134 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



are subjected to the project obligations and enjoy 

 its advantages by virtue of state law, and these 

 lands can only be sold to qualified water right ap- 

 plicants in farm units of limited size. 



Under our form of organization canal divisions 

 may be organized on petition by majority of acreage 

 affected, and local improvements in the irrigation 

 system may be carried on by majority vote of the 

 acreage directly interested and which bears the 

 expense. 



A great deal has been said concerning the lien 

 which the association and the United States Gov- 

 ernment possess as security for the payment of con- 

 struction and operation and maintenance charges, 

 and it has been decided, I understand, by the Fed- 

 eral Land Board that this lien precludes the extend- 

 ing of credit by the Federal Land Banks to these 

 lands. The Irrigation District plan would not in 

 any way remedy this, unless the Department of the 

 Interior by authority of new legislation should sur- 

 render or waive its lien which has been credited 

 by the individual water right applications in favor 

 of the United States, and which lien may be en- 

 forced either directly by the Government or through 

 the medium of the Water Users' Associations. I 

 am of the opinion that the association as a private 

 corporation by its executive board may waive its 

 lien to the extent of the loan in favor of the Land 

 Bank whenever it is satisfactorily shown that as a 

 sufficient consideration therefor the moneys bor- 

 rowed by the water user is to be used in develop- 

 ment work on the land and thus increase the value 

 of the security. Many loans are being made on the 

 Belle Fourche project by private capital at the pres- 

 ent time and have been made for the past four years, 

 some of them as high as $3,000 and $4,000 on a 

 farm unit, in the face of the lien held by the Gov- 

 ernment and Water Users'" Association. As to af- 

 fording an opportunity for the shareholders of these 

 associations to take advantage of the Federal Farm 

 Loan Act, it seems to me legislation is only needed 

 permitting the Department of the Interior to waive 

 its lien to the extent of the loans made in favor of 

 the Land Bank. This will be necessary whether 

 the local organization is a district or an association. 



There is one instance, however, and only one, 

 that occurs to me where the Water Users' Associa- 

 tion, under its present form of organization, might 

 be handicapped ; and this might be remedied by 

 amending its articles of incorporation under proper 

 legislative authority. It cannot enforce indifferent 

 owners to obligate their lands to the cost of con- 

 struction and operation of the project. This, how- 

 ever; does not particularly interest the Federal 

 projects now in operation or under construction. 



The Irrigation District plan does not appeal 

 to me in a number of particulars. The control of 

 the project to some extent at least is in the hands 



of county officers, instead of being managed by those 

 who are directly interested and must bear the bur- 

 dens of its development. The policies of the dis- 

 trict would in a measure be dependent on political 

 conditions in the county generally. In other words, 

 it would not give the landowners and water users 

 directly concerned that measure of representation 

 in the management of their own affairs and accord- 

 ing to their respective investments to which their 

 vital interests are necessarily entitled. 



As an argument in favor of the district plan, 

 it has been stated that the nature of the work or. 

 enterprise is public. It is no more so than the 

 building or operating of a railroad or of any large 

 manufacturing establishment which employs many 

 men of the community. Yet the affairs of these 

 concerns are controlled by those who finance, build 

 and operate them. 



Even in the promotion stage of a project, in 

 the semi-arid regions, I am inclined to think that 

 the irrigation district plan would be a source of 

 much contention and costly litigation. Especially 

 where dry-land farming is carried on quite ex- 

 tensively in the immediate vicinity of the proposed 

 .project. The voluntary signing up of lands in the 

 proposed project would lend greater assurance for 

 the success of the project. And there are plenty of 

 feasible projects of this kind waiting for the neces- 

 sary capital to build them. It doesn't seem hardly 

 fair nor the part of good business judgment to over- 

 look such communities and expend the public 

 moneys to build expensive works where perhaps 

 only a bare majority of the electors have expressed 

 a desire for irrigation. There is always a great 

 clamor in most communities for the expenditure of 

 public funds, and it is comparatively easy to vote 

 in a project, but it is another question to procure 

 contracts directly from the landowners, and the 

 proposition must appeal to them from a business 

 standpoint, and it should be considered as a busi- 

 ness proposition. At least, so long as there are 

 projects of this character available for development. 



The whole irrigation district scheme savors too 

 strongly of politics, and is not founded on sound 

 business principles. And an irrigation project not 

 so founded is doomed from the beginning. Do not 

 misunderstand me. It may pay out in time, but 

 the water user on the land must be prepared to en- 

 dure many hardships and sacrifices. Irrigation is 

 a business of its own and should be kept free from 

 politics. Under the district plan of voting, the 

 owner of a small parcel of land has the same voice 

 in elections as the owner of 160 acres. This is un- 

 just and necessarily results in taxation without rep- 

 resentation. 



From a water users' viewpoint I have been un- 

 able as yet to see any advantage in the Irrigation 

 District plan over the present associations. 



