 

 Spring before the measure reaches President Wil- 

 son for his signature. He has announced his ap- 

 proval of the bill, according to the report of the House 

 Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands. 



Lane Conference bill, and the cultivation of one-half 

 instead of three-fourths of the irrigable area within 

 five years after filing of the Water-Right application. 

 Senator Sterling of South Dakota tried to obtain 

 the passage of an amendment advocated by the Belle 

 Fourche Valley Water Users' Association, which is 

 now engaged in a suit to enjoin the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice from shutting off water to those settlers who ob- 



The measure went through the Senate with little ject to the abrogation of their original contracts with 



debate, considering its importance and far-reaching the United States government. This amendment, ac- 



possibilities, and with few amendments. The wheels cording to Senator Sterling, proposed to confer juris- 



seemed well greased for its passage and the Senators diction on the United States district courts in all 



pushed it through with rapidity that indicated a desire cases instituted by the Government, by the Secretary 



to quickly and thoroughly wash their hands of the of the Interior or Water Users' associations, growing 



whole affair. 



The committee 

 amendments to the bill 

 were agreed upon with- 

 out debate. Some of 

 these are important, as 

 they moderate some of 

 the more drastic features 

 of the original measure, 

 framed in Seer e t a r y 

 Lane's series of confer- 

 ences. 



Section 2 was 

 amended so as to provide 

 that payments by Water 

 Users already on the 

 projects shall begin on 

 December 1, following 

 the issuance of a new 

 public notice by the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior, and 

 continue annually thereaf- 

 ter for a period of twenty 

 years. The first four of 

 these installments are 



A CONGRESSMAN'S VIEW 



'T'HIS comment was made to the writer by a promi- 

 * nent Congressman, who has played an important 

 part in framing the twenty year extension bill: 



So far as I can learn, the reclamation extension 

 bill has met with hearty approval all over the United 

 States. Every western congressman that I have 

 seen tells me that his constituents have informed 

 him that they are well satisfied with it. There has 

 been some misapprehension as to Section 2 of the 

 bill, but if this section is read in connection with 

 Section 14, it is evident that there is nothing in the 

 bill that compels any Water User to waive any right 

 that he now possesses. If he is satisfied with his 

 present contract and is willing to pay the construc- 

 tion charge in ten years, he is at liberty to do so, 

 but if he desires to obtain the benefit of the act, he 

 must accept all of its terms and conditions. In other 

 words, he must enter into another contract with the 

 government which will supersede all former con- 

 tracts. Of course no law can be passed impairing 

 any contract and we had that fundamental principle 

 in view when Section 14 was drawn. 



out of the Reclamation 

 law or the enforcement of 

 its provisions. The orig- 

 inal amendment was de- 

 feated, but the following 

 was finally accepted as 

 Section 16' of the bill: 



SEC. 16. That the district 

 court of the United States 

 for the district where the 

 lands or some portion of the 

 lands included within any 

 reclamation project are situ- 

 ated shall have jurisdiction 

 of all suits brought by the 

 United States or the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior for the 

 enforcement of the provi- 

 sions of this act, and juris- 

 diction of all suits now 

 pending or which may be 

 hereafter instituted by any 

 legally organized Water 

 Users' association or irriga- 

 tion district in behalf of the 

 Water Users and settlers 

 thereon for the enforce- 

 ment of the provisions of 

 this act and of the provi- 



fixed at 2 per cent, the next two 4 per cent, and the sions of the reclamation law as referred to and defined in 



remaining fourteen 6 per cent of the construction ^"n^oV B^ah' of Idaho obtained an amendment, 



charge. It is understood that the Secretary will provi ding that the initial payment bv new settlers shall 



the new public notices, fixing construction charges be 2 cent ^^ Q{ 5 p ' er cent ' of the construction 



soon after his proposed revaluations of the projec c h ar ges. 



are completed. The discussion of the bill prior to its passage is 

 Section 4 was amended to provide that when a enl j g i ntening Senator Marcus Smith of Arizona 

 majority of the Water Users on a project agree to called i( . up Jn the midgt Q{ a heated debate on the 

 accept additional construction charges, following the wilson p anama Canal tolls policy. After the corn- 

 issuance of the new public notices, the Secretary of mittee amendments had been agreed upon, Senator 

 the Interior may in his discretion, arrange for the s m jth sa id : 



payment of such increased charges by additional an- j do n ot wish to detain the Senate or to take its 



nual installments, each of which shall be at least equal t j me f ur ther than to say that the purpose of the bill 



to the largest annual installment fixed for the twenty- j s merely to extend the time for payment of the 



charges on these reclamation projects that have gone 

 far above any of the original proposals as to the 



year payments. 



The "landlord" feature of the bill, Section 8, was 

 softened. As passed, it authorizes the Secretary to amount that would be charged, coming sometimes to 



make rules and regulations governing irrigation of three or four times as much as those making the 



the lands in the projects, but limits the cultivation original investigation considered necessary. The bill 



which he may require of each Water User to one- extends the time and provides that all future reclama- 



fourth of the settler's farm unit within three full irri- tion projects shall come within the first provision, 



gation seasons, instead of one-half as provided in the putting them all on an absolutely equal footing. The 



