72 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and representatives' from various 

 states, and soon found that the plan 

 of the United States purchasing one- 

 hajf of the bonds would, in all prob- 

 ability, never receive the sanction of 

 Congress, and the present Jones bill 

 was then substituted for the original 

 plan. 



The dominant and salient features 

 of that bill are these: The district 

 law, as it exists generally throughout 

 the Western states for irrigation pur- 

 poses, and as it exists in many of the 

 states for drainage purposes, is to be 

 employed in the plan. The district is 

 to be the unit upon which the legisla- 

 tion is builded, and it is to be the 

 agency employed in carrying on the 

 work of reclamation. The bonds to 

 be issued by the district shall run for 

 a period of 40 years and shall bear in- 

 terest at the rate of 4 per cent per 

 annum. Whenever any district shall 

 desire the cooperation and aid of the 

 United States, it shall file with the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior plans and esti- 

 mates of the work proposed to be 

 done, and apply to have such plans 

 and estimates examined and approved. 

 The Secretary of the Interior shall 

 then cause an examination to be made 

 of the plans and the district project, 

 and if the same shall be deemed feasi- 

 ble or be modified so as to become 

 feasible, the Secretary of the Interior 

 may, on behalf of the United States, 

 guarantee the payment of the interest 

 on the bonds to be issued. It is also 

 provided that any irrigation project 

 which has been completed under the 

 reclamation act, or in which construc- 

 tion is under way under said act, or 

 which has been authorized under the 

 provisions of said act, may be organ- 

 ized under the district law and be en- 

 titled to the rights and privileges 

 granted in such cases. I may add that 

 Judge King, representing his personal 

 views, and not speaking for the de- 

 partment, has approved the general 

 outline of this bill and the main fea- 

 tures of that plan. 



In order to take advantage of this 

 federal legislation, if it should be 

 passed, each state must pass an act 

 providing for acceptance of this fed- 

 eral aid. It is contemplated that such 

 state act shall provide for 40-year 4 

 per cent bonds, and that during the 

 first four years no interest shall be 

 collected from the land owner, but 

 such interest shall be provided for by 

 a sale of a sufficient quantity of the 

 principal bonds to meet these first 

 four years' interest charges. Com- 

 mencing at the end of the eleventh 

 year, an additional charge shall be 

 made of 2 per cent each year there- 

 after, this 2 per cent to be deposited 

 in a sinking fund and to be invested 

 in some form of good security bearing 

 not less than 4 per cent interest. This 

 fund, invested each year at 4 per cent 

 interest, compounded, will at the end 

 of the 40 years, pay off the original 

 bond issue. The investments should 

 be made only in those securities which 

 are made a matter of investment for 

 the common school fund of the state. 

 That is, the situation would be, that 

 during the first four years the water 

 user would pay nothing, for seven 

 years he would pay 4 per cent interest 

 per annum, and for 29 years he would 



pay 6 per cent, and the principal would 

 be thereby retired at the same time. 

 The state of Washington, in the legis- 

 lative session of 1915," passed an act 

 of this character in anticipation of 

 favorable congressional action. 



That is not national activity. 



The national aid so extended is not 

 government activity, but government 

 aid. Assuming and conceding the 

 constitutionality of such legislation, 

 it is as much a just measure of gov- 

 ernment aid as that given in the im- 

 provement of rivers and harbors for 

 the advancement of commerce. Such 

 aid can not be classified as govern- 

 ment activity, because the principle 

 of local government and local regula- 

 tion of distribution is preserved, and 

 because the federal government will 

 be relieved from appropriating or col- 

 lecting and expending princely sums 

 and stupendous resources, and there 

 will cease that inevitable friction and 

 sullen dissatisfaction arising where 

 federal officers and local users are 

 brought into direct and immediate 

 contact. I am opposed to federal ini- 

 tiative and departmental work in the 

 reclaiming of land for agricultural 

 uses and the consequent assumption 

 of power and control over the great- 

 est public resources remaining to the 

 people upon two grounds, which ap- 

 pear to me to be insuperable objec- 

 tions to the extension of federal au- 

 thority in that direction, although 

 there are others which may be urged. 

 Those two points are: 



(1) The excessive cost, chargeable 

 back to the land itself; and 



(2) The plan is against good na- 

 tional policy. 



