402 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



$ 1 00,000,000 LOAN FOR RECLAMATION URGED 



Interstate Irrigation Commission Begins Its Work 



THE Interstate Irrigation Commission has begun 

 its important duties of bringing order out of 

 chaos in the irrigation situation in the West. 



The first meeting of the Commission was held 

 early in October at Helena, Mont. It will meet 

 again in Washington, D. C., in December. The 

 Commission was organized at the suggestion of 

 Secretary of the Interior Lane, who urged that it 

 attempt to obtain uniformity of the various state 

 irrigation laws, seek methods to solve present irri- 

 gation financial tangles and make recommendations 

 for state and federal legislation concerning recla- 

 mation of arid lands. 



At its first meeting, the Commission recom- 

 mended : 



The creation of a revolving loan of $100,000,000 

 to the Reclamation Service for the completion of 

 projects now unfinished. 



The enactment of a law providing for the cre- 

 ation of irrigation districts for the building of proj- 

 ects in the future. 



A change in the law requiring continuous cul- 

 tivation of irrigation projects instead of a residence 

 requirement. 



Ira P. Englehart, of Washington, was elected 

 president; W. D. Beers, of Utah, vice-president, and 

 A. W. Mahon, of Montana, secretary. 



F. H. Newell, director of the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice, and Clay Tollman, commissioner of the general 

 land office, represented Secretary Lane. 



The Commission endorses "The broad and 

 comprehensive policies of Secretary Lane in his 

 effort to develop the national resources of the West 

 and also the prompt and efficient manner in which 

 the business of the Department of the Interior is 

 being dispatched." 



It commends the Reclamation Service and rec- 

 ommends it be the agency through which future 

 irrigation works be constructed ; declares in favor 

 of government ownership of storage works, and 

 asserts they should be classed as national works ; 

 asks for state laws requiring from irrigation com- 

 panies annual statements showing investment, an- 

 nual cost, crop production, duty of wate.r and other 

 details. 



The last resolution asks for federal legislation 

 to provide for the construction by the government 

 of projects formed under the state irrigation dis- 

 trict laws, the districts to bond the completed proj- 

 ects to release the investments of the government : 

 a revolving fund to be provided for by the bonding 

 of reclamation projects now in operation by dis- 

 tricts organized to purchase them, the government 

 to be reimbursed for its present investment with 

 the proceeds from the sale of the same. The reso- 

 lution continues : "And in that connection it is 

 recommended that such projects be sold al^ a dis- 

 count in order that the reduced price at which they 

 'may be purchased by the land owners will offset 

 the interest which the bonds will call for and from 

 which the contracts for the purchase of water under 



the existing law are exempt, or as an alternative 

 plan for providing a revolving fund that provision 

 be made by which the completed or nearly finished 

 successful projects, built under the terms of the 

 Reclamation Act, may be turned in at the earliest 

 practicable date to irrigation district organizations, 

 receiving in exchange twenty-year bonds of the 

 district, which shall be interest exempt, principal 

 to be paid in accordance with the provisions of the 

 Reclamation Extension Act ; these bonds to be dis- 

 posed of or used as the basis of securing additional 

 funds to build other meritorious projects." 



Director Newell painted for the delegates a 

 rather glowing view of Federal irrigation under 

 the new Twenty-Year bill. He said the Reclama- 

 tion Service has already invested $100,000,000 in 

 irrigation projects, but because of the recent con- 

 gressional enactment requiring that hereafter all 

 money in the reclamation fund shall be expended 

 only as provided for by the annual appropriation 

 bill, the West is confronted at present with a 

 situation not of obtaining more money, but of keep- 

 ing what it has already secured. 



"The appropriations committee is largely made 

 up of Eastern and Southern men," he said, "and 

 they come from regions that have a most impossible 

 idea of irrigation. I doubt if there is more than 

 one man on the committee who ever saw an irri- 

 gation ditch. There is a deficit in the treasury and 

 this will make it even harder for the West to obtain 

 money that is needed. We are going to have the 

 time of our lives simply to hold what we have. 

 With the deficit in the treasury and the appropria- 

 tions committee not understanding Western con- 

 ditions, our chances of getting more money are 

 very slim." 



He declared that even Chairman Underwood 

 did not understand conditions, believing that 

 greater general good would be done if the money, 

 instead of being expended on irrigation projects in 

 the West, was expended in the buying of fertilizers 

 for the worn-out lands in the South. 



State members of the Commission have been 

 appointed by the governors of various states as 

 follows : 



Arizona Andrew Kimball, Thatcher ; John P. 

 Orme, Phoenix. 



California A. L. Cowell, San Francisco ; M. N. 

 Newmark, Los Angeles; Harold A. Oilman, Los 

 Angeles. 



Colorado Fred Farrar, attorney-general, Den- 

 ver ; John E. Field, state engineer, Denver. 



Idaho J. M. Thompson, Caldwell ; W. P. 

 Guthrie, Twin Falls. 



Kansas John Q. Adams, Stockton ; J. C. 

 Hooper, Ness City. 



Montana A. W. Mahon, state engineer ; R. E. 

 Shepherd, Billings. 



Nevada Charles A. Norcross, state commis- 

 sioner of agriculture and irrigation ; Charles L. 

 Deady, surveyor-general. 



