Arizona republican., 1902-10-03

from large number of land owners for water delivered to t:em from the raser- Vo!r thi ough canal systems over which thr government had no control, lnd we believe that no plan could nov oe le- visel Gr carried into eff=,'t under which the government would assume control or acquire the ownership of the dis tributins canal systems in the Salt
 River valley. It must be recognized that this is impossible
 A plan must be adopted which will guarantee and insure to the govern ment the prompt payment in full when due of each and every annual install ment of the total cost of the reservoir in each 0f the years during which these | installments will be due and payable to | the government The government must | be assured that these payments will be made beyond any question, and thaL
 the government will never be involved ! in any complications or entanglements, either in reference to their collection or
 as to the distribution of the water after ! it leaves the reservoir. As to these mat ! ters. the position of the government
 must be made absolutely safe and cer- | tain, and we cannot expect it to act
 until that has been done.
 We therefore recommend. as sug-
 gested in tte plan proposed to the con- mittee by Judge Joseph H. Kibbey,
 that we should first organize the asso-
 citation of water users contemplated by 1 the national irrigation act itself. The
 shares in this association should be perpetually and inseparably appurten-
 ant to the land on which they are orig inally issued.
 This association, when formed, should embrace all land owners desiring to ac-
 quire rights to water from the reser-
 voir, and should be the agency to re- ceive the water from the government
 and distribute it to the land owners en- titled to it's use. or to the respective
 canals controlled and operated by such land owners to be by such canals car
 ried to the lands to be irrigated, under
 such rules and regulations as should be ! established by the association of water
 users and the respective canal systems and approved by the secretary of the interior.
 1 This association of water users should
 also be the agency through which all
 collections from land owners of moneys
 due the government should be made
 and through which the full amount of each annual installment due the gov
 ernment each year should be paid all
 at one time in single lump sum each
 and every year when the same is due. ] This association of water users, which for convenience of designation we may call the merger association, would have | a central governing board, which would
 be the common channel through which
 all negotiations and dealings with the
 government for the benefit of all the members of the association would be conducted, and which would also have | the control and management of all mat l ters of common interest to all the land
 owners or canal systems which were ! brought together in the association, as
 for instance, the construction and op
 eration of all pumping plants to be operated with power from the reservoir.
 or, as a further instance, the protection of all common sources of water supply
 and the prevention of appropriations or | diversions on either the Salt or Verde
 rivers above the canal systems which
 were brought together in this merger
 association and which would be in vio-
 lation of the rights of the members of
 the association. The conducting of any
 necessary negotiations for the acquisi- ] ton or the site TOT the 1eSeTNOlT NOull
 be another matter which would prop
 erly come within the scope of the duties
 Of this central governing board of the
 association.
 | It should be clearly understood, how
 ever, that it is not contemplated that
 this central governing board should as
 sume or have the local control or man agement of any of the separate canal
 systems as at present organized or of | the distribution of water therefrOm.
 The control of each such canal system in all it's local affairs and in the dis | tribution of water under it would re-
 main in the land owners under each
 separate canal system and in local
 board chosen by such land owners. The merger association, under the l control and management of it's central board would receive the water from 1 the government reservoir at the reser-
 voir and would apportion it to the can
 als in the proportion 10 which the land owners under each canal as d whole
 were entitled to it. and it would be dis tributed among these land owners and | carried to the lands having the right to it's use according to the respective rights of each, by the canal system
 under the control and management of it's local board selected by the land
 owners under each system separately. In the apDortiOnment of water stored