The Imperial press., 1904-06-11
Declares That Bill Relating to Colorado River Water Had
 Full Publicity
The Muddle Relates Wholly to the Yuma End of the
 Project

lD lsaANH h'Hl ltolH i|'T Angeles and appearing m sundays InIUn, Ia thr cilrct that the ColOrauU Delta company lnr complicated matters by dcclinIng tn netilc on satisfactory basis with the Unitcd states rrclanna- lion service ,tssIIL Ia taken by thc friends of national irrigation. In an interview last evening, WIlllam r.. SniyInc, vi'O has publicly advocated the cause of the Imperial galley farmers as against the California Development company, said:
 "Th. di ,patciI has three points oi special interest a1 follows
 First, t,c statement that congress passed Il law giving the reclamation service rights On the Colorado river which are superior tD those now enjoyed by private companies.
 @'Sec.ud, that thc Colorado Delta company will contest this Iau m the courts.
 Third, that au attempt uill be made io curb the autocTatic powers ot the secretary of the inferior and have the national irrigation policy administered hereafter by Il commission.
 ''It is true that congress authorized fhe reclamation service tO ntIllZc the river for the irrigation oi ihc Yuma reservation and adjacent arid lands and that the latter phrase k sufficiently comprehensive to cover all the territory which may be conveniently and cc"- nunIrlLly watcrcd from the dam which ia la bc built above Yuma. lt this hap pens, while the watchdogs ot the prI- vate companies were of their guard. as the dispatch states, II may be uniortu- nate for these companies, but certainly the public has no ground Tor complaint. . I.Ia lands which it commands are the prop erty of the United states and congress certainly has a ht to deal with them in the manner which it thinks will best sub-erve the interests of the American people, including the settler who bears the entire cost ot the work.
 'li congress had granted rights to private companies which 1t denied to the reclamation service there would be guod cause for criticism and complaint. Az it is think the public will heartily applaud what congress did. There was no secrecy about this matter at all. The bill was favorably reported by the committees of both houses and received the usual publicity. If it's true slgnih- canoe was not appreciated by the watch dogs of private companies, 1t was certainly understood by the mastiffs and terriers of national irrigation.
 "The Colorado Delta company k composed of cstimable business men, most of whom live tn San Francisco. James D. Schuyler, builder of the Sweetwater dam, is it's consulting engineer. Iris company expected to take water from the river some miles above the Laguna dam to be built by the government, and to use it npon the very same lands which the government now expects to irrigate, on the Arizona side of the stream. l have talked with the representatives of the company and understood them to admit that they started the enterprise after the national irrigation law was enacted, after the in- teriOr department had withdrawn the lands from settlement, and even after the engineering parties were in the field. The law was passed on June l7, 1902: the lands withdrawn June p; and the engineering party began work in September. while the Colorado Delta com pany did not acquire its interests in Arizona until the latter part of Novem- her, 1902. Probably these enterprising