332 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tion Service for certain unknown reasons. The 

 Service thinks we are its enemy, whereas we are 

 only the enemy of the persons who have controlled 

 its policies in the past. 



"Some time ago I recommended to our Com- 

 mittee that we enlarge the scope of our Committee 

 to include one from each project Water Users' As- 

 sociation, and where the regular Association did 

 not see fit to cooperate with us, that we recognize 

 a representative from some minority organization 

 on the project. This recommendation was approved 

 by all the members of our Executive Committee, 

 but we did not see fit to push the matter during 

 the period of time while the extension bill was 

 under consideration as we all had all we could at- 

 tend to in the way of correspondence during that 

 long period. ' Now that that bill has become a law, 

 I think we should more thoroughly organize for 

 future work, which I think will be as important as 

 the extension matter. 



"The Irrigation Congress has gone to the dogs, 

 apparently, and if our committee could be strength- 

 ened we might reorganize such an institution 

 through the instrumentalities of our enlarged Com- 

 mittee. THE AGE would be our organ, undoubtedly. 

 But that organ needs our help in order that it may 

 be of influence among the actual Water Users. 



"I will now ask you if your Land Owners' Pro- 

 tective Association, of which you are the vice- 

 president, would be willing to delegate a commit- 

 teemen who would represent the Water Users of 

 Phoenix up to the time when the regular Associa- 

 tion should see fit to again cooperate with us. 



"I wish you would think this matter over care- 

 fully and consult your Association regarding it, 

 and if the idea should seem to you feasible, I should 

 feel encouraged to make the same proposition to 

 the other four projects who have been influenced 

 to not cooperate." 



HOW WILL 20- YEAR BILL AFFECT SETTLERS? 



Big Questions Arise as New Law is About to be Enforced 



WHAT proportion of the settlers on the Federal 

 projects will accept the conditions provided 

 in the recently passed twenty-year payment bill? , 



How will the bill affect those who prefer to 

 continue their payments and complete title to their 

 land and water rights under the original Reclama- 

 tion Act? 



These are two big, outstanding questions on 

 every Federal project. Their answer hinges largely 

 upon Secretary Lane's forthcoming public notice 

 concerning readjustment of payments and opera- 

 tion of the law. The answer also will be affected 

 greatly by the results of the revaluations of the 

 projects, which the Secretary has ordered. 



A hint of what this revaluation may bring is 

 contained in the order opening a new unit of the 

 Truckee-Carson project in Nevada. The settlers 

 now on the project have contracts with the gov- 

 ernment providing for payments of $22 and $30 

 per acre for their water rights. The cost of water 

 rights in the new unit has been fixed at $60. 



The Underwood amendment to the Twenty- 

 Year bill has also caused much speculation among 

 the irrigators as to its future effects on Federal 

 Reclamation. Congressman Taylor of Colorado de- 

 clares the members of the House from the East 

 and South were solid for this amendment because 

 they felt it would prevent abuses of the Reclama- 

 tion fund, such as have characterized its history in 

 the past, and would also force the Reclamation 

 Service to "operate on a business basis." 



In accepting the amendment, many Western 

 Senators took a very gloomy view of its "pork bar- 

 rel" possibilities. 



"I consider the provision put in the bill in the 

 House a very unwise if not a vicious provision ; 

 but we were confronted with the proposition of no 

 bill at all or agreeing to this amendment," said Sen- 

 ator Wesley L. Jones of Washington. "I felt com- 

 pelled to sign the conference report rather than 



have the bill fail, because I know the condition of 

 many of the settlers under the various irrigation 

 projects; and for their relief and for their help it is 

 absolutely necessary and essential that the other 

 parts of this bill should be passed. 



"We are simply forced to take this bill with 

 this amendment, and that is all there is to it, to 

 get the relief that is absolutely essential to the set- 

 tlers under many of these various irrigation proj- 

 ects. For that reason, and that reason alone, I 

 signed the conference report." 



Senator Myers of Montana declared : 



"I view with great alarm the adoption of this 

 report. I would rather stay on the 10-year payment 

 plan of Reclamation projects than to adopt this 

 report and have the bill amended in this way. 



"I think the expenditure of the Reclamation 

 fund is right where it belongs and ought to be 

 under the administrative department of the Gov- 

 ernment. It can handle it better, it knows the 

 needs better, it knows conditions better than Con- 

 gress can possibly know them ; it has been well con- 

 ducted. I have no fault to find with the administra- 

 tion of the Reclamation Service of the Government. 



"If we take the control of these expenditures 

 away from the Reclamation Service and put it in 

 Congress, I think it will make just what is popu- 

 larly called a "pork-barrel" proposition out of it. 

 It will not be decided on its merits. It will be sub- 

 ject to wirepulling and intrigue and pressure and 

 influence of all sorts, wholly independent of merit, 

 and will be decided in a manner far removed from 

 the merits of the proposition. 



"I know by experience what it takes to get 

 money from Congress for reclamation projects, and 

 1 predict that when this is put in the hands of Con- 

 gress every reclamation project in the West will be 

 up against just the same thing that the Flathead 

 (Indian) reclamation project in Montana is up 

 against every year. 



