OCR Text |
Show ) Hf THE RICH COUNTY NEWS, RANDOLPH, UTAH r ' 1 , I i f Under the tear, ganization the dlrect- or of reclamation has been abolished. A commissioner of reclamation has been appointed (D. W. Davis) and the. bureau organised In line with the other 14 bureaus of the Department of Interior. In the Washing- i u -; : . ! I ton office we will now have the law division, the auditing the chief division, clerks office, the engineer and the four field inspectors. In the Denver office the duties will be engineering, having to do with the construction work relative to bringing water to the differAt ent projects. that point the field bn-re- au f ' commissioner (Can- non), an agriculturist, will a 8 s u m e charge of the project management, except for the work tbat Photo Secretary Hubert Work. -- TO MAKE EXHAUSTIVE INQUIRY ADVISORS BERT WORK Is reorganizing the bureau of reclamation and all the West Is watching the process. And there Is plenty to watch, for there are 28 reclamation projects In 14 states, representing an Investment by the federal government of $181,000,000. Considerably over a million acres of Irrigated lands are cropped each year and the products are valued at $50,000,000 or more. On these project lands are about 500,000 people, exclusive of the cities and villages. The Influence of wholeeach project Is' of course sale purchases of manufactured products by the ), people on the Yuma project for example, totaled $5,411,000 in 1021. So the prosperity of many people is bound up with the prosperity of each project In the Senator Ashurst of Arizona, in last congress, said this : may be required of technical engineers, who will work from the office of the chief . At the outset let It be reilembered that the full importance of national Irrigation cannot be mas- ured In dollars, for It has an intangible value not to be estimated In tonnage tables nor transportation rates. In building new commonwealths in the arid lands of the West the government Is utilizing undeveloped resources and creating opportunities for ltd' oitisens. One of the primary purposes of the reclamation law was to create homes, and this purpose has been richly fulfilled. Viewed from this standpoint alone, national reclamation has amply justified all for which its advocates hoped. '.-- Y t ! ! ; T. Campbell ; ' - This may be true. Nevertheless, this reclama-- , tion work la a business proposition. Uncle Sam furnished the funds and did the work and Is eventually to get his money back. j It now looks , as If it would be some time before he breaks even. Members of congress have been preparing to make demands for repayments In this congress. Secretary Work is quoted as saying, The service was on the rocks and couldnt have lasted five years longer. He Is alBo quoted as speaking of himself as the receiver of the reclamation service. Altogether, the twenty years of government reclamation do not seem to have been an unqualified success. l Fortunately there Is" an official statement, which-giv- es a fair Idea of conditions. It was made by Secretary Work to the Special Advisors committee appointed by him last fall to make an exhaustive inquiry Into the financial and physical features of the 28 projects and Into governmental policies and methods. The personnel of this committee is distinguished. The members now at work on the Investigation are : President Julius Barnes, of the United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington. James R. Garfield, former secretary of the Interior, Cleveland, Ohio. Former Governor Thomas E. Campbell, of Arizona, Phoenix. Dr. John A. WIdtsoe, former president of the State university and State Agricultural College of ' Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. President Oscar F. Bradfute, of the American Farm Bureau federation, Xenia, O. Clyde B. Dawson, Denver, authority on Irrigation law. Elwood Mead, noted authority on reclamation i and Irrigation, Berkeley, Cal . Mr. Campbell was elected chairman and Dr.1 WIdtsoe, secretary. Secretary Works statement to the committee was In part as follows: Soon after I was called upon to act as secretary of the interior, in March, 1923, my attention - was particularly directed to conditions relating to the reclamation projects constructed or being constructed by the department in the western states and among which I have lived for thirty-fiv- e years. "Through complaints from organizations of water users, individual water users, reports of agents. Inspectors, official records of the department and congress, it appeared that nearly all of the projects were In such condition that some radical reforms or Improvements must be had if they were to be saved, farmers protected from loss of their homes, and the return of the money advanced by the government for their construction and maintenance was to be secured. The complaints and criticisms cover a variety of points too numerous to be described here, but Included charges that in many of the projects the original estimates under which settlers were Induced to go upon the projects were from 50 to 100 per cent too low and that the actual cost has been so great that It Is Impossible for the farmers to pay out within the time and manner fixed by law, or even at all ; that mistakes, engineering and otherwise, had been made which added materially to the 'cost of constructed projects; that others bad been undertaken that should never have been started; that the overhead costs of the service and many of the individual projects, all borne by water users, were burdensome