Show DONT DIVERT THE FUND Ire I-re notice that the House of Representatives Represen-tatives has passed p bill to allow of the expenditure of 0000 out of the arid laud reclamation fund to help build a road In Arizona The proposition Is to have the towns of Phoenix Mesa and Tempo bond themselves to the amount of SSGOOO to build a road up Salt river to the proposed reclamation dam and If the money so rained Is not enough to build the road the United States Is to complete it at a cost of 25000 If that Is enough or 00000 If J needed The Idea is to take this money to build the road so far as the United States payment is concerned out of the arid land reclama tion fund and to require Its refund the game as the money spent on the reservoir I reser-voir proper by i the people who get the I benefit of the water That Is this road money is to be paid back by the water I I users the same ns If it had been put into In-to the dam and not Into building avon a-von d It is I needless to point out the danger of this sort of departure from the terms and spirit of the irrigation law If this reclamation fund can be diverted to the building of loads it can be diverted to I a great many other purposes and the provisions of the law may be frustrated It Is true the claim Is made that It Is necessary to build this road in order to get In material for the dam but it i is also true that this claim Is made by tho local Interests and the politicians and not by the Government engineers The course this matter would almost certainly cer-tainly take in case the bill is passed Is this The Government would go on and spend the 25000 or 50000 as the case may be the people of the towns named would refuse to give the twothirds vote required In favor of the Issue of the bonds the road would lie there uncompleted uncom-pleted then 1 another bill would be worked through Congress allowing of the use of a further sum out of the rcclanuilion fund to complete the road In which 550000 had been Invested but which would be useless until completed Then there would be Invested In this road from Phoenix to the reservoir 5150000 The money would have come out of the reclamation fund but the people peo-ple who take the water from the reservoIr reser-voir might very fairly refuse to payback pay-back the money spent on the road in fact most likely the majorIty of them would have no Interest In the road and could rightly object to paying for its construction It Is a bad sort of a bill to pass It would form a destmuctle precedent and would Invite further encroachments upon up-on and depletion of the arid land reclamation rec-lamation fund for an endless lot of schemes that could In some way be tacked on to the reservoir proposition If the people of Arizona want roads let them build them or If the Government wants a road let It build It but let these schemes be not tacked on to the land reclamation proposition There Is not enough of thatto do every public work needed in the arid region and It should be held strictly for the purpose defined in the Jaw which created the fund and set It apart for land reclamation purposes pur-poses |