Show A REPLY RE PLY TO MR GENTRYS LETTER 0 concerning THE DIVISION dear editor 91 I 1 have read with no inconsiderate interest mr air gentrys Gent rys article recently printed in the standard regarding the dividing of the dry gulch irrigation company into two separate companies having profited by mr BIT gentrys Gent rys advice to consider this matter carefully seriously and honi estly I 1 take this occasion to state a few of 0 the conclusions reached as a result of such consideration 7 the present evils pointed out by mr gentry entry are 1 the company Is too large E 2 the stockholders of tle company pany speak of it as tile tho it were a foreign corporation fleecing fleeming flee cing the i farmers rather than as my com pany i 3 there is not to be found u among the present stockholders 7 men capable of handling the com banys business 4 many classes nave have no representation sen tation on the board 5 the lake fork and uintah river systems are separate without a common point of interest except the wast eway one must immediately conclude troma froma survey of this formidable list of ailments that the dry gulch company is indeed a candidate tor for medical attention the question is what remedy ailments are more easily detected than cured it must be remembered that not every remedy that is suggested will affect a cure Is this is a case for high patent medicines with long names or is jt it a case for or a good old fashioned dose of physic and a mustard plaster ater mr gentry suggests an operation tion he would apply the knife and cleave the patient into two halves like the mother of the child in king solomons day when that wise king suggested mr gentrys Gent rys re remedy m edy ln in order to detect the rightful parent 1 I like most of 0 the stockholders with 7 whom I 1 have conversed feel cons strained to hasten to the rescue for hsuch such a remedy if applied would i plainly kill but could never cure the 1 I 1 recipient f let us therefore look minutely at aej each defect pointed out by mr air gen atry try and see what affect the remedy dihe he suggests will have c first is the company too large in comparing it with tile ine size of oth ifer er companies I 1 find that while it is larger than some it is but pygmy in size compared with others I 1 find i that there la is no lack of 0 larger companies in other states that are being efficiently and satisfactorily manag ted ed it large companies can be well managed in other localities they can be well managed here it is therefore to be concluded that the mere size ot of the company Is no drawback but that the causes of complaint must be looked tor for elsewhere As to the second complaint that there are stockholders alio criticise criticism critic ise I 1 the company as they would any outside corporation in which they own no stock the question naturally aug suggests itself it if a division ot of tile the company will cure this evil why is it that the same infection exists among the he stockholders ot of the smaller corn com canles pan ables les certainly no one could nake make himself believe that with the company snuggly whacked in two rith ill one set ot of officers with an office say ay in myton administering to the affairs of 0 the Lake fork side and anther another ac set of officers with an all office in roosevelt administering to the ulnah ac bah iah side that there would be no criticism of these officers which one of he common complaints of the pres nt would be eliminated in this fashion on Is not human nature such that hat as long as a company is too arge to include all its block holders 8 as directors the non directors vill ill criticism criticise critic ise lse those of the directors who he do not see the thing as they do the he root of 0 this evil lies in human afire itself and certainly no one crould argue that this would le be anaed by a division ot of the dry irrigation company j it is very true as mr air gentry says that the nearer we can call get our IT ir leation gation system to the point that tho the stockholder tock holder will have direct control nd understand fully the workings it f the company the more ory it will be wherein will a dl won A of the company answer this ind nd will the stock holder have any borc ore control than that which he BOW ow exercises through the vot voting ing of us Is stock will he not still be pom polled to rely on his vote as his means of control further by division will his or my knowledge of the company he added to one whit such an argument bouli would le be equivalent e ni to saying that I 1 would have a better understanding of the state of 0 texas which I 1 have uever never seen if atthe the united states were cut in two in the middle and made into two to unions on oil the other hand Is s it good 10 logic ae to argue that since I 1 oufa should it understand I 1 the workings of my government the country country to which I 1 belong should be reduced to the restricted area area which comes under my direct observation would it not be much better tor for the dry gulch stockholder who does not understand the workings ot of the company to familiarize himself bere therewith and thereby become a factor in its good government rather than to reduce the company in size to fit his present understanding while there are admittedly many stockholders who do not jully fully appreciate pre preci clate ate the problems connected with the management of the company I 1 do not feel tor for a moment that we are suffering from the woeful lack of brains described by mr air gentry