266 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



; 3jt<i 



- 



Wailuku River at 2,500 feet elevation, 

 are used 



general average. 



"The danger 

 in this instance 

 of such great 

 pessimism as 

 shown by the re- 

 port from the 

 Carlsbad project 

 is that Secretary 

 Lane is liable to 

 question its sin- 

 cerity, thus less- 

 ening its weight 

 as an official 

 document in re- 

 spect to the ful- 

 fillment of the 

 purposes for 

 which it is in- 

 tended." 



The Rupert 

 (Idaho) Demo- 

 crat publishes 

 the Carlsbad de- 

 cision in full, thanking THE IRRIGATION AGE for the 

 opportunity. F. G. Burroughs, its editor, makes 

 this comment on the decision : 



"Meaty with food for thought is the report on 

 our first page of the Board of Revision and Revalu- 

 ation which has been at work on the Carlsbad 

 project. This is the first report to be presented to 

 the Secretary of the Interior, and certainly demon- 

 strates that the sooner the completed projects are 

 turned over to the settlers to manage themselves, 

 the better it will be for the financial interests of the 

 water users. 



"It is an unfortunate thing that so grand and 

 noble a work as that which the Government has 

 undertaken, and, in many places, as in our own 

 project, carried to a successful conclusion, is at- 

 tended with so great amount of waste and injustice. 

 The system of irrigation as contemplated in the 

 Reclamation Act is the greatest, most wonderful, 

 most beneficial thing on earth. That its accom- 

 plishment has been marred by the defects evi- 

 denced in the report under discussion is merely an 

 incident, and in no wise reflects on the wisdom or 

 expediency of Government operations along these 

 lines. 



"It is possible it surely must be for the Gov- 

 ernment to do things that can be done by private 

 enterprise, just as skillfully and just as economic- 

 ally. Now that waste, extravagance, blind dis- 

 regard for the interests of the settlers, has been 

 conclusively shown and proven, it is up to the 

 Secretary to remedy the wrong. A searching in- 

 vestigation should fix the blame, the culprits should 

 be made to suffer, and the Government should 

 shoulder the loss for the errors, or wdrse, com- 

 mitted by its agents. 



"We think this will be done. We have great 

 faith in Secretary Lane and in his desire to be 

 just to the water users. The Carlsbad project is 

 not a failure. It is a success. At the cost per acre 

 established by the Government's own board of re- 

 vision, successful homesteading is possible, but 





: 



nea 

 for 



when the $35.71 

 per acre is added 

 for waste and 

 bad management, 

 and the cost 

 raised thereby 

 from $20.71 to 

 $55 an acre, fail- 

 ure, instead of 

 success, looms 

 dark before the 

 settlers and their 

 families. 



"We hope to 

 believe that the 

 conditions proven 

 to exist on the 

 Carlsbad project 

 form a striking 

 exception to 

 conditions upon 

 the greater part 

 of the Govern- 

 m e n t projects. 



The report demonstrates to the fullest the wisdom 

 of Secretary Lane's idea of creating these boards of 

 investigation. The Secretary wants the facts, and 

 it looks as though he was going to get them." 



r Hilo, Hawaii. Waters from this river 

 irrigation. 



IRRIGATION BONDS FAVORED 



Irrigation districts bonds in California have de- 

 veloped into the most secure securities in the state 

 and now have a better standing in the money mar- 

 kets of the United States than municipal bonds, ac- 

 cording to a comparative report furnished by Major 

 Paul M. Norboe, assistant state engineer. Before 

 the establishment of an irrigation bonding commis- 

 sion, composed of the attorney-general, state en- 

 gineer and superintendent of state banks, irrigation 

 bonds were discredited, according to Norboe, but 

 now their backing and assessments are considered 

 preferable to other bonds. 



The Turlock irrigation district has issued 

 $2,169,622.73 in bonds and of this sum there is un- 

 collected $7,925.77, or 36/100 of 1 per cent; Mo- 

 desto's issue amounted to $1,773,175.72, of which 

 $852.95, or 5/100 of 1 per cent, is uncollected ; Oak- 

 dale irrigation district has issued $587,970.03, of 

 which $749.78, or 13/100 of 1 per cent is uncol- 

 lected. The San Joaquin basin irrigation district 

 leads them all with uncollected assessments, it hav- 

 ing issued $848,269.49, of which $3,964.01 stands 

 uncollected, being 47/100 of 1 per cent. 



As a comparison with municipal bonds, Los 

 Angeles municipal bonds, one of the best sureties 

 in the state, are quoted as follows : Of an issue at 

 various times of $32,816,380.48, there remains un- 

 collected $226,848.28, or 69/100 of 1 per cent. 



Subscribe now for the IRRIGATION AGE. We arc now 

 offering some valuable premiums. See advertising pages. 



