Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-10-26

| why this valley stands m the shadow, IS
 the unsettled condition of the question J of water for irrigation purposes.
 The Gila river, flowing as 1t does
 through the upper end of the valley,
 carries, past it every season, more than
 an abundant supply with which to ir-
 rigate every acre of land in the favored
 nook.
 Several years ago corporation known
 as the Florence Canal company, sprang
 into existence, and with great flourish
 of trumpets, declared that it had come
 as a ministering angel of mercy, to
 furnish water for the richest soil on
 Gods footstool. The company built
 canal. It prepared itself to furnish
 water-that is se-tain amount-upon payment of a certain sum per acre for
 water deeds, or water rights, together with an annual payment of a specified | sum per acre for all the land irrigated
 with water which it supplied. It was | understood that these water deeds were a guarantee of a perpetual right to purchase water from the company-a right which was vested in the land;
 part and parcel of the land with little
 as valid as the government patent to
 homestead. The apparent desire of
 the company was to impress the public
 generally win the fact that it was a
 philantropic organization. founded upon
 principles of charity and an eager wish
 to benefit humanity. Let us see if tbis
 was SO; if this was the fundamental ob-
 ject, if the true goal to be reached was
 not the enrichment of the stockholders
 of the concern, regardless of the rights
 of patrons; regardless of principles of
 honesty; regardless of every thing in the
 world except the accumulation of gold?
 What IS awster right? Suppose a rail
 road corporation should gay to you, if
 you desire to ride over our line, you
 Lust buy right to do SO. You must
 buy right to purchase tickets. You
 pay us fifty dollars year, and we will give you a deed, which you will carry you and exhibit to our ticket agents along the iiRe when you desire to pur- chase ticket. If you do not care to purchase such right, you cannot ride upon our trains, for our instructions will be that no tickets bs sold, nor any person be allowed to ride who does not possess paid up travel deed from our headquarters.
 Now what would you think of such a proposition? Would not the general verdict be that it was absurd and ridicu- lous?
 But go little further. Suppose you should submit to thls unjust imposition and in absence of eny other means of transportation should purchase the deed: pay the price for one year and secure your right to purchase tickets. Sup pose you purchase a ticket from one point to another; you get aboard the cars and having completed half the dis tance called for by your ticket, the con- ductor informs you that there is no more coal on the tender and the track is wash ed away, and in consequence of this un- fortunate state of affairs you must walk the remainder of your journey? You walk, you wish to return, you present your deed of purchase right to the agent and he informs you that since you arrived the old company from whom you purchased your deed, has gone out of business, and in order to get ticket to your starting point you must purchase new deed from the new company. Just think for moment and answer yourself as to the result of such 8 pro- position.
 Now this IS precisely the position the farmer of the Casa Grande valley occupy at present Tn relation to the water com pany with which it deals. The Florence Canal company, after the completion of it's canal, sold these water rights to every one who would purchase, aud it was understood that water would be furnished no one who was without a deed. Rights to almost B, 900 acres of land were sold at a price ranging from Sl6 to $50 per acre, while the actual acreage of land to which it could supply water was not more than 16, 6,OOO. The excess was profit to the company.
 This company had the modesty to stop with that limit; that is they sold no more rights as the Florence Canal com- pany. But it mortgaged it's plant for more than S300,0O0. The mortgage was foreclosed and almost the same parties again came into possession. The great CT portion of the time, in fact all the time, that the canal was in operation. the holders of water deeds received but little more than half the amount of water they paid for. Tue company's agent told them that there was no more water in the river, and consequently the company could furnish no mora.
 Now, with almost the identical list of stockholders, the company is reorganiz- sd and have the name of the Casa Gran de Valley Canal company. The company gays to water users: "We do not re- cognize any deeds given by the Florence Canal company. Surrender all your old deeds to us, accept the new condi- tlons which We offer you or we will shut oil your water supply. You who hold water rights to land you do not culti- vate must pay an annual rental of 75 cents an acre for water or we will de- clare your rights entirely forfeited. We must have more money and the only means we have of obtaining it is by as- sessing you because you have purchas- ed water right which you do not use, or causing you to forfeit that right SO We may sell it to others. You pay this rental iD advance. True we have not supply Of water sufficient to give you what you pay for, but you either pay us our price in advance or do without"
 Did one ever contemplate a more out rageous proposition?- Yet this is the re- quest of the Casa Grande Valley Canal company. The people became alarmed when this edict was announced, espe- cialiy as 1t was accompanied by the as- surance of MT. Taft, of Chicago, one of the leading lights of the company, that he had consulted eminent legal author ity and was assured that this claim was one which would be sustained iu the courts. The people had been bluffsd by these gold bond manufacturers for so long that many folded their hands in helpless despair, and cried out in their agony, "What shall We do to he savedp" Fortunately, however, the light dawned upon them, they asserted their man.