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Show COMMENDS STATE OFFICIALS' WORK W. I. Moody Writes Letter Concerning" Concern-ing" Conditions at Delta Project W. I. Moody recently wrote the following letter to the state authorities author-ities commending their work and making a comprehensive statement regarding the conditions, past and present, of the Delta Project. The letter was published this week in the Salt Lake City papers. January 15, 11117. To the Honorable Board of State Land Commissioners of Utah: Capitol Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. Gentlemen: Now that the patent is issued for the Delta Carey act Project known as the Carey Act Segregation Segre-gation Number Three, we avail ourselves of this, our first opportunity op-portunity to congratulate your honorable board, ex-Governor Spry and State Engineer Beers for the very competent business like manner in which you and they have so faithfully, fearlessly fear-lessly and honestly labored in behalf of the State of Utah, in an honest effort to obtain the development and reclamation of Carey Act Segregation List Number Three at Delta, in Millard Mil-lard county, by the Delta Land & Water Company. State Officials Commended I also congratulate you and most heartily approve of the vigorous and business-like manner man-ner in which you have labored with the Department of the Interior In-terior to the end that patent to such Carey Act lands should issue and upon the successful culmination of your efforts. Six years ago, in the winter of 1911, we were induced to come to Utah and investigate the old Oasis Land & Irrigation Company Carey Act project above referred to, with a view to financing, developing and colonizing col-onizing the same. . We found a limited number of settlers on the project who were in great distress and dispair, due to the fact .that the diversion dam in the Sevier River, constructed by the Oasis Land & Irrigation company to divert the waters from the Sevier river to the Carey Act Segregation, as well as to the Melville company's land adjoining had been washed out for two successive years by the early flood waters of the river, and the early settlers had suffered the loss of two successive suc-cessive crops. The Oasis Land & Irrigation company was bankrupt; bank-rupt; they owed a large amount of money, evidenced by part in a bond issue of several hundred thousand dollars; these bonds were held largely by the Melville Mel-ville and -Deseret companies; and the Melville company had suffered a loss, not only in the crops of the two preceeding years, but also through the failure fail-ure of the Oasis company to lift the bonds held by them. The entire country and people about Delta presented the appearance of hopeless despair. Conditions Were Bad Capital to finance this and other projects was not available, avail-able, due to the fact that practically prac-tically every eastern financial institution had placed an embargo em-bargo on irrigation bonds and other irrigation securities. This was the result of one failure after another in the development develop-ment and rolinization of nearly every project, both Carey Act and otherwise, that had been exploited ex-ploited in the west, during the several preceeding years. Irrigation Irri-gation bonds to the amount of over forty millions of dollars were in default. , Under such conditions it was ! not difficult to understand why it was next to impossible to interest in-terest eastern capital in western irrigation projects. I was told by the settlers of the Carey Act Segregation in Millard county j also by the officers of the Ds-eret Ds-eret and Melville coir.p.i ntes.-in (Continued on Page Five |