300 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ABEL ADY, 



President of the Klamath Water 

 Users' Association of Oregon, 

 Who Has Worked for Months 

 in Washington for the Twenty- 

 Year Bill. 



In accordance with 

 his pledge to the Fed- 

 eral Water Users in 

 his letter which ac- 

 companied an early 

 draft of the Twenty- 

 Y e a r bill, Secretary 

 Lane must proceed im- 

 mediately with the re- 

 valuation of the proj- 

 ects and the readjust- 

 ment of the payments 

 for water rights. In 

 their oratorical efforts 

 to carry the measure to 

 victory, Western Con- 

 gressmen, almost to a 

 man, declared every 

 dollar of the Reclama- 

 tion fund would be 

 paid back into the 

 United States treasury, 

 providing the exten- 

 sion of payments was granted. In their pleas for 

 the "poor devils out in the desert," they made no 

 mention of the fact that from $30,000,000 to $40,- 

 000,000 had been spent by the Reclamation Service, 

 from which the Water Users derive no benefit and 

 for which in all justice the settlers should not be 

 held responsible. Secretary Lane has been quoted 

 as stating that he favored charging off certain over- 

 head charges, amounting to about $3,000,000, now 

 charged against the projects, but that the settlers 

 must pay for all engineering "mistakes" and other 

 expenditures, because irrigation engineering is not 

 an exact science. 



If the settlers are forced to pay for all the 

 waste, extravagance, mistakes and wild-eyed ex- 

 periments which have characterized the Reclama- 

 tion Service work, the price to them of the ten-year 

 extension in their water right payments will be 

 tremendous. 



Under such conditions it is doubtful if many of 

 the settlers will give up their old contracts, which 

 stipulated much smaller payments, in order to ob- 

 tain the benefits of the extension law. This may 

 mean chaos and worse conditions than ever be- 

 fore on the projects. 



The Secretary of the Interior is armed with 

 much more drastic powers than before to enforce 

 the demands of the law and the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice regulations. What results these new powers 

 will bring is hard to foretell. 



In addition to the possibility that the extension 

 of payments, may save many settlers their homes 

 and make home building easier for new comers, 

 there is one other feature of real value in the bill. 

 This is the recognition accorded the Federal Water 

 Users' Associations. It is the one bulwark against 

 even greater domination by a government bu- 

 reaucracy which the Water Users have. 



Credit for the two features of the bill, which it 

 is hoped will prove of relief and benefit to the set- 

 tlers the extension of payments and recognition 

 of the Water Users' associations, is due entirely to 

 the officers and active leaders of the National Fed- 

 eration of Water Users' Associations. These men 



laid the foundation for the bill at a conference in 

 Washington fifteen months ago. They fought 

 valiantly to the end to obtain effective relief for the 

 Water Users. Not once did they waver. 



Measure after measure of relief, which they 

 asked, was cut from the bill in the Lane conferences. 

 Finally it was sent to Congress minus all relief 

 clauses except the time extension. Recognition for 

 the Water Users' associations was gained only alter 

 some very adroit maneuvering by officials of the 

 Federation. They worked hard for other amend- 

 ments to the measure but the forces at Washington 

 could not be overcome. 



The Western Congressmen were kept badly 

 frightened about the success of the measure until 

 the last moment, through threats of interest charges 

 on water payments and other changes in the Recla- 

 mation law. That is why they feared to tell the 

 truth about the Reclamation Service or insist vig- 

 orously on the various relief amendments asked by 

 the settlers. 



This fright, if it was really honest, was entirely 

 unnecessary, as it was "doped" by the administra- 

 tion forces from the beginning of this session of 

 Congress that the Twenty-Year bill in some form 

 must be passed as sop to the West. Republican and 

 Progressive Congressmen were pledged to such a 

 measure by their party platforms, and with the ad- 

 ministration seeking to appease the West, which is 

 not at all pleased by the free sugar, wool and other 

 features of the tariff measure, as well as some other 

 recent legislation, the bill was never seriously in 

 danger of not passing. These facts were borne out 

 by the final vote upon the bill in the House. It 

 was passed without even a roll call being demanded. 



PROTECTS THE WATER USERS 



The Secretary of the Interior has awarded the 

 contract to the Canyon Power Company of Oak- 

 land, California, for the lease of the electric power 

 plant, substation and transmission line in the 

 Truckee-Carson irrigation project in Nevada. The 

 term of the lease is ten years. 



The bid of the Canyon Power Company is at 

 the rate of one-fourth of a cent per kilowatt hour 

 for the excess power during the summer months 

 (April to September, inclusive), and at the rate of 

 three-eighths of a cent during the period from Oc- 

 tober to March, inclusive. There is to be a mini- 

 mum payment of $1,200 per month during the sum- 

 mer months. The net income to be expected is ap- 

 proximately $14,000 per annum as a minimum, with 

 a possible maximum of approximately $30,000 per 

 annum. 



A stipulation will be inserted in the contract 

 for the protection of the Federal Water Users and 

 other small consumers by limiting the price to be 

 charged such consumers. 



ALFALFA BLOAT IN CATTLE 



This remedy for alfalfa bloat in cattle has been 

 used successfully in Idaho for years : Put a level 

 teaspoonful of common pine tar on the root of the 

 animal's tongue and relief will come immediately. 



