Arizona republican., 1902-08-16
THE WAY TO DO IT
Col. s. N. McCowan on the Reservoir
 Project.

To the Editor of The Republican, Sir: I have been d2 interested reader of your reports Of t;,e sforts Of Phoe- nix citizens to get togener Of the res ervoir question. These efforts would be amusing if not so pathetic. There is nothing quite so tragical in life as the fruitless gropings of the blind for some thing near and apparently easy to ob- tain. And who are so blind as those who will not see?
 A reServoir-the best natural reSer- voir, according to the testimony of ex- perts, in the world-lies just right for profitable use by citizens of the Salt River valley. The waterfall is suffi- cient to fill this reservoir, which is as large as the area to be irrigated. Ma ture has builded the basin with an eye to beneficial use, and has left but slit in the great wall to be filled. She has placed the materials for this work at hand-the rock and cement-so that man has nothing to do but supply little labor at a cost of about $1,000.000 and yet these puny men wait and halt, accuse and slander-and suffer.
 And this. too, in face of the fact that they are the creators of their own want and woe and poverty; in face Of the fact that they, individually and col lectively, know that the remedy is at hand and may be applied at once upon invitation properly extended.
 What man in the valley would not invest money in a new kind of seed wheat if assured that it would double the ordinary yield and his ordinary in- come? Is there a man in the valley so
 
 gold pieces for ten silver dollars? There must be, else the reservoir would be under way, for every man in the val ley outside of the asylum knows that a full reservoir at Tonto would mean an increase of 100 per cent in every kind of valley property.
 It means railroads, sugar factories. tanneries. canneries, smelters. vastly increased population, large and per petual prosperity.
 It means a through railroad. I know one now that is building westward and whose rails will ribbon the valley s green fields within a year after the reservoir contract is let.
 The Nicaragua canal will be building for the next ten years, and the toilers there will supply a splendid market for every pound of beef, hay, fruits. honey  and everything else the valley can raise and what an immense lot of things can be raised there.
 In the office of the geological survey in Washington is a fine bit of drawing "a masterpiece of art to me-repre- senting the great stone and steel dam at Tonto. A little to one side is a large cement factory grinding out the adhe- sive force that makes the dam possible On the same side, but a little nearer, stands large and powerful an electric power house wherein may be generated power sufficient to turn the wheels of all the mills and smelters within a ra- dius of 200 miles. Think of it. Think what a saving in fuel to the men who own grand mineral properties but whose substance is daily consumed in liquidating fuel bills. Verify. the dam might well be built for this one purpose alone.
 They will tell you in Washington that the Tonto site is the best most feasible and easiest of construction of any ir the world. Their figures prove it vii