172 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



meet with favor and he was forced to name another 

 man. The Rupert (Ida.) Democrat says: 



"Word reached President Randolph of the 

 Minidoka Irrigation District from Washington that 

 the storm of protests that arose when it became 

 known that the Interior Department had selected 

 Mr. Fogg as a member of the Board of Revision 

 has borne fruit in the rejection of Fogg and the 

 naming of former Project Manager Paul. 



"The Minidoka Irrigation district, through its 

 officers, notified Secretary Lane that his selection 

 in this instance was not at all satisfactory to the 

 settlers, inasmuch as matters will come under the 

 review of the board which were parts of Mr. Fogg's 

 administration. In addition to this protest, scores 

 of individuals are reported to have written the de- 

 partment, with the result as stated." 



The Okanogan (Wash.) Water Users' Associa- 

 tion wants action or they will quickly abandon their 

 interest in the revaluation. The Omak (Wash.) 

 Chronicle says : 



"In the matter of the board of review, the 

 trustees were instructed 

 to go into the matter 

 only just so far as they 

 saw that some good 

 could be done the mem- 

 bers and to be very 

 careful that the expense 

 of the inquiry did not 

 exceed the benefits de- 

 rived. It has been esti- 

 mated that this review 

 will cost somewhere in 

 the neighborhood of $40 

 a day, so there will be 

 little chance of its last- 

 ing very long here unless 

 something pretty big is 

 turned up. The pre- 

 liminary steps in this 

 matter have already been taken and the wheels set 

 in motion to recover from the Indian Reclamation 

 Service some $4,500 expended and charged to the 

 project for the survey of the 3,600-acre Indian proj- 

 ect on the east side of the river at Omak." 



When the Reclamation Service and water 

 users' members of the revaluation boards in the 

 Central division met at Denver to pick candidates 

 for the third member of the boards, it was found* 

 that only two representatives of the water userS 

 were present. One of these was H. G. Stewart, 

 of the North Platte project in Nebraska, and a Mr. 

 Wallace, from the Grand Valley project. The 

 Mitchell (Neb.) Index says: 



"In the selection of candidates for third mem- 

 ber to be appointed by the Secretary, Mr. Wallace 

 acted generally in accord with the wishes of the 

 Reclamation Service members. Mr. Stewart could 

 not agree to their recommendations, but finally it 

 was decided that they would agree on a candidate 

 proposed by him and he would vote for two candi- 

 dates proposed by them. He named J. O. Baker, of 

 Mitchell. The other candidates are A. J. McCune 

 and P. J. Preston, engineers, of Denver. One of 

 these men will be appointed as the third member 



Alfalfa hay raised by pump irrigation ngar Hereford, Texas. 



of our Local Board of Review to act with Project 

 Manager Andrew Weiss and Mr. Stewart for the 

 North Platte project, and also to act with the two 

 other members on each of the other projects of the 

 Central Division. 



"Should the Secretary of the Interior see fit to 

 appoint one of the nominees recommended by the 

 Reclamation officials, the farmers under the project 

 may have about as much hope for a revaluation 

 downward as there was in Taft's time for a tariff 

 revision downward 'by its friends.' Mr. Weiss 

 is entitled to be held in the highest esteem by all 

 under this project. He has been conscientious and 

 painstaking in all that he has done. Being an honest 

 man, he could not report adversely to his own best 

 judgment. Neither he nor anyone else not the 

 fairest man that ever lived is the best person to 

 investigate and review his own course of proceeding 

 and pass unbiased judgment upon it. With another 

 member on the Local Board likewise prejudiced, 

 as it is natural to be expected that all members of 

 the Reclamation Service would be, the time and 



expense of the so-called 

 'review' will be money 

 thrown away for a re- 

 port of approval of all 

 the expenditures that 

 have been made. We 

 do not believe that was 

 what was designated 

 by Secretary Lane when 

 he first proposed that 

 an investigation should 

 be made. 



"The water users 

 will be charged with 

 the costs of the pro- 

 ceeding. 



"Here's hoping that 

 the Secretary will ap- 

 point as third member 

 of our Local Board J. O. Baker, or if one of the 

 Denver men, that he may be wholly unprejudiced 

 in order that the whole proceeding may not be an 

 expensive farce." 



The Uncompahgre . Valley (Colo.) Water 

 Users' Association has refused to participate in the 

 revaluations. The board of trustees adopted the 

 following resolution : 



"Resolved that it is the understanding of this 

 board that this project is not intended to be in- 

 cluded in the list of projects which are requested 

 by Secretary Lane to appoint a member of the 

 Board of Review of the cost or opening thereof an- 

 nounced by the Secretary, nor has the construction 

 so far progressed as to make it desirable to our 

 water users to participate in an audit of accounts 

 or cost of construction at this time. For these rea- 

 sons only we have not elected a member of the 

 audit board." 



Commenting on this action, the Montrose 

 Enterprise says : 



"There seems to be a fear that the report of 

 this board of review will be the same as an accept- 

 ance on the part of the water users under the proj- 

 ect as to the findings of the board, and the addi- 

 tional fear that the board will be dominated too 