and excessive Under the system used In the reclamation serv-- - , ' f Garfield J.P. Cfinecflnst- 0 Ice I have been unable to get figures that appear to be dependable as to the cost of Individual proj- ects or the total money expended on all projects. : "It Is represented, taken from the records of the bureau, that the governments total Investment to June 30, 1923, In rouncThumbers is $181,000,000, and Its total receipts about $46,000,000, leaving a balance invested and unpaid of $135,000,000. "The reclamation service, for which this depart- ment is responsible, apparently requires reorganization. Annual reports on some projects indicate their Insolvency and pending failure. Out of the 28 projects only one has met Its obligations as they fell due. Long extensions of time for payments due are being urged Individually and by projects. The original period for payment is expir; ing on certain projects and an additional extension Is being asked. In one Instance such extension Is to be preceded by a five-yemoratorium. Reclamation of arid lands by Irrigation from government funds as heretofore practiced Is falling on a majority of projects as a business procedure and must be promptly readjusted as to methods of reimbursement of funds appropriated and for the purpose of securing to the settler a permanent - 20-ye- anti-aircra- ft , ' . . mendations include: Menominee bor, Mich., $18,000; Green Bay harbor, $63)28,065 during Wls., $17,000; Fox River, Wis., $157,-00; Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan the year beginning July 1, 1924. Recommendations for the various ship canal, Wis.r $38,000; Milwaukee projects were made by the chief of harbor, $640,000; Racine barbor, Wls., engineers of the army, under whose $27,000; Kenosha harbor, Wls., $8,000; direction this work is Carried on, In St. Joseph harbor, Mich., $54,000; his annual report submitted to con- South Haven harbor, Mich., $78,500; Saugatuck harbor and Kalamazoo river, gress with the 1925 estimates. Mich., $13,000. Includfor last year, Appropriations The Mississippi river receives the ing permanent annual appropriations, amounted to $70,957,151, bringing the largest share of recommended approIntotal appropriations since the work be- priations for this year, its total of river the work Mississippi cluding gan to $1,201,566,845, not including . $32,258,410 for Wilson dam (No. 2) at commission, aggregating $13,530,500. In New York harbor and the daters Muscle Shoals, Ala. Its vicinity require more than $6, For general river and harbor work 500,000. for the fiscal year of 1925 the chief of Ohio river locks, dams, Improveengineers says $45,428,065 can be ments and open channel work call for for expended. Expenditures profitably the year which ended June 30, 1923, $6,000,000. Wilson dam at Muscle Shoals Is al for this work were $47,478,357 and aplotted $7,000,000 for energetic prosepropriations for the present year were cution of the work there, and for paywhich had of $45,524,410 $56,589,190 ments for hydraulic and electrical mabeen allotted. chinery, lock and flood gates, and other Recommendations for the Chicago accessory machinery. Expenditures district are as follows : Chicago harbor, will average $800,090 monthly during $20,000; Chicago river, $15,000; Caluthe fiscal year of 1925. It is estimated. met harbor and river, Blinois and In- $18,000,000 will be required to com- .. diana, $121,000; Indiana Harbor, Ind., plete the project. ' $31,500; Michigan City harbor, Ind., Philadelphia and the Delaware river $19,000; Chicago river, $178,500; Waurequire $2,816,000, and the Inland wa-- . kegan harbor, 111., $24,500. terway, between the Delaware river For the Milwaukee district recom and Chesapeake bay, $1,500,000. , engineer. The engineering division will send Its reports on the construction work to the Washl n g t o n office and the field commissioner will forward his reports on the operation and maintenance of the projects to the same DW.Da.vis place. F. E. Weymouth (chief engineer at Denver branch) will act as engineer and Miles Can. non Is the field commissioner. They will act undej David W. Davis, the commissioner of the bureau, who will have charge of the administration of th reclamation work and the organization. Mr. Wey mouth and Mr. Cannon have gone over this plan with me and are thoroughly in accord with it. Mr. Weymouth shall have charge of all engineering work such as reconnaissance, . Investigations, designs, construction and such other work as may be assigned. He will have two assistant chief engineers with whom to consult and who will substitute for him In his absence. As field commissioner,. Mr. Cannon will have discharge of the operation of the reclamation tricts such as the delivery of water, land, crop production, handling and marketing, improvement of farm conditions. Industrial betterment, collection of water and other charges, and the settle ment of lands." Chairman Campbell of the Advisors committee, on the countrys rivers, and waterways will 0 , one-thir- d . , Crops Good on Reclamation Projects and representatives Minidoka Project, Idaho. The yield is probably the largest ever harvested on the project. -- SENATORS preparing to demand of sugar beets settlers pay up the millions of dollars they owe the government for assistance in the development of. irrigation projects are laying much stock on a report just issued by the Department 'of the Interior on crop conditions on the Irrigated projects. This report, which shows that on most projects the crops were good, follows in part: ; Yuma Project, Cotton gins continue busy. Local estimates of the yield vary from 16,500 to As a whole, financial 18,000 bales. conditions on,, the project were very a. 1 fact-findln- prac-ticall- fact-findin- We Have Bananas Today, Millions of Em TIE fact-findin- s. -- n tana-Nort- Oregon-Callfoml- ' : . Arizona-Californi- ' t Hutley Project, Montana. The sugar beet crop was the best in the history of the project, many fields yielding 20 tons an acre. . a pracafter preliminary Investigation, says that Newlands Project, Nevada. About tical moratorium will have to be granted by the 1,500 acres of winter wheat were government on a number of reclamation projects planted. Harvesting of potatoes was to prevent disastrous failure for the present tenpractically completed and In many home. . ants. cases prevailed at excellent prices. Your committee is requested to survey the It wld be In iny opinion, said Mr. Campbell, was exConsiderable : satisfaction whole subject in its entirety; give to the bureau the government to reconstruct the for over the returns from the necessary pressed. your opinions concerning our operating methods fiscal policy of Its reclamation service and grant cantaloupe crop. The yield and qualthat we may avoid errors, and finally your recoma uew start to a number of projects, probably ity of the apple crop were excellent. mendations which congress may study and which of them. Rio Grande Project, New Mexlco-Texa- s. should ultimately preserve the sanctity of conThe Western States Reclamation association re- good. Cotton gins were being taxed to secure fanners for their investtract, safety Orland Project, California. Cutting to capacity to take care of the crop cently met at Salt Lake, elected R. E. Shepherd ments already made and Insure a return of InvestThe of the fifth crop of alfalfa was com- and were the centers of activity of cotpresident In place of D. W. Davis, resigned. : ' ed funds. annual report of Secretary Frank E. Brown said pleted and some lands yielded a light ton buyers and of salesman for automove to was first Works Secretary accept the sixth cutting. Oranges were maturing mobile concerns. , ? in part : resignation of A. P. Davis as director of the recW lllist on Project, North Dakota. Those of us who are inclined pessimistically to satisfactorily. Shipments of almonds lamation and to abolish the office. He then aptotaled about 410,000 pounds, valued Splendid results were obtained .from view the seeming inability of settlers on governpointed David W. Davis commissioner of the buat $50,000. the test plots of sugar beets, the averment Irritation projects to pay their just obligareau of reclamation, and Miles Cannon, former ' the wide spread between the Grand Valley Project, Colorado. of because tions age yield being more than 12, tons an commissioner of agriculture of Idaho, field reclacost of living and production and the price of About half the sugar beet crop was acre, and one plot yielding 16 tons. mation commissioner. Late last fall he announced farm products, have taken the view that a situa- harvested with excellent yields. Early The sugar content ranged from 14.1 to that the two principal headquarters of the reclation dangerous to expansion has developed through potatoes, alfalfa and sugar beets were 17.2 per cent would in be mation service Washington and Denthe necessity of the appointment by the secretary the most successful crops and the seaStrawberry Valley Project Utah. ver, the latter city being a central point as to the g commlssiou (Spe- son was satisfactory for most farmers. It was estimated that the of the Interior of a yield of suvarious reclamation projects. The reclamation Uncompahgre Project, Colorado. gar beets would exceed 100,000 tons. cial Advisors committee), the report of which, y service will henceforth be divided Into two for the future. Prospects were excellent for good Storage of apples, was being contemthey believe, may blast, the hopes separate departments. One will enre for plated until better prices prevail. But the truth Is, if we will review the situation yields of sugar beets. the construction of the projects ; the other will care g commiscalmly, we will agree that the for the operation and maintenance after construcsion is really the first great effort the government ' ' tion. . has ever made to look Into the development of announcement Works of reorganizaSecretary fellow who said that he paid for your last dozen, and you have to these projects which mean personal enriching. a committee of Denmade was the tion special g care who wrote the laws the cost Of distribution. The high cost commission,, with a personnel Commercial This association, with whonij ver Civic and his country If they would of transporting, which brings confidence, is not to be led on by he had been in conference. He said in part: refrigerating, and let him write its popular songs the vagaries of guesswork ; it will not be swayed The dropping of 25 employees in Washington the fruit, added to the upkeep ripening economic argumen was away off. For several months now will mean a saving of $20,000 a year, as the salby the narrowness of unbound of the myriads of retailers, adds more the American people have warbled and to nor will it be turned in its findings by those enaries of these employees amounted to approximatethe final cost of the banana than Is West. , shrieked that they have no bananas, thusiasts among us in the ly $10,000 a year, and the expenses incidental to saddled on almost any Imported food; counter-currentas matter