THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



431 



under the Act and Notice, but it seems to me to 

 be the ordinary business procedure to agree to the 

 first payment when we know what it is to be. In 

 the case of long delay in having the construction 

 charge acquiesced in by both the Water Users and 

 the Secretary the first payment might be held as 

 delinquent, but that is not a desirable situation for 

 either party. 



"Congress passed the Extension Act for the 

 general welfare, and left it to the judgment of the 

 Secretary when the notice should be given, and the 

 law does not force him to give it at a time when it 

 would enforce a violation of an existing contract 

 solemnly executed by a former Secretary of the 

 Interior. 



"There is one more matter I will ask you to 

 explain, which is the following extract from Sec- 

 retary Lane's letter to our Association of October 

 6, 1914, which refers to the Board of Review of 

 costs: 



" 'The charge 

 which the Board 

 may determine 

 is a proper 

 charge will not 

 be binding upon 

 you under the 

 terms of the 

 public notice 

 herein inclosed 

 until it has been 

 submitted to you 

 and all the 

 Water Users for 

 their consent 

 and agreement.' 



"The ques- 

 t i o n naturally 

 arises, What 

 would be done 

 in case our 

 Water Users 

 did not consent 

 and agree to the 

 same, for the reason, for instance, that the findings 

 did not come within the provisions of former con- 

 tracts with the Government, or did not come within 

 the terms of the original reclamation law wherein 

 it specifies the basis of the charges; what would be 

 the result of our said want of consent and agree- 

 ment? Does the Secretary mean that our consent 

 and agreement will be obtained at the time that 

 water right applications are presented to us for 

 signatures, and that we will be forced to sign or 

 have our rental water contract cancelled? This 

 situation was presented to the Secretary at the 

 Washington Conference in May, 1913, and he con- 

 demned it as harsh and unreasonable ; yet it is 

 something we have always feared. I believe such 

 fears should be dispelled and can be, by a care- 

 fully conducted meeting between members of the 

 Service and officers of our Association. 



"I do not desire to renew any rupture of mutual 

 confidence between the Water Users and the Serv- 

 ice, and furthermore, I will frankly state that I have 

 full Confidence in the good intentions of the Sec- 

 retary, and no one could make me think that he has 



A New Mexico gusher. 



knowingly endeavored to force us to waive any 

 written contract solemnly executed by a former 

 Secretary of the Interior, in order to avail our- 

 selves of 'this Act passed for the general welfare. 

 "Assuring you of my confidence and esteem, 

 I am 



"Your obedient servant, 



"EARL B. SMITH.'' 



J. R. Baird and A. S. Moore, editors of the 

 Tribune of Powell, Wyo., in the Shoshone Project, 

 take this view in an editorial in their newspaper 

 of the new law, after reading the Reclamation 

 Commission's letter urging the settlers to accept 

 the new law : 



"The official discussion and interpretation of 

 the new twenty year law on another page of this 

 issue comes to hand at an opportune time, and a 

 careful study of it ought to dispel most of the 

 doubts that many people have had as to the justice 

 of one or two requirements which are features of 



the new law. 

 The most im- 

 portant of these 

 criticized f e a - 

 :ures is_ the fact 

 that pressure 

 seems to be ap- 

 plied to the en- 

 tryman to ac- 

 cept the new 

 law and agree 

 to pay the new 

 charges before he 

 knows whether 

 those charges 

 are going to be 

 greater or less, a 

 sort of thing 

 which is, to say 

 the least, a most 

 unusual proced- 

 ure in business 

 t r a n s a ctions. 

 But let us look 

 at the matter calmly and dispassionately. 



"To begin with, it may be taken as a basic 

 fact that the affairs of the Reclamation Service are 

 in a most awful snarl. We don't know this, but 

 we believe it hits pretty close to the mark. It is 

 certain that nearly all the irrigation projects have 

 cost more than originally estimated ; that the set- 

 tlers thereon have not been able to get their pre- 

 dicted profits from the land ; that unexpected local 

 conditions have developed such as necessity for 

 drainage, etc. In short, the work of the Service was 

 concerned with a proposition which was consider- 

 able of an experiment, and as the years followed 

 one another various devices had to be adopted in 

 the accounting of the department's finances in order 

 to meet these unforeseen conditions. 



"A general overhauling and readjustment of 

 the affairs of the Reclamation Service has no doubt 

 been urgently needed for some time, and we have 

 seen how, about a year ago, the first step was taken 

 in this direction by the creation of the present com- 

 mission. Then followed the discussion of the new 

 law which dragged on almost interminably until 



A typical artesian well in the Deming district, used for irrigating. 

 Courtesy Santa Fe Railway. 



