Arizona republican., 1903-03-15
Up to the Hammer Club.

The water storage question for the Salt River valley is now up to the Ham, mer cluh. What do the gentlemen of this club propose to do about it? Are we to have storage and a prosperity for this valley such as no other agr1- cultural section of the world ever saw or is the opportunity to be lost for all time because of the selfishness of the knockers?
 This does not state the situation too strongly. Events in Washington have taken exactly the course that has been predicted by those who were in a posi- ton to speak advisedly. The secretary of the interior has designated the Tonto Basin as one of the sites where the first expenditures under the national irriga- ton act shall be made. If this reser- voir can be constructed so that the benefits will accrue to the lands, culti- vated and uncultivated, under the eN- isting canal systems and at the same time make the government absolutely sure that it's expenditure will be re- turned, it will greatly please the de- partment officials to cooperate in car rying out such plan. But in any event l11 fa1 o,aA the government will not wait long for the people here to decide whether they desire it's benefits. The geological sur vey knows that the Tonto site is the best in the United States for the stor- age of water, and the government does not propose to be prevented from utiliz- ing the site by the bickerings of a com munity which should be wildly enthu- siastic over the mere chance to get the work done at national expense. If the people of the valley say they do not want this reservoir-or rather if they fail to say most affirmatively and in .
 
 satisfactory manner at Q very early day that they do want it, the government of the Salt river for irrigation of the Gesert lands which lie easily available.
 For several weeks government en- gineers have been running canal lines on each side of the river outside the area now irrigated. This work is not child's play. On the south side of the river beyond Mesa, there is one of the finest bodies of desert land in the world lying ready for irrigation, and 100000 acres can be covered by canal taken out from the river above the mouth of the Verde. This will be off, cially known to the government very soon, and the Tonto reservoir will be constructed for these lands if the peo- pie here do not grasp the opportunity.
 A crisis impossible of exaggeration has been reached in the history of this valley. It is impossible to conceive of I greater calamity than the diversion of the flood waters of the river for all time to lands not embraced under our own canals. It must be understood that the government will not be influenced a particle by sentimental considerations or by the fancied "pull'' of men who imagine they can persuade the depart ment to wait for years while they carry out their own selfish projects.
 The Hammer club comprises a very limited membership, but it has had suf- ficient influence so far to cause tho movement for storage to proceed hal.- ingly and slowly. Do the knockers pro- pose to continue their tactics? And vii l the business men of Phoenix and the ranchers of the valley have so little firmness as to permit these tactics to continue?