Arizona republican., 1898-12-07

Of the successful operation of
 canals by the ranchsrs who consume
 water from them, Ons Of these being
 the Buckeye and the oth3r the Temp
 canal. Thss3 canals give the best
 satisfaction, and are the most profit
 able of any, considering their compar-
 ative importance. When the Grand canal was owned by tha Ianchers of the
 valley it was success, but when spec ulatOrs secured the majority stcck ard
 begun to run it the acreage of alfalfa dropped until at the prs s-nt time there
 are 18,000 acres of desert land which
 was formerly under cultivation. This
 ought to be enough to convince people
 that something is wrong. No, I can
 not say that I am in favor of bonding
 the county until the time comes when
 the people can gain pOss session Of all
 the canals and own their own st0Taga system.
 Mayor J. c. Adams: I b=lieve that
 Maricopa county sh-uld build a ressT-
 voir without giving a bonus to an out side company or corporation. Let the
 matter be taken up in a businezs way. a site selected among th-sa already known, O.. a new one located, and the
 money raised to start the work by the
 
 Ezra W. Thayer: What I said to the Republican 8 few weeks ago about road improvement applies to the storage mai ter. I believe in the county strain ing every effort toward progression in every chanel of improvement, whether it be in making good roads or the greater proposition of extending is importance and growth by giving the rancbers all the watsr they want. It is not T waste of money to spend it in this way. The return will more than compensate for the cutI9y. If this county should build a stCrage res rvcir, ! tha burden would not fall wh-lly upon the prssant taxpayers. There would be such boom in real estate in the valley that thousands of acres of land would i become the homes Of neW settlers and [ the apportionment Of the tax would . leavo it so small that it would hardly ] be noticed Real es.ats would rise in value and with that would be a rise in its tax valuation, so that, although the . storage proposition looks like placing a big load on the taxpayers, it would . really be built without the slightest ic- convenience 10 the pc pie of the conn ty. And in the long run it would be one of the best investments the county could possibly make. YCu may call me a pCpulist or a paterna ist, but l be- lieve that municipalities shl-uld own all public institutions, such as water works electric light plan S. and stI5et can lines, and this policy also applies to the county and state. I am opp0s5 d to giving any one of the storage Ccm- panies a bonus to build their dams. If . the county is able to dc that it is bet ter able to build the entire dam itself and reap the full benefits of the invest ment.
 IT. w Chamberlain: I do not know much about the water stCr3g9 question, but I can readily sea that water st-E- age would be of vast importance to this valley and MaricCpa county As far IS the increased taxation which bond ( ing the county. would bring, l do not i .hink it would be felt. 'Ths effact Of { storage would ba scme:hing like the ! ,esult of the passage in Minres~ta Cf l he free text books law. The law was 1 opposed because Of the additional bur l len of taxation which the people woul1 2 nave to carry if the state were t3 pIr- i .hase all the text books and distribute s hem free to the school children. The aw was passed and the first year of it's < .peration there were nearly 10000 : ncre children in the public schools of U And when the people U ,aid their taxes they could not find the | additional tax for free books, it was T. uch small item when appOrio1ed | mong all the people of the state. Here . n this valley there would be So many n nore people to pay taxes the frs year < he reservoir came into use that the in rcased tax would not be much of a urden to even the highest taxpayer.
 B. Heyman: In California there is vhat is known as the Wright law which ought to be CfsintereSt to this alley in the matter of the issuance of .onds fer the aid of different districts. Ve cannot bond the county to help he ranchers of this valley, and if the yater storage question is to be dis ussed there should be some study lade by our people of the manner in mich such things are accomplished in alifornia where they have made the dvancement we are about to make ere. I believe that the water storage aservoir should be owned by the peo- le of the county It would be 3 pay ag proposition from the start. It ould not be otherwise with the con iticns which exist here. I am int9-- sted in canal which is wCrthl- ss now ecaUse We cannO5 get wat5r. l would ladly give up a large interest in the anal to be insured of water through . ut the year. All of the canals of the alley would have to go to the rssar- cir for water at some time during the car. There is to be a meeting Cn E +l,i T