THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



249 



CUT PROJECT COST 60 PER CENT 



(Continued from page 239) 



Weight of Weight of 

 Place. heaviest team, average team. 



County of Dallas 2700 Ibs. 2300 Ibs. 



City of Dallas 2680 Ibs. 2500 Ibs. 



City of Houston 2560 Ibs. 2400 Ibs. 



City of Ft. Worth 2800 Ibs. 2200 Ibs. 



City of Austin 2250 Ibs. 1990 Ibs. 



The county of Dallas does excellent work and 

 owns 80 teams and does not have a single team that 

 would come up to the Reclamation specifications. 



3. The clause in the specifications of the Service 

 which provides that work (concrete or other kinds), 

 could be rejected although it had been accepted by the 

 inspectors or local engineers. 



According to this some district or supervising 

 engineer could appear upon the scene and order work 

 taken out of the base of a structure after it has been 

 inspected and placed under the very eyes of the local 

 employes of the Reclamation Service. 



This clause within itself would be enough to 

 drive contractors away, even if the said contractors 

 had the 1400 pound mules. 



It is not surprising that no bids were received on 

 the Carlsbad project for the Avalon dam. 



There is only one class of contractors that could 

 or would take a contract under these two clauses. 



It is with profound regrets that I now make these 

 further remarks bearing on the whole question of cost 

 and its payments. 



Having a warm personal regard and a fondness 

 for the present and former directors of the United 

 States Reclamation Service, I make the following 

 remarks as a duty to the Reclamation Service and the 

 water users and with a desire to protect the Service: 



1. I would that the Reclamation Service as a 

 whole, its line of officers and its rank and file, spurn 

 the doctrine that "The king can do no wrong," that it 

 deal with the "water users as the water users would 

 deal with another, yielding nothing in charity, but 

 dealing together as men and brothers on the basis of 

 what is reasonable and just." 



2. I would that the Reclamation Service in its 

 whole organization realize that the water user is the 

 ultimate vital unit of all projects and that if the 

 farmer fails to make a living on account of improper 

 construction costs, or unreasonable or unnecessary 

 operation and maintenance charges, the project will 

 fail, and it will be a monumental failure and that these 

 silent monuments will stand upon the desert to remind 

 posterity of a government failure and a civilization 

 that failed. 



3. I would that the water user could have secured 

 to him some means of approaching the "Great White 

 Throne" with his humble petition without being an- 

 swered with the financial lash of paying all the freight. 



4. I would that the United States government 

 could realize that the water user digs down in his jeans, 

 sells his cow or his fattening hog to pay his humble 

 part or assessment for the simple privilege of saying 

 his official prayers to the Great White Father, and 

 that when his prayers are listened to he is compelled 

 to pay an additional cost for the judge, jury, witness, 

 and attorneys for both sides of the hearing. 



5. I would that the Reclamation Service be soon 

 delivered from the Cormorant of the "Force Account." 



6. I would that the water user should have guar- 

 anteed to him some measure of security in his little 

 cottage with his family of human beings without finan- 

 cial bondage like the sword of Damocles hanging over 

 his head and that of his children. 



At the present there seems no possible end to the 

 construction cost per acre. 



A big dam may fail on account of engineer or the 

 unpardonable neglect, the incompetence of a watchman 

 employed by the Service. 



The water user had no voice or vote in the selec- 

 tion of either, and had neither the right to hire or fire, 

 and yet he is absolutely compelled to agree to another 

 increased construction cost per acre or let his land go 

 back to the wilderness. 



He Has Only the Right to Pray and Pay 



7. I would that each project could have an effi- 

 cient project manager and that each would be as frank 

 as the project manager of the Carlsbad project was, 

 when he stated to the Review Board (page 987), that 

 under conditions of 1915 with a maintenance charge of 

 $1.45 for three acre feet of water, a farmer whose 

 home is six miles from the railroad can not make a 

 living. 



8. I would that each Reclamation official could 

 be compelled to spend one month in a water user's 

 cabin, eat his simple fare of bacon, beans and bread, 

 and that he could be compelled to learn this lesson from 

 the original record of cold facts. 



9. The record of the Carlsbad hearing shows that 

 the water user on the Carlsbad project has fought a 

 good fight to build a home ; has kept faith and all he 

 asks here is that the government of the people, by the 

 people and for the people, keep its word. 



10. And now realizing the total costs, with all 

 reverence and with a full realization of the present 

 conditions obtained by careful research, I utter the 

 prayer : 



"GOD PITY THE WATER USERS ON THE 

 CARLSBAD PROJECT." 



CONGRESSMEN TO SEE PROJECTS 



A subcommittee of the Committee on Appro- 

 priations of the lower house of Congress left Chi- 

 cago a few days ago in a trip over the Federal irri- 

 gation projects. Under the Reclamation Extension 

 Act, irrigation appropriations are now made by 

 Congress, and the Eastern members propose to 

 find out at first hand what the money has been and 

 is being used for. 



The junket may prove of unusual significance, 

 as the revaluations of the projects are now under 

 way. Settlers will have opportunity in nearly all 

 the projects to tell the Congressmen about condi- 

 tions. 



The Congressmen in the party are : John J. 

 Fitzgerald, chairman of the Committee on Appro- 

 priations ; Swager Sherley of Kentucky, William P. 

 Borland of Missouri, Joseph W. Byrus of Tennes- 

 see, Charles R. Davis of Minnesota, Frederick H. 

 Gillette of Massachusetts, James W. Good of Iowa, 

 Frank W. Mandell of Wyoming, and James Mc- 

 Andrews of Illinois. 



