THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



205 



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A parciaent OayotO'l t,o too 

 Iniorosts of the [fanooi-.s on the 

 Govei'iHueni Irrigation Projects 



EDITED BY GEORGE J. SCHARSCHUG 



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PICK STRONG MEN TO GUARD YOUR PURSES 



PRELIMINARY arrangements for the revalua- 

 tion of the Federal Irrigation projects and the 

 fixing of their final costs to the settlers are now 

 being made. This important work is expected to 

 start soon after the passage by congress of the 

 Twenty- Year extension bill, which now may come 

 any day. In an order to supervising engineers, 

 project managers and other officials of the Reclama- 

 tion Service, Director Xewell says : 



''It is expected that action will soon be taken 

 by congress in the matter of proposed legislation 

 extending the period of payment of charges under 

 the Reclamation law, and a large amount of work 

 will be involved in the revision of the public notices. 



"This is called to your attention in order that 

 the Project Managers may take up at once the 

 preliminary steps for a revision of estimates of 

 project costs by a board of three on which there 

 shall be a Water Users' Association representative, 

 to afford a basis for revision of the charges for 

 building, operation and maintenance, to be incor- 

 porated in the new public notices to be issued after 

 the enactment of the pending legislation." 



Secretary Lane has decided to carry out his 

 original plan of composition of the revaluation 

 boards. One member will be selected by the local 

 Water Users' Association, an engineer will repre- 

 sent the Reclamation Service and a third member 

 will be named as personal representative of the 

 Secretary of the Interior. 



The Water Users, therefore, will have but one 

 representative on each board and no voice in the 

 selection of the other two members. 



As the revaluations touch the pocketbook of 

 every Water User, it behooves the various associa- 

 tions to use the greatest care in selecting their rep- 

 resentatives on the revaluation boards. The selec- 

 tion of these men should have the careful study 

 and thought of every Water User. The brainiest, 

 most capable, most public spirited man on the 

 project should be picked. The man selected should 

 be a man of iron courage and one who has the 

 interests of the Water Users thoroughly at heart. 

 He should be a true representative of the actual 

 Water Users, the men and women who are making 

 and developing the projects. 



There will be big questions before each of these 

 boards. They will be called upon to delve into 

 the innermost bookkeeping secrets of the Reclama- 

 tion Service. They must consider all charges 



against each project and decide which of those 

 charges are proper for the Water Users to 

 pay, which must be credited to the general fund 

 and which must be accepted as dead loss to the 

 Federal treasury. They must arrive at a total and 

 final building charge for each project. They must 

 investigate operation and maintenance charges. 

 They must decide what is proper to be spent on 

 the projects for additional constructions, extensions, 

 betterments and drainage. 



These boards should have the full and com- 

 plete, co-operation of every Water User in arriving 

 at their conclusions. Water Users should make 

 it their business to see that the boards are not 

 hampered in any manner in obtaining the full truth 

 concerning conditions surrounding the construction 

 of the projects arfd the conditions, with which the 

 settlers now have to cope. Make the investigations 

 thorough and complete. If there is dirty linen to 

 be washed, gross mistakes to be bared, incompe- 

 tency to be uncovered, the Water Users should 

 wade right in and see to it that these unpleasant 

 tasks are done and done thoroughly. 



Water Users have seen their neighbors perse- 

 cuted by obsequious bureaucrats of the Reclama- 

 tion Service, who denied settlers water and other- 

 wise hampered their farming, because they had 

 dared tell the truth or demand rights, such as Amer- 

 ican citizens are entitled to enjoy. These persecu- 

 tions offer no excuse for any Water User to shirk 

 his duties before the revaluation board. The perse- 

 cutions of the Reclamation Service will be less this 

 year than last year, and they will continue to grow 

 fewer. The bureaucrats realize the extent to which 

 the settlers have been aroused, and they are so 

 badly scared that they will be too busy trying to 

 hold their jobs for the next year or two to renew 

 their methods of persecution. 



True, the court looks packed to begin with, and 

 each board will be hampered by the presence in its 

 membership of a Reclamation Service engineer. 

 The training of these engineers under the chief 

 bureaucrat of them all, Newell, whose motto has 

 been, "Protect the Service," will assert itself con- 

 stantly. A high class representative of the Water 

 Users, who will strive constantly to bear the whole 

 truth and get at the real facts, can, no doubt, more 

 than offset the influence of the representative of the 

 Service. If the Water Users present their state- 

 ments of facts fully and back up each statement 



