Arizona republican., 1900-09-01
A START AT LAST.
The Foundation of a Storage
 Reservoir Laid
The Agitation Begun By the Re publican Results In 6 Movement Iii the Certain Direction of a Permanent Water Supply.

The greatest congregation or farmers ever assembled in the Salt River val ley met at Doris theater yesterday morning. There were many others than
 farmers there, fer the object of the
 meeting was equally attractive to townsmen. The further progrs ss of the town as well as the country was Gt stake. Men had me; to see if some plan could not be agreed upon by which an adequate and permanent water supply could be secured. The meeting was the direct result of an agitation of
 the subject begun by The Republican more than two months ago in the ad- Vocacy of :s simple projec. for the con- struction of a storage reservoir. Dis cussion was invited and aroused and i other plans evolved. Men net on the street corner 60 talk abcIt fJ. The farmers by reason of lack of water this season had plenty of time for discus sion and a strong incentive to engage in ii. Out of it all grew this meeting,
 which was fairly harmonious, and out of il has grown a beginning which may result in something.
 The meeting was called to order by Walter Talbot. president of the Phoe- nix and MaricOpa county board of trade He said the meeting was held in the interest of no clique or corpora 'tiOn. IL was desired that the freest expression should be allowed to every man interested, and all were inter- ested; it was also desired that the street corner discussion which lad been going on for years to no purpose might be crystallized into some tangible, req sonable and feasible plan.
 MT. E. A Fowler of <1lendale said 1 that such a gathering Of farmers so early as the middle of a forenoon in- dicated that a matter of great inn portance had been brought forward for | consideration. Ire importance of a water supply. h. said, could not be eX- | aggcrated. he subject had been pre- sented to the community in most painful and f-rcible manner. Mir Fowler nominated Col. s. NJ. McCowan for chairman uf the meeting. The mo- ! ton was seconded by Sam F. Webb and adopted.
 TIME TO QUIT TALKING.
 On ,allihg the chair, Mir. McCowan addressed the meeting at considerable . length covering the whole field in
 pleasing and forcible manner. When he came here ten years ago. MT. Me
 Cowan said. he heard the subject Of reservoir construction talked about by certain men. The sama men were now
 harping on the same old string while the storm waters were rushing to ihe sea, leaving the land dry and languish- ing. The people of the valley had been crying to the waters, Halt" had cursed each other and the canal com panies. and had engagld in prOfitless litigation. "If all the curses" said the speaker. had been collected at the mouth of thc Tonto Basin reservoir site and had been cemeE-ed by all the lies that Tad ever been told in tho course of the discussion of the reservoir prob lem. a monument of infamy would be piled up to the skies. but not a drop of water would be saved by the con structiOn."
 It was the opinion of the speaker that more work and less talk was now needed. Chairman McCOwan said that we could not have in this world pre- cisely what We would like to have. Our lives are made up of compromises.
 Tn this matter of water saving, while the object aimed at was the same, there were widely varying methods under consideration. The theory of govern. ment aid might as well be dismissed. l, might come some time. but too late to do the present residents of the val ley any good. What was to be done, he said. must be cone quickly, for the drouth of the last asOn had filled the land with heartsickness and discour- agement. The pastor of a church in a valley had 1l- ready given letters to twenty parish toners who had been compelled to leave th-ir homes and had no doubt gone forth to telJ of the curse which rested upon the country.
 SOME OF THE PLANS.
 The speaker then presented picture of the desolation. He spoke of the prior right man who had sought relief in the court to the sole benefit of his lawyer. The chairman was not in favor of the construction of q reservoir by private capital, and while the plans of Dave Goldberg and NJ. ". Messinger, published in the newspapers. resem- | bling in some respects the Wright law Of California, were attractive, they bore ;he stigma of failure. The Christy, Fowler, RedewiI and Murphy plans were open to the objection that they put the burden upon the farmer, though he was not the sole beneficiary. The chairman said he had understood that the people of the Buckeye, coun- . try were apathetic, if not actually op- posed to D. plan Of honding the county. { They were described s LaZaTuscS feed ! ing on crumbs, parasites upon the val ley. and vendors of secondhand goods. The water supply this year, however, was not as bountiful as it had reen and perhaps next year they, too, would be clamOring for water.
 John R. Norton of the Buckeye cOun try subsequently, corrected the chair man saying that the residents of Buckeye favored any reasonable plan for securing better water supply for the whole valley. The chairman be- heved that the people should control the water supply and they could net tNiT ETappa