The lamp of experience has always 

 lighted the pathway of the future, and 

 one who would lay a safe course must 

 be guided by the unerring and undy- 

 ing lights which burn upon the hill- 

 tops of the past. We know, without 

 statement or argument, that the ex- 

 pense of governmental work exceeds 

 its fair cost. This appears in all the 

 multiplied activities and improvements 

 undertaken through federal interven- 

 . tion which go beyond the exercise of 

 the pure governmental functions. 

 This statement is not made by way of 

 criticism, necessarily. I am content 

 to merely recite the fact. There are 

 many causes and reasons for the un- 

 deniable fact. In the forming of this 

 nation the makers of the Constitution 

 only intended to fix the political and 

 civil rights of the. people, and provide 

 a government to uphold, protect and 

 enforce those rights within certain 

 granted limits. Whenever the gen- 

 eral government goes beyond those 

 purposes it attempts to exercise pow- 

 ers with which it is not endowed; and 

 in entering 'the unrelated fields of so- 

 cial, economic, and business affairs it 

 is in a situation where its political or- 

 ganism does not function properly. 



The department expenses, the over- 

 head charges, the maintenance of a 

 bureau in perpetuity, and the employ- 

 ment of a small army of officers all 

 apparently necessary or desirable in 

 federal work added to the cost of 

 actual construction and administrative 

 work on the ground, aggregate a cost 

 which the land in the average recla- 

 mation project can not bear. The ob- 



jection of great cost would not be 

 conclusive if that cost was to be borne 

 by appropriations from the national 

 treasury and paid by revenues derived 

 from indirect taxation, as in the case 

 of other public works in aid of the 

 general good and welfare, but when 

 all of the above enumerated expense 

 is charged back against the land, to 

 be paid by the toil and effort of the 

 individual, either the burden is too 

 great for the settler and farmer with 

 home and family obligation or else he 

 is reduced to a life of bondage that 

 differs from servitude in denomina- 

 tion alone. The controlling thought 

 and the commanding factor in all rec- 

 lamation projects are to make the 

 cost and operation as tolerable as hu- 

 man judgment will permit, so that the 

 land to be reclaimed may bear the 

 load easily and without strain; and if 

 experience and past ventures are to 

 be relied upon, this can not be accom- 

 plished through federal agency unless 

 a generous congress, acting within 

 constitutional limits, shall donate 

 enormous sums without provision for 

 reimbursement a conception which 

 is, in our time at least, wholly chi- 

 merical and without practical value. 

 Let local and private enterprise pro- 

 ceed with discretion, even if large de- 

 velopments must delay for a time, and 

 be aided by such federal credit and 

 guaranty as will make these private 

 and district securities both desirable 

 and stable. 



In our own state of Washington, in 

 one county, there are two irrigation 

 projects comprising approximately 

 10,000 acres each. I beg your pardon 

 I am dropping, just like my dis- 

 tinguished friend on the other side,, in- 

 to the realm of figures, but I shall not 

 proceed long. Ten years ago one of 

 these developments was commenced 

 by the United States, and today only 

 5,800 acres, or less than 60 per cent of 

 the project land, is under cultivation, 

 and the cost per acre for federal 

 charges at last reports had mounted 

 to the sum of $110. The other terri- 

 tory was organized into an irrigation 

 district, and that organization was 

 completed and its bonds voted in 1915, 

 and in May, 1916, water was turned 

 into the canals, and today 50 per cent 

 of the lands are in cultivation or ready 

 for planting, and by the spring of the 

 new year the whole area will be pre- 

 pared to receive water, and all this at 

 a cost of $60. Each water supply was 

 originally estimated at $60 an acre, 

 and the privately operated district un- 

 dertaking kept within that estimate, 

 while the government project has run 

 40 per cent higher and 40 per cent of 

 the acres in that project are still wait- 

 ing tillers, and will wait a long period 

 unless some means are devised to re- 

 duce the acreage charge. 



I know of another county in our 

 state where the main irrigation has 

 been had through corporations, and 

 by some use of the district system, but 

 no government canals are operated. 

 In that locality each farmer owns in 

 his own right at least 160 acres of 

 land without let, incumbrance, or 

 mortgage, free from foreign supervi- 

 sion of any character, and has cattle 

 in his fields, produce in his barn, 

 money in the bank, his Children in the 



