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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of the state and warrants or interest bearing obliga- 

 tions of any county or city of the state and bonds 

 of any association, corporation or company approved 

 by the board of governors of the New York Ex- 

 change and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

 You will note that irrigation districts are not men- 

 tioned in the foregoing list. It has always seemed 

 to me unfair in the state to refuse legislation which 

 would permit banks supervised by the state to use 

 irrigation district securities as security on receipt of 

 deposits of the state or municipal corporation. 



(Any irrigation district organized in the state 

 of Idaho must meet with the approval of a board 

 of county commissioners and the office of the state 

 engineer before any bond of the district may be 

 issued.) You are familiar with the petition for the 

 organization which is passed on by the county com- 

 missioners, then the engineering department makes 

 an examination of the project and reports to the 

 county commissioners, who are powerless to do any- 

 thing until this report is received. After the dis- 

 trict is organized a general plan of its proposed 

 operation must be submitted to the state engineer 

 for his approval and that plan must conform to the 

 state engineer's idea of good engineering practice. 

 So that we have legislation which gives the state, 

 through one of its departments, power to veto the 



whole proposition. I submit that if the state en- 

 gineer's office does its duty in the steps preliminary 

 to the adoption of a general plan of proposed opera- 

 tions, that an irrigation district bond should be re- 

 ceived by the state as security for deposits of its 

 money made by its treasurer. 



One reason why irrigation district bonds do 

 not have higher standing is because the state will 

 not receive those bonds or other interest bearing 

 securities the same as it receives bonds and war- 

 rants of cities and school districts which depend 

 upon the irrigation district for their livelihood.. 



The legislation proposed would be perfectly 

 sound because the state itself, through its engineer- 

 ing department, and the county where the district 

 is organized, through its board of county commis- 

 sioners, are required in the performance of official 

 duties to carefully examine the matters relating to 

 the organization of the proposed district and if it is 

 not a sound project, to refuse favorable action. 

 When the state has gone that far it would seem 

 only fair that its paternal attitude should be ex- 

 tended to help in preserving the life of the district 

 by the enactment into a law of permission to bank- 

 ers to use the securities as other public and private 

 corporate securities, as defined in the depositary 

 law. 



EXTENSIVE LAND FRAUDS ATTEMPTED 



The state legislature of Idaho has forwarded 

 to Congress a joint resolution setting out that there 

 is strong evidence to indicate that lands already 

 applied for under the stock-raising homestead act, 

 recently passed, are sought by dummy entrymen 

 acting in the interest of wealthy corporations, firms, 

 and individuals engaged in cattle and sheep raising. 



Secretary of the Interior Lane has 

 received a number of communications 

 from individuals in the western states 

 making similar charges, and the indica- 

 tions are that extensive land frauds are 

 being attempted under the law. 



The act, like other homestead 

 laws, was designed to encourage the 

 making of individual homes upon the 

 public domain, and because applica- 

 ble to a poorer character of lands, 

 four times the area allowed to be en- 

 tered under the original homestead 

 law was fixed as the maximum, but 

 both the law and the regulations 

 clearly and fully require that these 

 homesteads must be made for homes 

 in good faith, and for the use and 

 benefit of the individual making the 

 entry. 



The secretary has directed a vig- 

 orous investigation and prosecution of 

 fraudulent claims. One who enters 

 land, either directly or indirectly, for 

 the benefit of other persons or cor- 

 porations, will not only have his entry canceled and for- 

 feit his homestead right, but will be subject to crim- 

 inal prosecution for perjury, and upon conviction may 

 be fined not more than $2,000 and imprisoned not 

 exceeding five years. 



Officers of the land department state that simi- 

 lar frauds were attempted by large ranch owners 

 when the so-called Kinkaid law was passed, apply- 

 ing to lands in western Nebraska. Hundreds of 

 fraudulent entries were made in this area for the 

 benefit of cattle men, but vigorous prosecution by 

 the department resulted in the cancellation of the 



CONCRETE IN IRRIGATION CANAL CONSTRUCTION 

 Concrete-Lined Main Canal of the Modesto Irrigation District, California 



entries and ultimately the lands in this area have 

 passed into the hands of. real homesteaders, who 

 have built up a prosperous agricultural and stock- 

 raising community. 



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