Arizona republican., 1903-05-31
Tempe's Mistake, and Its Lesson for
 the Rest of the Valley.

If the ranchers living under the Tampe canal wish to cut themselves of from all possibility of sharing in the benefits of water storage, they are taking exactly the proper steps to ac- complish that end. The address to the secretary of the interior which they adonted yesterday-a document which they found ready and prepared for them at the hands of the manager or the land and cattle company which controls the great ranch under the San Francisco ditch-is printed in our news columns this morning. We trust that every land owner in the Salt River valley will read the document. This address is the final product of the three or four gentlemen who for months have so actively opposed the approved plan of organizat tion and who have so per sistently tried to persuade ranchers everywhere in the valley to refuse the governments plan. In some respects the measures of protection purporting to be set forth in the address are all ready embodied in the plan which the secretary has approved. This might be termed the sugar-coating of the pill. for anybody fairly familiar with the English language can state any proposition in a multitude of ways. The pill itself is made up of the .'prin- ciples" which the government has re- peatedly ejected-nota bly, local or dis trict control of the water distribution. opposition to giving security which will secure alike the government and all who join the association, and so forth.
 For months the mountain" Of op- position has been laboring, and it has brought forth this mouse-the same mouse that has been laid before the people here and before the government at Washington a dozen separate times since last fall. Verify. the rodent be- gins to smell With patience and cour- tesy the government over and over again has turned down these 'princi- ples" and has informed the chief agi- tators that their substitutes and amendments would not and could not be accepted. What any sane man could expect to gain by again taking the subject to the secretary of the in- terior cannot be surmised. If the prime movers who have undertaken to undermine and make abortive the governments plan for giving water storage to this valley be credited with only ordinary common sense. they lay themselves open to grave suspicion of their good faith and honorable inten- tions toward the valleys interests. It looks very much. indeed, as if, finding it impossible to carry through their pet projects, they have determined to defeat the reservoir altogether.
 And very possibly they may defeat 1t. Certainly. if yesterdays proceedings at Tempe be taken as indicative of the purposes of that district, these agi- tators have succeeded in placing that enterprising and deserving community outside the pale of the governments operations. Our Washington dispatches have made it clear that the former ac- tion of the Tempe ranchers in deelin- ing to join the Water Users associa- tion was course which pleased the officials at Washington. They did not wish to subject the government to the charge of treating any part of the val ley unjustly, and the door has been held open patiently in order that all might enter But at the same time. it has been the belief of the officials that 1t would be advisable to leave out the 1 better watered section of the valley and | substitute therefor public lands. In- evitably. the proceedings of yesterday | will be taken as conclusive that the | Tempe ranchers have definitely de- | termined not to join the association.
 Of course, the Tempe ranchers have | made deplorable mistake. Their pre- iudices and suspicious have been utiliz- | ad to their own immeasurable damage. | But that is their own affair When it is | too late they will turn on their advis- ers of yesterday and will be ready to |