Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-03-09 | Page 4 | Settlers Gain Time

SETTLERS GAIN TIME. A bill granting homesteaders on irrigation ir-rigation projects twenty years instead of ten in which to pa for their laud j and water rights has becu favorably reported by tho house irrigation committee. com-mittee. This should provo a great relief re-lief to homesteaders. Tt was a colossal folly for the government to give the settlers only ten ycarB in which to transform the desert into a garden and to pay nil charges for land, water, capital, cap-ital, interest and living expenses. Older nations would havo looked upon the task of reclaiming the desert as a matter of several generations or even of a century. It was American 'optimism that mado tho first advocates of reclamation bulicvc that all irrigation irriga-tion projects could pay for themselves and sustain families on the revenue derived de-rived in ten years. A mistalco was made iu calculating the cost of government irrigation projects. proj-ects. They proved more expensive than had been anticipated, and the settlers, of course, wero required to make up tho difference by paying higher rates for their water rights. A law conceding twenty years will be met with acclaim. It will pormit tho original settlers to retain their lands instead of being compelled to abandon them after having doap all,, the pioneer work.