DIVIDE DRY GULCH INTO TWO COMPANIES by win G sentry gentry that the dry gulch irrigation company in its present form of organization tile the largest in the state has outlived its usefulness must be apparent to all its stockholders the men who organized this enormous irrigation system are deserving of praise and credit for at the its organization conditions were such that this large institution filled the place better than it could have been acen done by a number of smaller units but that day has as passed and today the farmers find themi them i selves the owners of a large unwieldy i i irrigation system with the maintenance expense climbing higher and higher while the service becomes more and more unsatisfactory the company is so large and its business so complicated that the average stockholder can not see sea understand its workings through or I 1 i slid and the result is that everywhere you hear bear it criticised criticized by the men who own stock in it not as my company but as if it was some great foreign corporation fleecing fleeming flee cing the farmers the popular argument of put in a ro new w board has also outlived out lived its usefulness while some boards may be better than other boards I 1 maintain that no seven men can be found among the entire list of stockholders that can and will handle this enormous complicated irrigation system wisely and intelligently to say nothing of satisfying the stockholders tor for the average american citizen wants to run his own business whether tor for better or worse and is hard to satisfy where others are hired or delegated to do it tor for him its a fact that can not be disputed that the nearer we can get our irrigation system to tile the point that the stockholder will have direct control and understand fully the working of the system the more satisfactory is it will be to them under the present organization many classes have no representation on the board of directors and must trust their part of 0 the business to men who own no stock and have no financial interests in their particular class where classes have one or two representing avem on the board of 0 directors even they have only one or two out of seven a large majority I 1 of the board owning no stock and having no financial interests in their particular ditch system such a condition can not be satisfactory the Lake fork and uintah river systems are absolutely separate and distinct and have no connection whatever ot of any kind except in the outlet for waste water and yet the stockholders in both systems davd the right to vote on any proposition submitted for either system and at our last ers era meeting we had the rather ex if not humorous proposition y of the stockholders in the Lake fork tork t river system being asked t to 0 vote on borrowing to build a reser I 1 voir lor for the stockholders in the uin tah river system a proposition which they knew nothing about and a debt which they had no anten tion ot of ever paying a cent of can f we expect to give satisfaction under such proceed ure last season beason our board of directors tried the plan of hiring a kind ot of a general manager to help the board i out in a general way with the large i affairs ot of the company this move however appears to have been no smore more satisfactory than the old plan of the board personally attending to the companas comp anys business and in my opinion no general manager however faithful or good his bervice will lie be satisfactory to our stockholders tor for the reason that they want what we e might call self government they want to handle their onn affairs and not delegate this power to anyone and will not give a general manager thai support necessary to make such administration successful the trouble with our irrigation company Is it Is too large and un lewdly under such buell a large system the stockholders can not be given that service necessary to satis batts faction nor can their money paid into the company lie be given the attention necessary to prevent waste athe the remedy is to make the company 1 smaller by making two companies out ut ot of it let us divide the dry gulch irrigation company by form king I 1 ng a company ol of each river system I 1 all ot or us will come much nearer running our own business we will give better service with less expense the uintah and Lake fork then which will result in better satisfaction among our stockholders and better standing in the financial world division will in no way hin hinder the borrowing of money or selling bonds we could it if we thought best continue to borrow jointly and make joint obligations but spend jointly never some may say that by dividing we invite litigation between tile the two tn ra companies such is not the case we have nothing in common that we could possibly law over except tile waste outlet and that is a small item compared with the burden we are a now carrying we are now about to start out on an era of great expenditure th the greatest in the history ot of the company and the time has arrived for u us 0 o decide and determine whether or not lot the stockholders of each river system shall manage their own busi ness spend their own money and do dc their own reservoir ing by dividing the company or undertake the storage of water as we are now organized and remain together indefinitely in III my judgment it would bo be unwise to vote bonds or undertake the expenditure of a large amount of money as we are at present organized the company is too large cumbersome and complicated under such an organization the mistakes are sure to be many and the waste great but make a company comi tany of each river I 1 system then we will find that the stockholders will take an interest and a pride in fit their companies they will have a board of directors every man of whom is a stockholder and has a direct financial interest in their system then they will tie be managing the spending their own money for themselves and we will not have the difficulty in getting men to work on their own ditches and reservoirs that Is confronting us today it may be asked how we could go about division at our coming annual meeting select a committee for the purpose of organizing and deciding on a plan of division give this committee power to secure legal advice and incur any expense necessary to perfect a plan of separation and an dhave have them report to a future meeting of the stockholders called tor for the purpose of hearing the report and taking action on division nw in conclusion I 1 want to say that I 1 believe we have a great opportunity port unity here for a splendid irrigation system and a splendid country with ith it but as a stoeR stockholder holder who has been with the company from the beginning and one who has served tour four years on the board or directors I 1 do not believe we will ever succeed and give satisfaction to our stockholders as we are at present organized gani zed instead ot of criticising criticizing critic ising our past or present board of directors we should sympathize with them in their wrestle with this great big cumbe cumbersome csome complicated company which Is year by year becoming more inore and more difficult to manage the uncertainty of 0 water and the certainty of heavy operating expense is already considered in the price of 0 land and I 1 ask the stock bolders Ti to consider this matter carefully seriously and honestly and deride decide wheler it would not be best for us to make two companies out ot of the dry gulch irrigation company it if we could not give better service with less expense therefore better satisfaction it if divided I 1 ask you ou to investigate and find out the maintenance expense ot of the smaller companies and compare it with itaf our maintenance expense I 1 ask you it if you can to point out one single advantage in having these two river systems tied lied together in one company while the disadvantages are enormous one side must drag the other along as a dead weight one can not legally do a thing without consulting the other and yet they have no interest in common something develops that requires immediate attention but by the time we go through the red tape and get a remedy prescribed the patient Is dead and hero here in lies most moat of the dis dissatisfaction satis faction