when he says 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 but whether such is or is not the case with the present method in vogue of handling the companas comp anys business in classes not a single complication arises by virtue of the two rivers being in one company which would not arise if the company was dl divided this brings us to aliment number four namely that many classes have no representation upon the board mr air gentry states under the present organization many manyi classes lasses have no representation upon the of directors and must trust their part of the business to men who own no stock and who have no financial inter est in their particular class I 1 take it that mr gentry would stand stana tor for equal representation of all classes upon the board that is a board to so composed that the votes of the diree directors of any one class would bear the same ratio to the total board votes that the stock in that class bears to the total stock in the company any other than this would bo be unfair as it would be unjust as well as dangerous to give a class greater representation upon the board than it had at the annual meeting let us see how such representation would work out I 1 class A on the lake fork side being the smallest class would be entitled to at least one director class A has approximately 1300 shares class lass C with over ten thousand shares would be entitled to 8 directors class D with shares 6 directors and class B with 2400 shares 2 directors on the uintah side jide class J being the smallest class would bo be entitled to at least oneal one director rector class J has shares on oil this basis class clasi E E would have 8 directors class F 4 directors class G 5 arec afree tors class 11 IT II 13 directors class 1 I 1 3 directors and class K W 2 directors boards thus composed would be entirely too large to be effective effee tive and the objection urged by mr air gentry that some classes are ard at the cpr cy ot of direct directors who own n no 0 st stock oa in that class would still hold only to ap ai added degree under the present system of 0 electing directors dt at large each director is responsible 10 lo very every e class in the company it if directors were elected by classes they be responsible only to the class elected them and some of larger classes could by having vote as a un unit it absolutely control all the other classes thus making the board much less leas representative senta tive than as at ai present constituted with the company divided and dominated by a single class and with the class dominated by one set oi ot interests as Is frequently the case with a class the company would be in a dangerous state indeed it Is much safer for our protection to keep the company so large that it can not be dominated or made a prey to any one set of special interests regarding the fifth point of weakness raised by mr air gentry wherein ho he states the lake fork and aln tah tab river systems are absolutely I 1 separate and distinct and have no I 1 connection whatever botany of any kind ex I 1 capt in the outlet for waste water i I 1 must absolu absolutely iely take issue bisue with him it if such were the case we might be sufficiently fore bearing to waive iff all odthe 0 other points raise dand try I 1 I 1 division as an experiment even against our better judgment but with the two river systems bound together as they are it is nothing short of absolute folly to divide them the dry gulch company has ap aroxi acres aares under cutti cultivation ti under the two river systems for this acreage it has fi ledon about one and one halt half acre feet per er acre of storage water making a cotal otal of about acre feet of this amount about acre feet are out of the uintah river acre feet from drainage between the two rivers and acre feet out of the lake fork river storage ca opacity is very scarce particularly s on the uintah side for this reason the company purchased this summer at a cost of many thousand shousan d dollars the holdings of the dixon brothers at moon lake on the lake fork side before this purchase wai was made the holdings of the company were already more than ample to uke take care of the lake fork side but this water was purchased so that the total holdings of storage water of the company would be adequate to take care total acreage of af the company when storage is developed therefore water will be stored on the lake fork river to water ground on the uintah side it if water batir is not taken from the lake fork river tor for lands on the uintah side these lands must forever go dry as there is no snore more storage on the uintah side that can bg be developed at any reasonable cost since thera th ereis Is w a short age of storage on the ulilah side and an excess on the lake pork fork side there ir is only one thing to do and that is to take that excess across to uintah lands this if for no other othera is sufficient reason why the company compan should remain intact as at present constituted in conclusion then I 1 must say that while the dry gulch company has faults to correct not one of them set forth by mr air gentry will be corrected by the method he be advocates furthermore division will introduce many new weaknesses ana causes for complaint from which we do not now suffer but which space will not permit me here to recount in unity there is streng strength ih and united we stand divided we fall are maxims that have stood us in good stead in times past tet let us adhere to them thein in the future W F |