Bisbee daily review., 1903-01-25
A MISTAKEN IDEA.

In a recent article in the New Or leans Picayune, a most worthy publi cation, that paper works itself into a frenzy regarding a condition in Ari zona, which the paper assumes to eX- list, but which for a matter of fact has no foundation whatever The article relates to the national irrigation of the arid lands and has for its basis an interview with one J. L. Stack, a Chi cago advertising contractor:
 MT Stack says in an interview with the Picayune:
 "A rather remarkable letter appears in the Record-Herald. of Chicago. Jan. g, written by F. H. Newell, Chief of the Division of Hydrography, in the United States Geological Survey, to whom the Secretary of the Interior has intrusted the whole work of the irrigation by the government, in which it appears that the first large expenditure of two millions or more in the building of a dam by the gov ernment for storing water for irriga- tion is to be known as the Salt River Dam, on the Verde River. about a half mile from Tonto Creek in Arizona.
 If this is true, what have the gov ernment officials. including the Presi- dent and the congressman who voted for and urged the adoption of an irri- gation policy by the Government. to say to the fact that this reservoir will furnish water only to the lands in Arizona. in the immediate vicinity of the City of Phoenix. it's capital where there is not an acre. of land 70 be talk en up by homesteaders, but where it is already owned by speculators large ly, who individually own from 160 to several thousand acres each Where there are from six to eight canal cor poratiOns, some owning large bodies of land, and where no benefit can be derived by the settlement of govern ment lands as homesteads, but where it amounts to the government stepp- ing in and
 Lending these Canal Corporations and
 Spectators the Money.
 with which to build a reservoir.
 It also appears that there is to be a canal constructed for the purpose of developing e.ectric power While it is
 
 structiOn work during the building of the dam, and while it is not so stated. lt very naturally follows that this cleo tric power will be used to light the city of Phoenix and run it's street railways
 What has become of that strongly emphasized interest in the small land owner who was to have an opportuni- ty under this act of getting a home stead on government lands not already taken up and what has become of the determined effort on the part of the promoters of this act on preventing spectators and canal corporations from gobbling up the government money and all of the benefits? Presi- den Roosevelt in his Minneapolis speech, stated that public lands are the heritage of the nation. and should be held for homes being reserved for actual settlers under the homestead act, and the area to be taken by any one man should be reduced so that when water has been conserved by the government the homestead in certain parts of the country shall be limited to an eighty or a forty acre piece. Here in the Salt River is a case where there are no homestead lands to be taken up, and where it is already own ed in tracts of hundreds and thous- ands of acres by single individuals or by canal companies.
 If Secretary Hitchcock or MT. Newell are determined to spend money in Arizona, can't they find localities where the government lands can be withdrawn and the benefits accrue to the actual settlers to be taken up in keeping with the policy outlined in the debates in congress in passing the ir- rigation bill, instead of subjecting the whole movement at once to a criti- cism that would place it immediately in the same category with
 The Public Lands Already Stolen.