THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



105 



the taxes are assessed, the county treasurer, or who- 

 ever may be the tax collecting officer of the county, 

 collects those taxes the same as he collects taxes 

 for general purposes. Further, if any officer of the 

 district neglects to perform a duty, or a function, 

 then the state officers may be compelled by law to 

 perform the neglected duty. 



I know of one instance that happened some 

 years ago where the Board of Directors purposely 

 neglected, on account of the stringent times, to 

 levy a tax to pay interest upon those bonds and the 

 Supreme Court mandamused the Board of County 

 Commissioners and county officers to make those 

 collections, and they did make them. 



If the Government guarantee the payment of 

 the interest provided the purchasers take the bonds 

 and the Government has had an opportunity of 

 investigating the project in the first instance, why 

 not, to use the language of Judge King, permit our 

 districts to "fly with their own wings?" That is 

 one suggestion upon which Judge King and I are 

 very little apart and I hope after he has listened 

 to me as patiently as I have had the pleasure of 

 listening to him, we will get still closer together. 

 (Applause.) 



JUDGE KING: Mr. Chairman, if I may have 

 about two minutes, I will give my response to that. 

 (Request granted.) I will admit that we are not 

 very far apart ; our difference goes only to the prac- 

 ticability of it. 



There are some districts where you can safely 

 turn the entire management over to the parties with 

 more than a reasonable degree of safety; but there 

 are other districts where the management would 

 fall into incompetent hands and prove a failure, 

 just as it has in some very good districts within 

 the knowledge of several within the hearing of my 

 voice. 



Now, take the Minidoka project in Idaho that 

 is a Government project operating under the irriga- 

 tion district plan. That is an irrigation district 

 where they have not repaid to the Government 

 more than half of the funds invested, but the Recla- 

 mation Service, with the consent of the Secretary, 

 has turned the management of that district over 

 to the district itself the operation and maintenance 

 of it. That might be done in many instances. But 

 remember, the United States necessarily holds a 

 string upon that, so that if not properly managed 

 and handled, the the Government may be protected 

 in the investment made. And in all cases a right 

 should be, and is, reserved by which the Government 

 may again take charge, if the contract should not be 

 complied with, until the moneys advanced are re- 

 turned to the Reclamation Fund. Now, with that 

 qualification, this might be done in some districts 

 in the manner suggested by Judge Graves. I do 

 not mean to be understood as saying that you must 

 necessarily have more than half of the funds. It 

 should be left within the discretion of the Secretary 

 to determine when to turn the management over 

 to the local self-government the irrigation district, 

 but I think that under no circumstances should a 

 district be given the exclusive management, with- 

 out a string upon it being retained by the United 

 States until all funds are returned. So, after all, 

 as Judge Graves has suggested, there is not so very 

 much difference between us. 



CHAIRMAN TRUE : Apparently Judge Graves 

 and Judge King did not quite finish their debates 

 last night, for which reason we have let them go 

 on in order to get it all out of their respective sys- 

 tems. I now doubt if there shall be anything left 

 for them to argue about. In fact, it looks like they 

 are about to "agree on a verdict." (Laughter and 

 applause.) 



CORRESPONDENCE 



An Open Letter From the Secretary of the Belle Fourche Water Users Association 



O. E. Farnham 



Newell, S. Dak., April 18, 1917. 

 Mr. D. H. Anderson, 



Editor, IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago. 

 Dear Mr. Anderson: 



From the time that the Federal Farm Loan 

 Act was introduced, the water users on Federal 

 Reclamation Projects have been hopeful that Con- 

 gress would make some provision whereby they 

 would be enabled to make loans under the terms of 

 the Act. 



Some members of the Committee that drafted 

 the bill seemed to think that it could be so inter- 

 preted as to permit of loans being made to the farm- 

 ers on the reclamation projects, and it was hoped 

 that the Land Board would so interpret the law. 

 Delegations of water users appeared before the 

 Board at various times and presented their case, 

 but the final decision of the Board seems to be 

 against us. 



When it became a settled fact that the Board 

 could not permit such loans under the terms of the 

 Act, Congressman Kinkaid of Nebraska introduced 

 a bill amending the Act to permit loans to be made 

 on lands under the Federal Reclamation Projects, 



a copy of which I am enclosing herewith. I am 

 also enclosing a copy of a letter that Congressman 

 Kinkaid addressed to the secretary of our local 

 Federal Farm Loan Association recently as to the 

 result of his efforts. 



The only objection to Mr. Kinkaid's bill, as I 

 understand from his letter, came from the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior. Why the department should" 

 be opposed to this amendment which provides the 

 Federal water users an opportunity to procure the 

 necessary capital to develop and stock their farms, 

 and "thus be enabled at a much earlier period to 

 meet their payments to the Government, is a ques- 

 tion which certainly needs some explanation by the 

 department. It is a well known fact among the 

 water users on the projects that the chief counsel 

 of the Reclamation Service has prescribed a form 

 of local organization for the water users on 'the 

 various projects and that their ultimate success 

 depends upon their early adoption of or submission 

 to his ideas along that line, in the opinion of the 

 chief counsel. 



I understand that the Federal Land Board has 

 made a ruling which will permit loans on certain 



