396 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



STATES MUST TAKE UP RECLAMATION TASK 



Some Indian Corn, Grown a Short Distance East of Pueblo, Colo. Courtesy of The Earth. 



BY FRANCES 

 A. HOUSE 



Financial Expert of the 

 Rocky Mountain News 

 of Denver, Colo. 



S CON- 



cerns new 

 construction by 

 private compa- 

 nies, little is being 

 done in the ir- 

 rigable districts 

 of the West. The 

 unsettled state 

 of things in fi- 

 nancial markets 

 necessarily inter- 

 feres, to a seri- 

 ous extent, with 

 efforts to get a 

 sufficiency of 

 funds for the nu- 

 merous projects 

 that are either 



planned or partly finished. Approximately $30,000,- 

 000 in all is urgently required at the present time 

 in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, 

 Oregon and Utah. 



Pending a satisfactory readjustment in mone- 

 tary affairs, the land boards of a few of the states 

 named are energetically striving to have as much 

 accomplished, constructively, as circumstances per- 

 mit. They try to enlist the efficient aid of local 

 bankers and capitalists, and even set aside such 

 portions of state funds as are not appropriated for 

 other or more pressing purposes. And I gather 

 from dependable information that some striking 

 advantages have already been gained as a result 

 of the adoption of makeshift measures. In Idaho 

 one magnitudinous project, covering about 150,000 

 acres, is expected to be rushed to completion within 

 the next eight months by a company which has 

 promised the state land board to invest nearly 

 $2,000,000. 



Unless I much mistake the signs of the times 

 it will eventually become obligatory upon state 

 governments to participate actively in the task of 

 reclamation. Such participation could be either di- 

 rect or indirect. Direct through the appropriation 

 of money for projects to be constructed under state 

 supervision ; indirect through the granting of legal 

 or financial favors to private companies or statutory 

 irrigation districts. 



Owing to the unparalleled conditions in money 

 and security markets, hopes that investment capital 

 might again soon be procurable in sucH amounts 

 and on such terms as would insure a hastening 

 of the process of redemption are quite precluded. 

 Besides, a decidedly timorous attitude has been en- 

 gendered in investment circles by the unfortunate 



outcome of somfe 

 important irriga- 

 tion enterprises 

 in most every 

 one of the semi- 

 arid states. 



In this con- 

 nection it must 

 be admitted that 

 there has so far 

 been entirely too 

 much promotion 

 of a questionable 

 sort. It must 

 also be acknowl- 

 edged that some 

 of the state land 

 boards or irriga- 

 tion departments 

 have been culpa- 

 bly lax in the 

 granting of con- 

 cessions. 



Estimates of 

 cost and water 

 supplies have 

 not always been 



submitted to rigid and authoritative investigation. 

 Nor has proper supervision been exercised over 

 the application of funds contributed by banks and 

 investors. In other words, there has been much 

 public and private graft in the planning and con- 

 struction of projects, with interest charges, oner- 

 ous costs of operation and inability of settlers to 

 obtain adequate returns on their invested capital 

 and labor. 



Censurable methods have, however, not been 

 characteristic of private enterprises alone. They 

 have been brought to light, likewise, in the course 

 of investigations of projects undertaken 'by the 

 Federal Reclamation Service. In several promi- 

 nent cases the federal engineers' estimates of cost 

 and time of construction have been woefully and 

 inexcusably wrong, as many a confiding settler 

 can eloquently bear witness to in Arizona, Colo- 

 rado and Montana. 



It is very likely, though, that henceforth the 

 Reclamation Service will give a better account of 

 itself than it has given so far. The recent dis- 

 agreeable disclosures have created quite a stir in 

 congress and the appropriation committees are now 

 determined to probe estimates submitted by the 

 Service in a searching manner. 



Approximately 3,000,000 acres have been or 

 will be reclaimed by the federal government at 

 a total cost of $200,000,000. Since the government 

 can raise the funds for constructive requirements 

 more readily than can private companies, it will 

 find it advisable or be importuned from now on to 

 play a greater part in the irrigable districts than 

 it originally intended. It is known that in recent 

 times numerous incomplete projects of a private 

 (Continued on page 407.) 



