Arizona republican., 1902-05-23

| age and for Other Purposes There are a number of provisions in this act which are entirely objectionable to the people of Maricopa county and will un- | doubtedly cause it to be defeated by a heavy vote when submitted to the vot- CTS of the county, as provided in the bill Still, it is well that objections should be plainly stated, as there will. without doubt. be interested parties to urge it's adoption.
 The act provides that the property to be acquired is to be forever exempt from taxation. The proposed contracts provide for the actual sale of the stor- age water. not to the water users, but to the carrier-the canal companies. | This is entirely contrary to the strong conviction of all who have given | thought to this important subject that, as We have said, water and land in an arid section must be inseparable. The 1 law provides that the commission which is to control the works shall at first be appointed. then elected. This l is evidently for the purpose of giving | a few chosen insiders the control, as | long as the sack holds out. After that 1 it would be a matter of indifference to them what becomes Of the enterprise. | Another feature of the act, evidently ! devised with the same intent, is the omission of any provision requiring ! that any che Of the bonds should be sold until the money is needed for the | several purposes. The act is apparent ] ly drawn exclusively for the bond holders. The water user is not con- sidered, nor is he even mentioned once in the entire act. An additional hold on the user of water is furnished by a l nTnNjSiOT which 70 T0orT n shut off water from a corporation in default of payment, fer thirty days. l The act further provedes that these bonds shall constitute a mortgage, and as such may be foreclosed., How long would it take under these conditions, ] fer the company to own the entire val ley?
 The company" which will own the reservoir is the county of Maricopa-- the water consumers, in other words and the people here are able to decide how much danger they will be il from themselves. It will be comforting to MT. Heard, one of the water commis- sioners, a special champion of the bill. an opponent Of the canal companies. and last year a devoted disciple of the Maxwell creed, to learn that the bill has been drawn in the interest of the canals. It is not pertinent now to dis cuss at length the nonsense in the aT- gument that the canal companies should be declared common carriers instead of owners of the water. But it is not out of place to suggest that it is absolutely immaterial in the Salt River valley whether the canals are considered common carriers or owners of the water. The canals are already in operation and as common carriers they would be entitled to just conpen- sation for their services. and if they sell the water they are entitled to just 1 compensa ton and any court would so hold-and in any event the legislature always has the power. to limit that 1 compensation. It would not be pretended by even such shallow per son as Maxwell that in the case of the reservoir for tneis valley the canal companies would own the stored water. The flood waters would be the prop erty of the conmunity-that is to say, the county. as owner of the reservoir and the question of control of the nor nal flow would still be for the adjudi- cation of the courts, reservoir or no reservoir.
 The Times goes on to point out that Maricopa county cannot afford to undertake the enterprise-which con- tention discloses the cloven Max well hocf He appears to be deadly opposed to proof being brought forward that the storage problem may be solved by local CO., |, operative enterprises, such as the one proposed fer this county. In the ar
 ticle mentioned there is more Of the Maxwell rant to the effect that ''tne federal government shali reserve such waters for the use of the home maker
 But it is time for the Times and the Maxwell crowd to understand that the people of the Salt River valley do not propose that the Tonto Basin reservoir shall be used by the government for home making on the public domain. The people who have settled this com nunity and borne the privations ot frontier life do not propose that the waters of the Salt river shall be stored and diverted to public lands for the benefit of the Maxwell graft. And they
 have sense enough to understand that there is no possibility of a free federal appropriation for the benefit of the lands already in cultivation. They did not understand this so well q year ago,
 and Maxwell was able to bamboozle the
 people Of Phoenix into giving him some
 $150 for his campaign of education
 but they have acquired some education
 meantime themselves.
 The Republican does not argue that the enabling act now before congress is the best method of obtaining stor-
 age But we do assert that if there
 are such defects in the proposition as
 to make it inadvisable to vote the pro-