THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



309 



URGES U. S. BACKING FOR IRRIGATION BONDS 



By L. M. RICE, 



of Seattle, Wash. 



THE majority report of the Revaluation Board 

 of the Carlsbad project, as published in the July 

 IRRIGATION AGE, is a remarkable document. If the 

 testimony upon which those conclusions were 

 reached is true, and fairly representative of the situ- 

 ation in general relating to Reclamation project af- 

 fairs, then the 

 work of revision 

 has not begun 

 too soon. The 

 revaluations in 

 this report very 

 pertinently raise 

 the q u e s tion, 

 "How can the 

 Reel amation 

 fund be admin- 

 istered without 

 waste ?" 



In an ad- 

 dress delivered 

 by Judge Car- 

 roll B. Graves 

 before the 

 W a s h i ngton 

 Irrrigation In- 

 stitute at North 



Yakima, Wash., on December 17, 1 '14, 

 it was pointed out that a portion of the 

 Reclamation fund might wisely be 

 used for the purpose of guaranteeing 

 interest on the bonds of such districts 

 as have been approved by Reclamation 

 engineers. An amendment to the Jones 

 Bill embracing the plan as suggested 

 by Judge Graves, would greatly relieve 

 the Reclamation Service of the vast 

 financial and construction detail inci- 

 dent to present methods; and the set- 

 tler, accustomed to participate in local 

 affairs, would thereby be brought into 

 harmony with a development that is in 

 accord with American democracy. 



In THE IRRIGATION AGE of May, 

 1914, Assistant Secretary of the In- 

 terior A. A. Jones is reported to have 

 said at the Denver Conference : "We 

 might do this : provide a fund to start and finish a 

 project : put the farmer on the land ; give him water ; 

 look after his wants and earnings, and then turn 

 the whole thing over to a local association. With 

 the project completed and with liens upon your land 

 you ought to be able to dispose of your bonds. But 

 there should be nothing payable for the first ten 

 years, and the bonds should be long-term and guar- 

 anteed. There is $100,000,000 in the Reclamation 

 fund, and Congress might be persuaded to use this 

 to care for the defaults in interest payment. In that 

 way, the interest might be made as low as 3% or 4%, 



' 





with the government practically behind the bonds." 

 Proposed federal aid to Reclamation work took 

 definite shape in S. 6827, at the last session of Con- 

 gress, which is known as the Jones Bill, and is still 

 pending. It was introduced by Senator Wesley L. 

 Jones of Washington. This bill authorizes federal 

 guarantee of interest on bonds of such district proj- 

 ects as may be pronounced feasible by Reclamation 

 Service engineers. The passage of the 

 Jones Bill, whether amended along the 

 lines above suggested or not, would 

 greatly stimulate development by 

 means of district organization in which 

 the administration of affairs rests with 

 those who pay the bills. Most of the 

 state laws governing district operation 

 require the creation of a sinking fund 

 for retiring bonds at maturity. 



The federal guaranty contemplated 

 by the Jones Bill would impose very 

 slight risk upon the government. Dis- 

 trict bonds, the principal of which is 

 covered by a 



srrrT^Kr=K33= c u m u 1 a tive 



sinking fund 

 backed by the 

 land of the dis- 

 trict, and the 

 interest there- 

 on guaranteed 

 by Uncle Sam, 

 would form a 

 very attractive 

 security and 

 find ready sale 

 in the market 

 practically a t 

 par. 



A district 

 has every in- 

 centive to man- 

 age its affairs 

 in a business 

 manner, elimi- 

 nating all un- 

 necessary out- 

 lay, and confin- 

 i n g overhead 

 charges to the least sum consistent with efficient 

 service. District organization is a growth. It has 

 been evolved out of the failures of other plans of 

 development, and given tangibility by the necessi- 

 ties and difficulties surrounding the initiation of 

 every new project. It is a concrete exponent of 

 modern practice, and the deliberate conclusions of 

 the most profound present-day thought. 



With a view of ascertaining what has been ac- 

 complished by district organizations where they are 

 now in operation, a circular letter of inquiry was 

 recently addressed to a number of projects. 



Seventeen out of twenty districts making re- 



"Fractic-Uly worthless land" now paying big profits in crops 

 of wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and alfalfa. This 1,000 acres 

 of volcanic ash soil, the Phillips Estate at Fort Pierre, S. D., 

 was m?.de a profit earner by the installation of a 100-horsepower 

 oil engine and a 10-inch centrifugal pump on the banks of the 

 Missouri River. The pump discharges 3,000 gallons of water 

 per minute. The engine is housed in the brick building and is 

 belted to the pump in the smaller building. Photographs by 

 courtesy of Fairbanks, Morse & Co. 



