THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



271 



CONGRESSMEN HUNT 20-YEAR BILL "LOBBYIST 



Mysterious Person, Who Suggested They Were Loafing, Scored in House 



G. E. Rodman, Who Received the 

 "Confidential" Letter 



A .MYSTERIOUS person, who is described as a 

 Western man, is being hunted by the Congress- 

 men from the irrigation states, with a large-sized 



club. If they find him, 

 he is liable to be the 

 subject of an "insidious 

 lobby" investigation. 



It is certain his 

 name will get into the 

 Congressional Record, 

 accompanied by de- 

 scriptions of him such 

 as "bushwhacker, knave, 

 ignoramus, marplot, 

 grafter,'' and what not. 

 The m y s t e rious 

 person wrote a "confi- 

 dential" letter to G. E. 

 Rodman, secretary of 

 the Sunnyside Water 

 Users' Association of 

 Washington, in which 

 he charged that the 

 arid states' Representatives were negligent in push- 

 ing the Twenty-Year Reclamation Extension bill. 

 He declared many of them were absent from the 

 Mouse when the bill was called up for passage in 

 -May. 



Mr. Rodman, like many other Water Users, is 

 anxious to see the Twenty-Year bill become a law. 

 He immediately began a campaign of telegrams and 

 letters through the Federal projects, seeking to 

 "speed up'' the Congressmen. He sent copies of the 

 "confidential" letter, without its signature to various 

 Water Users' Associations and others. The result 

 was a flood of letters and telegrams to Western 

 Congressmen. 



When the bill was again called up for passage 

 on the unanimous consent calendar on June 15, 

 action upon it was promptly stopped by objection, 

 but not until Congressman Hayden of Arizona and 

 some others had had their say about the mysterious 

 person. 



"Recently a number of members from States 

 in which Federal reclamation projects are located 

 received letters and telegrams from Water Users' 

 Associations and settlers on the projects urging 

 them to greater activity in behalf of the reclamation 

 extension bill," said Mr. Hayden. "Many of these 

 letters and telegrams were of such a character as 

 to impugn the good faith, the industry, and watch- 

 fulness of the members to whom they were sent, 

 and all of them were evidently inspired by the same 

 person. The insinuations which they contained 

 were so grossly unfair and unjust that I have under- 

 taken to ascertain, if possible, their source, in order 

 that I might expose the despicable methods used 

 to discredit among their constituents at least a 

 score of men on both sides of this Chamber. 



"I have secured a copy of a letter which dis- 

 closes the reason why members have received these 



letters and telegrams. Unfortunately the bush- 

 whacker who made this attack has succeeded in 

 having his name concealed on the plea that the in- 

 formation given was confidential in its nature." 



Mr. Hayden read from the "confidential" letter. 

 This paragraph was greeted with laughter: 



If thirty projects can't muster sufficient energy and 

 cohesiveness to raise, say, $1,000 for expenses, travel, post- 

 age, correspondence, dispatches, etc., they don't deserve 

 a great deal of sympathy. 



"At the mention of this sum of money some 

 members have been unkind enough to wonder 

 whether in this secretive adviser might not be found 

 another Col. Mulhall, who, for a suitable considera- 

 tion, would consent to adopt this poor, orphaned 

 measure and who would promise that under his 

 lobbying care it would eventually reach the place 

 where all good bills hope to go and become a law," 

 continued Mr. Hayden. "It is said there are men 

 who would stoop to deceive unsuspecting settlers 

 in order to obtain the price of a meal ticket." 



Congressman Mann, perhaps facetiously, sug- 

 gested that Mr. Hayden start a Congressional in- 

 quiry immediately. 



"Isn't that insidious lobby?" questioned Con- 

 gressman Madden. 



Mr. Hayden declared every member of the 

 House Irrigation Committee except Chairman 

 Smith was present on the day the bill was called up. 

 He explained that objection to the bill had shut off 

 debate. Then he continued : 



"The man who sent out this letter stating that 

 mere talk on the part of the Western members 

 could have affected the result is either a knave or 

 an ignoramus, and, whichever he is, his conduct 

 is equally reprehensible. 



"On receipt of this letter Mr. Rodman, without 

 any attempt to verify the statements contained in 

 it, immediately rushed to a printing office and had 

 copies made for distribution among the Water 

 Users of the entire West. With it he sent out the 

 following letter: 



"Sunnyside, Wash., May 26, 1914. 

 "To the Water Users' Associations: 



"More information as to the opposition to the recla- 

 mation-extension bill impels us to urge the various asso- 

 ciations to take prompt and vigorous action in favor of the 

 bill, if they have not done so Below are copies of the 

 latest advices: as they are confidential, the name of the 

 author is withheld. They come from a Western man who 

 has been in Washington, D. C, now for some weeks and 

 is thoroughly in touch with the situation, and we have 

 full confidence that he is representing the condition as it 

 actually exists. 



"Thoroughly in touch with the situation, for- 

 sooth ! And yet there is not a particle of truth in 

 his letter that any Water User could not have ob- 

 tained by reading the Congressional Record when 

 it reached him on his own farm, 2,000 miles away 

 from Washington. All that this evil-minded indi- 

 vidual did was to read the Record here in Wash- 

 ington and then write a letter about it, in which he 

 Continued on Page 282 



