Arizona republican., 1901-03-20

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 ner of procuring legislation knows that
 a territory stands no chance of secur-
 ing favors. Ask Governor Murphy or
 Col. McCord or Hon. Hugh Price, or
 any other man who has had experi-
 ence and he will tell you that law-mak-
 ing is based on compromises and swaps rather than right or justice.
 States may In the near future be aided
 but territories. except to help Indians, , never, Then suppose the government should
 come to our aid. No storage bill that
 has ever emerged from committee
 room has stood ghost of a show of passage by the house except the New
 lands bill. and that bill was shamefully handled and defeated. And is the New
 lands bill what We want? Let us see.
 It provides that the secretary of the
 Interior may select sites. That means
 that sites will be selected in states
 having a political pull, for not many men can withstand political influence.
 It provides that reservoirs may be con- structed in localities where there is sufficient desirable PUBLIC LANDS. That means that the government may conflscate the Mcdowell or Tonto Ba- sin sites dam them store therein the
 flood waters and carry this water right
 by our homes and farms and reclaim the PUBLIC LANDS below Peoria.
 And what will the poor valley do then? The lands we are living on; where our homes are: where our capital is invested are. not pub
 lie lands. Consequently we will have no right to the use of the stored wat CTS. Originally. the Newlands bill con- tained a clause giving the secretary the right to conduct water to public lands or lands that had already been re- deemed, but that clause was stricken out. and such discretionary powers killed.
 Again, the bill does not provide for a gift of reservoir to any locality by the government. The building of dam constitutes loan and users of water must reimburse the government for all expenditure, Then what do We gain by federal aid? Do we want it? Will we be helped any? Why not build the dam ourselves and own it and con- trol it? Do We want the government to complete the Tonto scheme. store all the water that our ditches cannot carry, and reclaim more public lands? action?
 The editor of this paper is not hankering to pay two dollars in taxes where he now pays one. Nevertheless. when he knows that by the expendi- ture of a certain sum of money he can increase his business two to ten fold, his business acumen ard sagacity comments the investment This val ley lost enough cash last year on ac- count of scarcity of water to have builded the Tonto dam. There has been enough water gone to the sea this win ter to have filled the Tonto reservoir. Drouths will come again followed by rainy seasons. A reservoir would cor rall the surplus water that is wasted in the rainy seasons and keep 1t for our dry ones. Thus happy equity may be maintained and universal v,rn ttx at hoJ growl and grumble and curse, and wait-and wait-and wait.
 We believe that all this bubble over irrigation legislation; all these cruel accusations; all impugning of motives are ill-tlmed and can result in no good. If all the energy. that has been wasted, all the gray matter that has been ruined had been expended in ef- forts to secure the building of dam and the storing of water we would now possibly have unity instead of di- vision: harmony instead of discord, and be much nearer the solution of this vexed question; much nearer the zeal of our industrial ambition. With plenty of water all causes for conten- ton would melt away. Priority of right would cut no figure then. In prosperity's harvest jubilee suspicion of ones neighbor would vanish and the fear that another was getting what belonged to us would not longer in-. trude.