THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



429 



/SJ3J31SJSJSiSJSJ2ISJSJ3Sfi^ 



A Department Devoted to the 

 Interests of the Farmers on the 

 Government Irrigation Projects 



EDITED BY GEORGE J. SCHARSCHUG 



iElGMcUSISIiiMSMBIc^^ 



SETTLERS' VIEWS AND ACTS ON 20-YEAR BILL 



A Symposium of Letters and Editorial Utterances from the Projects 



Abel Ady, of Merrill, Ore., who 

 is working hard to induce settlers 

 to accept the twenty-year bill. 



p-ANVASS of 

 ^ various fed- 

 eral projects 

 shows the per- 

 centage of set- 

 tlers who had 

 accepted the 

 twenty year ex- 

 tension bill on 

 December 1, to 

 be rather small. 

 This is true de- 

 spite the fact 

 that Secretary 

 of the Interior 

 Lane and the 

 R e c 1 a m a tion 

 C o m m i s sion, 

 aided by all the 

 projects officers 



and various | 



project news- 

 papers have made a vigorous 

 campaign to convince the Water 

 Users of the advantages of the 

 new law. 



Water Users' Associations 

 on several projects have voted 

 either to ignore the new law or 

 in favor of delaying acceptance 

 of it until the proposed revalua- 

 tions are completed or the law is 

 finally and definitely construed 

 by the Secretary of the Interior. 



Not only do many settlers 

 seem to fear that by signing the 

 new contracts of acceptance of 

 the twenty year bill they are giv- 

 ing their approval to any in- 

 creased charges which may - be 

 fixed by the revaluation boards, but many of them 

 fear even more the various penalty, cultivation and 

 other paternalistic features with which the bill is 

 filled. 



In the pleas to settlers to accept the new law, 

 the Reclamation Commission has said nothing con- 

 cerning any feature of the law except its "financial 

 advantages." Upon the finance feature, great stress 

 has been laid not only in the Commission's letters, 

 but in "copy" prepared for various project news- 



Earl B. Smith, of Somerton, 

 Ariz., who asked Comptroller Ryan 

 some interesting questions. 



O. E. Farnham, secretary of the 

 Belle Fourche Valley Water Users' 

 Association, which refused to accept 

 the new law. 



papers. 



Consider the 

 feelings of the 

 settler on the 

 Umatilla project 

 in Oregon, when 

 he picked up his 

 weekly news- 

 paper and read 

 this: 



"Under the 

 terms of the ex- 

 tension act, 

 Water Users 

 have six months 

 to accept. In 

 this connection 

 the settler must 

 bear in mind, 

 however, that 



on March 1, 



1915, an install- 

 ment of $6 per acre will be due, 

 which must be paid then unless 

 acceptance of the extension act 

 has been previously filed. If such 

 acceptance is filed before Decem- 

 ber 1, 1914, there will be due on 

 that date only 2 per cent of the 

 unpaid balance, instead of $6 

 March 1. 



"If the Water User is in 

 arrears for any sum accrued prior 

 to March 1, 1915, and has not 

 filed his acceptance before that 

 date, he will not only have to pay 

 the $6 installment then due, but 

 all back charges as well. If a 

 man is back three payments or 

 $18 per acre, he would on March 

 1 next have to pay $24 per acre if he has not signed 

 for the extension. Should this same man sign up 

 before November 15, his installment would fall due 

 December 1 instead of March, but he would need 

 pay only 84 cents per acre, and not $24 per acre. 

 "The Water User can see the need for im- 

 mediate action in this matter." 



If the settler is three years behind in his water 

 payments and there are several little mouths in 

 the farmhouse to be fed, and the children have 



