110 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



'BETTERMENTS" ELIMINATED BY SUIT 



B 



the water right applications in the Belle 

 Fourche Valley (S. D.) irrigation project. 



There has also been a noticeable cutting down 

 of the operation and maintenance forces of the 

 Reclamation Service on the project. 



These are two of the developments which have 

 followed the victory of the Belle Fourche water 

 users in the United States circuit court of appeals. 

 It was in an opinion of this court that they estab- 

 lished recently their right to go into court as can 

 any other American citizen, and their injunction 

 against extortionate charges and Reclamation Serv- 

 ice methods of collection was sustained. 



O. E. Farnham, of Newell, S. D., secretary of 

 the Belle Fourche association, and attorney in the 

 water payment suit, says in a letter to the editor 

 of THE IRRIGATION AGE, concerning the suit: 



"Regarding a possible appeal by the govern- 

 ment officials from the de- 

 cision of the Circuit Court 

 of Appeals, I am advised 

 that the U. S. District At- 

 torney is of the opinion that 

 an appeal will not lie from 

 a decree of the Circuit Court 

 of Appeals affirming an in- 

 terlocutory order of the Dis- 

 trict Court granting a tem- 

 porary injunction, which po- 

 sition, I think, is well taken. 

 So that this opinion will be 

 the law until a final decree 

 is rendered in our suit after 

 a trial on the merits of the 



case. 



Irrigation pumping plant on 

 near Goodland, Kan. Delivers 

 tesy The Southwest Trail. 



"The changes of policy 



of the Reclamation Service since we instituted our 

 suit, which have come to our knowledge are as 

 follows : 



"The new water-right application forms do not 

 include the item of 'betterments' in the charges to 

 be collected. The government officials practically 

 conceded that we were right in our contentions as 

 to this item in the present litigation. 



"There has also been a very noticeable cut- 

 ting down of operation and maintenance forces on 

 the project, although there is still evidence of con- 

 siderable extravagance and careless business meth- 

 ods. We are advised, however, that no actual con- 

 struction work is now charged to operation and 

 maintenance, as has also been, conceded by those 

 in charge of the work heretofore. W have not 

 gone into the accounts recently so that we have no 

 definite information as to this matter. In deter- 

 mining whether or not certain work done has been 

 charged to this account or that, it is quite necessary 

 that we have the original time books of the particu- 

 lar officer in charge of that work. We have been 

 advised by the officials that these books are the 

 private property of the particular engineer who had 

 charge of that particular work, and are not acces- 



sible to inspection by us. These questions, of 

 course, will be determined in due time. 



"About a year ago members of the Reclama- 

 tion Commission assured us that the Department 

 would be glad to enter into negotiations with us 

 looking to an amicable adjustment of our differ- 

 ences, and we have manifested a willingness to do 

 our part and have repeatedly requested a conference 

 with such representatives or members of the Com- 

 mission as the Secretary of the Interior might des- 

 ignate to represent him. 



"After the passage of the new extension meas- 

 ure and the public notice of Sept. 24, 1914, issued, 

 we received from Mr. \\' . A. Ryan, Comptroller, a 

 notice, which was published and posted on the 

 project. 



"We very promptly took exceptions to his in- 

 terpretation of the law and so advised him. We 

 felt that congress had seen 

 fit to give us six months in 

 which to make up our minds 

 and it evidently had a good 

 reason for so doing. 



"At the same time we 

 again requested an oppor- 

 tunity to confer with the 

 officials and to secure, if 

 possible, a definite under- 

 standing as to some matters 

 upon > which the new law 

 does not seem to be clear 

 and as to which matters we 

 did not care to surrender 

 our present vested rights by 

 an unqualified acceptance of 

 the extension measure. Fol- 

 lowing an exchange of communications, we re- 

 ceived from Mr. Ryan a letter dated November 16 

 1914, stating that Chief Counsel Will R. King would 

 meet with our people, late in December. 



"Since then the Service has been working over- 

 time trying to get our water users to file accept- 

 ances of the new law, and I understand that to date 

 they have succeeded in securing acceptances from 

 about one-third of the water users on the project. 

 The other two-thirds are awaiting the advice of 

 our Board of Directors. 



"After renewing our efforts the past thirty 

 days, we have just been advised that the Commis- 

 sion will confer with us sometime the latter part 

 of March, or I presume about the day after our 

 six months of grace expires in which to file ac- 

 ceptances. A meeting of our Board of Directors 

 has been called to consider this matter. You may 

 rest assured, however, that the interests of the 

 water users will be protected to the best of our 

 ability and with every means the law affords. 



"There are a number of questions we desire 

 to have settled under the old law and our contracts 

 before entering into a new arrangement. But they 

 are vital not only to us but to other projects as 



the ranch of E. S. Lorenz, 

 960 gallons a minute. Cour- 