a been will but have of fact same about however, totaled the amount. they There have, their employment and yet they are cheap when their The farmers of the United States, particularly consumed about four billion of em food value is There are about 75 employees of, the bureau in compared with other west of the Mississippi river, have been hard hit this year by the time Santa Claus has Denver and some 5,000 employees engaged in the staples. his back annual some hiked visit their of and and paid and representatives maintenance them work of construction, operation Many of Twenty years ago the American peoin congress are of the opinion that there Is ulready to the north pole. on the different projects. No decision will be This head-ocollision of lyrics and ple were spending only $4,000,000 a too much cultivated land in the United States. reached In regard to these employees until I have in the tropics for bananas. Since This association cannot depart from Its first statistics is emphasized by a review year had an opportunity to go over the situation thorthat time the fivefold Increase has of Issued banana the and the a broad of by industry comprehensive announced position oughly. National City bank of New York, been due almost entirely to the Investreclamation plan. ' Forimrly the reclamation service was under ment of American capital In ships, the director of reclamation (A. P. Davis), who was The principal reclamation projects are as foi which shows that we pay our tropical on railways, plantations, docks, hospitals, Caribof the shores the Arlzona-Cain with l neighbors office an engineer Washington. The Salt River, Arizona; Yuma, lows: and all the appurtenances of a .tropl- bean $20,000,000 a year for bananas. branch office in Denver was ior the administrative lfomia ; Grand Valley and Uncompahgre, ColoWe have paid them $400,000,000 In cal Industry empire. work in the field. ' Each project was supervised by rado ; Boise and Minidoka, Idaho ; Milk River and The man who plants a banana tree the last 20 years, and the beginnings Mon who to the attended Lower Yellowstone, a manager operation of the Sun River, Montana; h Dakota ; North Platte, Nebraska ; New of empire tbat are now discernible In place of a tropic thorn probably project and who was the connecting link between Mexlco-Texa- s about that tropic sea are mostly based does more good for humanity than all ; the government and the farmer. This project man- lands, Nevada; Rio Grande, New on the banana business. the politicians and pundits who ever a the did the collecting, supervised operation of ager Umatilla, Oregon; Klamath, The banana grower gets about half performed to steal and modernize the the ditches and endeavored to get settlers for the Belle Fourche, South Dakota; Strawberry Valley a cent each for each banana delivered Judgment of Dean 8wift on the tribe land. Utah ; Yakima, Washington ; Shoshone, Wyoming to the waters edge. .Figure what yon of politicians, whom he knew so well. ar . l h WORK (Arlzona-Callfomia- 1 Battleship te Uncle Sams Waterways Bill Is Large har- wide-reachin- u- Up-to-Da- The West Virginias complement The navy the of of 1,400 officers and men, and consists WASHINGTON. with the she carries 8 45 calibre guns, 12 . sub-- ; b commissioning at the Nor51 calibre guns, 2 folk navy yard of the battleship West merged torpedo tubes and 8 Virginia. She is 624 feet, guns. Embodying all of the knowledge 97 feet 3 Inches across at the long, architecture and protective de- water line, has a draft of 31 feet vices gained during and since the bat- and makes a speed of 21 knots. Her tle of Jutland, the big fighting craft, commander holds the navy cross for a sister ship of the Maryland and the exceptionally meritorious service In a Cojorado, takes the place of the North duty of great responsibility as comDakota, which is to be Bcrapped, un- manding officer of the: North Dakota der the provisions of the Washington In the Atlantic fleet" during the war. conference naval treaty. The West Virginia, Maryland and The commissioning of, the West Colorado are the largest ships in the an of era," Virginia will mark the end United States navy, but they are not says Secretary Denby In his letter to so large as the new Japanese battleCapt. Thomas Jones Senn, who Is In Mutsu and Nagato, which command.. For years to come there ships the33.800 tons, are 700 feet In displace will be no more competition in. capital a beam of 95 feet and have ships among the great naval powers. length are, equal In draft approximately They Is the she Displacing 32,600 tons, 45 armor each has and and fifth battleship equipped with electric the but calibre ships Japanese guns, drive, and Is described by Secretary mount 20 guns In their broadDenby as the latest of the super side batteries and have a speed of 23 dreadnaijghts. She is the last, he adds, of the knots. The British battle cruiser Hood Is 3eet of similar vessels,, eleven of which, in process of building, were considerably larger than either the surrendered to destruction at the con- West Virginia class or the Mutsu class. ference for the limitation of arma- The new battleships, Nelson and Rodment. That was the priceless sacrifice ney, now under construction, also will our country made In the hope, of Inter- be much larger and more powerful, it Is said, than the Mutsu or West national peace and in the Interest economy." By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN OF THE INTERIOR HU- , ECRETARY U Virginia, 16-in- SECRETARY WORK APPOINTS SPECIAL ! West ' ' t |