T ii i-: i 1; i; 1 t; AT i u\ AC K. 



141 



WHAT THE SETTLERS OWE TO SECRETARY LANE 



By FRANCIS G. TRACY, of Carlsbad, N. M., 



One of the Leading Water Users on the Carlsbad Federal Irrigation Project. 



A RECENT trip to AVashing- 

 t<>n. where the writer met 

 for the first time all the members 

 of Secretary Lane's Irrigation 

 Commission and discussed Recla- 

 mation problems with them, with 

 members of Congress and others 

 led through certain reminiscences 

 to some fairly definite conclu- 

 sions. 



A few years ago in summing 

 up before the Public Lands Con- 

 vention in Denver a statement 

 of conditions then obtaining in 

 the g o v e i n m e n t reclamation 

 work the following statements 

 were made : 



"The Reclamation Service 

 suffers from one very vital de- 

 fect in its own organization. Ad- 

 ministration and construction 

 have never been separated. There is no attempt at 

 business management, separate and distinct from 

 construction and engineering. * * * * 



"Just stop and think about this awhile and see 

 if you can figure out what we have to deal with, 

 and I think you will agree with me it is a jugger- 

 naut slowly and remorselessly trampling out the 

 assets of the settler, and not the messenger of peace 

 and plenty which we suoght to send out into 

 the desert. * * * * 



"What is the remedy? 



"First clean house thoroughly; and any woman 

 will tell you that to do this right you must begin at 

 the top. 



"Then reorganize upon a business basis, and 

 take administration away from the engineers. 



"Create an administrative board to relieve the 

 Secretary of all details. Have it consist wholly of 

 practical western men, partly engineers, partly busi- 

 ness men ; and have its headquarters in the West 

 and its membership large enough to enable them 

 to keep headquarters always open, and yet keep 

 in close touch with conditions in the field. Let it 

 handle all business matters, remove and appoint all 

 engineers, hear and pass upon all grievances, sub- 

 ject, of course, to appeal to the Secretary, but not 

 asking his original sanction. 



"Extend the time of payment of building 

 charges to twenty years, and where undue cost has 

 been incurred for avoidable reason, wipe it out. 



"Include every improvement of a permanent 

 character in building charges, and delay fixing these 

 charges, as has been so wisely done in the Salt 

 River Valley, as long as there is reasonable doubt 

 that construction is not over. Keep maintenance 

 as low .is possible: for it, not construction, must 

 always be a variable and uncertain quantity.'' 



Secretary Lane has, for the first time, "organ- 



Francis G. Tracy 



ized" the Reclamation Service. 

 He has now given us a business 

 management. At the same time 

 he has very materially assisted 

 us to obtain in the Reclamation 

 Extension Act, not only 20 years 

 more in which to meet our pay- 

 ments, but from three to five 

 years of such easy initial pay- 

 ments as to assure us ample time to 

 arrive at a just determination of 

 our actual legal and equitable 

 obligations to the United States ; 

 or failing a mutually satisfactory 

 determination of our debt, ample 

 opportunity for appeal to Con- 

 gress for relief ; before any bur- 

 densome collections can be made. 

 During this same period both 

 the government and the settlers 

 will have ample opportunity to 

 discover if the remaining payments are likely to be 

 met without undue hardship. 



Meanwhile, in giving to the representatives of 

 the settlers and his own appointees an equal voice 

 in the choice of the third member of his boards of 

 project appraisers, with the proviso that he must 

 be neither a water user nor Reclamation employe, 

 the Secretary has given further evidence of the un- 

 doubted fairness of his intentions and the breadth 

 of his vision. 



What the completion of the appraisal boards 

 and the appointment of the third member of the 

 board of review, the new organization will be com- 

 plete. 



It remains now to get to work and try it out. 

 Secretary Lane has done his part. He has fur- 

 nished a business organization. He has given the 

 settlers, as he promised, "opportunity to make 

 good." 



It is now up to us to present our own case as 

 strongly as we can. 



Every dollar of needless expenditure that can 

 be definitely shown should unquestionably be de- 

 ducted from our indebtedness. 



Can we show a business organization equal 

 to the one the Secretary has prepared to meet us? 

 Our difficulty is going to be how to make defi- 

 nite proof without books of our own of what we 

 may feel perfectly convinced are useless or extrava- 

 gant expenditures. 



There will be disappointment at many failures 

 of proof. Secretary Lane cannot sanction reduc- 

 tions of any charges without absolute pi oof of il- 

 legality or injustice. 



Whatever may be the final outcome let us not 

 fail to credit Mr. Lane with giving us: 



The first opportunity for a full hearing by the 

 Interior Department and before Congress. 



