242 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Service at that time possess sufficient courage to 

 answer them? Do they possess sufficient courage 

 to tell the truth and shame the devil? Do they 

 possess sufficient courage to let the cat out of the 

 bag and take the bull by the horns, by making an 

 honest effort to right the wrong committed in 1907, 

 when people were forced to sell their cows, their 

 sows, or mares to make a payment before it was 

 due? 



It was that act of injustice in 1907 that paved 

 the way for another injustice, when settlers were 

 forced to sign the so-called $30.00 contract, that 

 contract that would be hooted out of court in any 

 civilized country on earth ; even a nation of Hot- 

 tentots would denounce it as an outrage and a mis- 

 demeanor against humanity. 



Another cause of complaint against the Recla- 

 mation Service is the thousands of dollars squan- 

 dered in useless experiments, especially the money 

 wasted in connection with the experimental farm 

 by a man named McPherson, a professor, bless 

 your souls. But there was one thing that was very 

 commendable in the "professor." When he saw the 

 mistakes that he made, he still possessed sufficient 

 manhood to get out one night before the rising of 

 the moon, make a dash for the tall timber, and 

 never showed his face here since. If some of the 

 other parasites the consulting engineers and 

 chiefs of foolology and bugology who have been 

 feeding out of the public crib, at the expense of 

 the people, and who never do anything more 

 strenuous than making a bold attempt to look wise 

 and draw their pay, would .follow the example of 

 the "professor," it would be a blessing to the set- 

 tlers on the projects of the West. 



Reclamation gentlemen seem to think that they 

 have a license to do whatever they please on this 

 project because of a decision handed down by the 

 Supreme Court (in the case of Swigart and Baker), 

 when that tribunal came to the conclusion that it 

 was the intention of the Congress, which framed 

 the Reclamation law, to compel settlers on Recla- 

 mation projects to return to the Reclamation fund 

 the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted 

 through the stupidity and carelessness of the Recla- 

 mation officials. If that was the intention of the 

 men who drafted the Reclamation bill, they would 

 not have inserted in it the word "estimated." The 

 men who drafted the Reclamation law were far- 

 sighted, and good judges of human nature. They 

 knew that wherever there is carrion, there you will 

 find the vultures also, and in order to protect the 

 people, and to keep officials within proper bounds, 

 they wisely inserted in the law the words "esti- 

 mated cost." 



We wish to call the attention of the commis- 

 sion to the fact that our case is entirely different 

 from the Swigart vs. Baker case before mentioned. 

 It seems that Baker filed in 1909, and consequently 

 came under Mr. Ballinger's rulings. The majority 

 of the settlers on this project filed in 1904-5. 



In conclusion, we wish to call your attention to 

 Section 6 of the Reclamation law, which says : 



"That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby 

 authorized and directed to use the Reclamation 

 fund for the operation and maintenance of all 

 reservoirs and irrigation works constructed under 



the provisions of that act; provided, that when the 

 payments required by their act are made for the 

 major portion of the lands irrigated from the waters 

 of any of the works herein provided for, then the 

 management and operation of such irrigation works 

 shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated there- 

 by to be maintained at their expense, under such 

 forms of organization and under such rules and 

 regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary 

 of the Interior; provided, that the title to and man- 

 agement and operation of the reservoirs and the 

 works necessary for their protection and operation 

 shall remain in the government until otherwise 

 provided by congress." 



We wish to call your attention also to a pas- 

 sage from one of their pamphlets published in 1907, 

 where it stated : "The cost to the settlers of land 

 located in the area, under the terms of the Reclama- 

 tion act is $22.00 an acre, which is to be paid in 

 ten annual installments, together with a mainte- 

 nance fee of 40 cents per acre each year." It does 

 not say 40 cents the first year, 40 cents the second 

 year, 60 cents the third year, 75 cents the fourth, 

 and $1.75 the fifth and sixth years. 



We charge the Reclamation Service with in- 

 competency and extravagance. Evidence of in- 

 competency can be found along the canals and 

 laterals. They have put in concrete taps, and other 

 structures, at great expense, that were entirely 

 useless, and later on they blasted some of them 

 out with powder; even laterals that it cost thou- 

 sands of dollars to build ha\;e been rejected as 

 worthless. Several loads of gravel were hauled a 

 distance of four or five miles for the purpose of 

 making concrete taps all taps were to be made 

 of concrete and it never was used. We under- 

 stand that 500 iron gates were purchased for the 

 concrete taps and they have not been used on the 

 project. They have put in measuring devices that 

 cost thousands of dollars and they, too, have been 

 thrown aside as useless. 



Is it right to make the settlers pay for all this 

 useless work, all this sinful extravagance? 



We protest in the most emphatic manner 

 against paying for it, or paying one cent more than 

 $26.00 an acre. 



FORM $10,000,000 DISTRICT 



A $10,000,000 irrigation district will be organ- 

 ized this month by the Horse Heaven Land ( >\vn- 

 ers' Association of Washington. 



The Horse Heaven district comprises more 

 than 300,000 acres of the finest kind of irrigation 

 land, with fertile soil and natural drainage facilities. 



This action on the part of the land owners was 

 brought about by the introduction into Congress 

 of a bill providing for the guarantee by the United 

 States of interest on irrigation bonds to run for 

 forty years, and by the fact that the last legislature 

 of this state enacted a law providing for the forma- 

 tion of irrigation districts and the cooperation with 

 the United States, where the interest is guaranteed 

 by the United States. 



It was stated that L. M. Rice & Co., Seattle 

 engineers, had surveyed the project and placed the 

 estimated cost of construction at about $10,000,000, 

 which the land owners believed to be not excessive. 



