Arizona republican., 1903-03-24
A Dangerous Confidence.

there is a radical difference in temper ament between the people of Colorado and the people of Arizona. It has been pointed. out that when the news was made public that the proposed reservoir at Montrose, Colorado, had been desig- mated by the secretary of the interior as one of the projects to be taken up Montrose held such a publication as had never been seen there before. Men embraced each other, and the bitterest enemies shook hands. The same dis patch brought the news that the pro- posed reservoir on the Salt river was also designated, but there was no ex- citement whatsoever in Phoenix. It Is true that the people of Arizona are not excitable or demonstrative, but the ex- planation of the apparent apathy here lies in the fact that the action of the secretary as to the Tonto Basin reser- voir had been generally anticipated. whereas the citizens of Montrose had had no reason to discount the news of their good fortune.
 Ever since the plan was worked out for securing the construction of the Tonto reservoir by the government and for furnishing the necessary security for the federal expenditure, the average citizen has gone about his business fully confident that the officers of the water users association would encoun- the signature of every landowner to the articles of incorporatio and it has not seemed necessary that the force of public opinion should be exerted. It appeared absurd to suppose that there would be any delay in perfecting details at this end of the line.
 But we desire once more to direct public attention to the fact that over confidence as to these premises is dau- serous. While the community as whole has accepted the success of the movement as fact, 1t appears that tha small but energetic Hammer club has been getting in it's work on the minds
 
 have selfish interests to serve are busily telling landowners that the proper plan has not been adopted, and that they must stay out of it. So far as We have been able to ascertain, no alterna- tive plan has been proposed. As mat ter, of fact, it is too late for the con- sideration of any other scheme The knockers direct their energies to arous- ing suspicion by misrepresenting and concealing the facts. Consequently. some landowners hessitate to sign the articles.
 It is not difficult to discern the mo- tives of the men who are doing what they can to erect an effectual barrier against the further progress of the val ley. Each one has a wholly selfish in terest to serve. For example, certain pawnbrokers who imagine themselves "financiers" have considerable sums of money loaned on floating" water rights. Under the plan which has been adopted. all water rights are made appurtenant to the land. We understand that some the length of stating that, rather than have the situation changed as to these water rights-rather than see them selves deprived of the profits from traffic therein-they would prevent ab- solutely the construction of the reser- voir It Is not conceivable that these men can succeed in duping any con- siderable number of landowners. It Is unfortunately true that the average farmer is the most suspicious person on earth, and his suspicious usually take the wrong direction. but it would be remarkable state of affairs if a small coterie of selfish individuals could lead the entire valley to its own ruin
 We do not believe 1t possible for the that the plan as worked out by a capa- ble committee after months of con-