THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



173 



committee has not been able to see how any trouble 

 whatever would be caused to the Government or to 

 the Reclamation Service by the proposed change. 



"There is another suggestion 1 wish to make. 

 For a good many months the chairman of the Sen- 

 ate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid 

 Lands, the chairman of the House Committee, the 

 Secretary of the Interior, and the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice have had this bill under the most careful scrutiny 

 and consideration. After all these labors we have 

 agreed upon the present measure. I trust no amend- 

 ment will be offered to it, for I am free to say there 

 is not a line or a suggestion in it that has not had 

 the most careful scrutiny of the committees of the two 

 Houses and the other persons already suggested." 



Then there was this about Senator Sterling's 

 original court jurisdiction amendment from Senator 

 Smith : 



"I trust the amendment will not be agreed to. 

 This very question itself was considered time and time 

 again. By adopting the amendment we would intrude 

 into this bill a condition that absolutely does away 

 with the principle on which it is constructed. 



''The bill now follows, and follows intentionally, 

 in that particular the exact language of the original 

 irrigation act. If we put on this bill the amendment 

 suggested, any one gentleman who is strong enough 

 to get up a dispute with a Water Users' Association 

 can take and hold land that he never intends to use,' 

 but intends to keep in a monopolistic form until the 

 unearned increment may possibly make him rich. He 

 goes into court and puts up nothing; and after his 

 dummies have held the land for two or three or four 

 years under one of the provisions of this bill he comes 

 in and buys from them at some particular price or 

 they abandon the case. 



''The matter is always left in this bill, as it was 

 left in the other, in the discretion of the Secretary of 

 the Interior. This matter of taking the case to court 

 is a thing that naturally appeals to all of us, but it 

 is changing a bill, the purpose of which is to do one 

 thing only, and that is to extend the time. Now, it 

 is proposed to ingraft on it new legislation that af- 

 fects the whole irrigation system from the day it 

 started up to this hour. 



"I sincerely hope the senator from South Da- 

 kota will not press his amendment, and that the bill 

 may pass in its present form." 



Later Senator Smith added : 



'T object to the provision for going into the 

 Federal court for the purpose of suing on questions 

 that can be and have been already settled whenever 

 they arose." 



And again after there had been suggestions made 

 and accepted by Senator Sterling to strengthen the 

 amendment. Senator Smith declared : 



"It opens the question of the whole status of 

 the present Reclamation Service under the present law 

 and under this proposed statute. These are not con- 

 ditions where an honest man is making an effort to 

 establish a home ; it is against those who are attempt- 

 ing to get into these enterprises and monopolize the 

 lands and do nothing with them except to wait for an 

 increase of value. It is a common practice ; there 

 are many cases in my own state. It is a very ordinary 

 case for persons to hold as much as four or five thou- 

 sand acres. This is to prevent the bringing of a suit 



when they attempt to say you shall water this land 

 or the water shall be carried from it to other lands. 

 With that standing there it is a menace to the very 

 enterprise itself." 



This was Senator Smith's parting shot: 



"1 will say to the senator that it would be almost 

 as well not to pass this bill at all as to pass it with 

 all these proposed limitations. They will simply, in 

 my judgment, destroy the chance of the money being 

 returned to the Treasury." 



Senator McCumber of North Dakota said : 



"The experience of the American people who 

 have had to deal with public lands has been that al- 

 most universally they would prefer to try these cases 

 before a court ; and the purpose of the amendment of 

 the senator from South Dakota is that a court may 

 determine the question after the party has had a 

 hearing." 



To this, Senator Works replied : 



"It is a very difficult problem to determine just 

 what ought to be done in these cases. The people 

 who have taken up these lands in a great many in- 

 stances have not been fairly dealt with by the Gov- 

 ernment. Contracts have been made with them upon 

 the basis of $30 an acre, for example, and before they 

 have concluded the project the price has become $40 

 an acre, and even more. In some cases the price has 

 run up as high as $60 and $75, and I think in one 

 case it has transpired that actual cost to the entryman 

 will be $100 an acre. 



"That is one side of the proposition ; but the other 

 side is that it is an exceedingly difficult matter for the 

 Government to collect the money that is actually and 

 justly due from the people who take up these lands. 

 My own judgment about it is that we should be ex- 

 tremely liberal in the way of time; give them every 

 opportunity to make these payments and then insist 

 upon them being made. The Government should be 

 protected as well as the entryman, and the money 

 that comes into the Treasury will be carried on to 

 other projects for the benefit of other people. It is 

 a very well-known fact that there has been very little 

 of the money that has been expended by the Gov- 

 ernment repaid by the people who have taken up these 

 lands. The intention of the committee was to give 

 ample time within which to make the payments, and 

 then make it compulsory upon the entrymen that they 

 should make the payments, which will be very small 

 in amount, extending over twenty years. It seems to 

 me that the bill is extremely liberal toward them." 



The penalties provision of the bill brought forth 

 some interesting comments. 



"I notice on page 3," said Senator McCumber, 

 "the bill provides : 



"Sec. 3. That if any water-right applicant or entryman 

 shall fail to pay any installment of his construction 

 charges when due there shall be added to the amount 

 unpaid a penalty of 1 per cent thereof, and there shall 

 be added a like penalty of 1 per cent of the amount unpaid 

 on the first day of each month thereafter so long as such 

 default shall continue. 



"In other words, if a farmer gets behind in his 

 payments, he is to be charged 13 per cent for not 

 being able to fulfill his contract. The Government 

 can get all the money it desires for 3 per cent ; but 

 if the farmer, by reason of the failure of crops or 

 otherwise, does not keep up his end, he is to be 

 charged a penalty of what amounts to a little over 



