Arizona republican., 1904-12-25
The Effort to Get Control of the Re-
 cIamation Fund.


 will be any land or irrigation legisla- ton at this session of congress. Just
 before l. z holiday adjournment, the
 house committee on public lands voted
 adversely on the several bills for the
 repeal of the desert land act, the stone
 and timber acts, and so forth, and went
 on record against the repeal of the ex-
 8sting land laws. This, of course,
 blocks any legislation in that direction
 this winter. And it seems just as little
 likely that there will be any irrigation
 legislation, 2 fact of which the west
 should be glad.
 In congress-especially in the senate TWO elements are arrayed against
 each other on these questions. The ele
 ment represented by Senator Hans bTough, Senator McCumber and oth- CTS, opposes the repeal of the desert land act and tho other laws which, ac- eOFding to the National Irrigation asso- ciation have opened the door to enor- tnt us frauds; and this same faction, headed hv Hansbrough and McCumber seeks to amend the national irrigation law in several important particulars. The National Irrigation association and its friends in the senate urge the re- peal of tho land laws we have men tinred, end opposes any amendments to t:.e reclamation law.
 Notwithstanding that no irrigation h hgislat:on is probable at the present sess,oE, 1t is certain that the advocates ot an amended irrigation law will press their measures at every opportunity, and the light will be on in earnest at the next session.
 Two bills particularly objectionable are the McCumber bill to employ the reclamation fund in the states from which it was Misunderstanding 70 each state and territory the money only which 3t has furnished to the fund-and the Hansbrough bill to take the supervision of reservoir construc- ton away from the geological survey.
 Readers Of The Republican are fam iliar with the demerits of the McCum Der bill. The Hansbrough bill is less familiar, but it is scarcely less objec- 1 tionabIe. : Senator Hansbrough's proposition, in brief. $ that the office of supervising engineer be created, the office to be fiited by presidential appointment, the new Cf1cial to have direction, under the i supervision of the secretary of the in 'erior of all the engineering work re- pEired by the reclamation law. The bill | is aimed ct the elimination of Mr. | Newell as the controlling factor in the | governments engineering work, and l seeks to wrest control of the reclama- tien fund from. the survey. It is not cer- tain it would accomplish that, but such | is Senator Hansbroueh's hope. MT | Newell, as chief engineer of the geo. logical survey, already performs the | functions which the proposed Super *isins engineer would perform The | difference is merely one of title. Moth ing seems EIore probable than that the president, who entertains a high regard For Mr. Newell. would appoint him to the post of supervising engineer, should St be created, but Senator Hansbrough | doubtless hopes that Newell would not lEs5ve his life work in the survey for tF'~ rev job; or that if nominated to lSa tis nomination could be defeated m ahe senate
 There is 2 newspaper campaign of some magnitude in favor of the Hans Drough measure. For instance, the San Francisco Call, which clearly mis- understands the motives behind the I Dill strongly advocates the measure eal the ground that it would check ex- travasance :n construction and thus thus save large sums to the people who must ultimately pay for the reservoirs. The fact is that there is no reason whatever to believe that the cost of reclamation works would be lessened by placing some other engineer than MT. Newell at the head of the reclama- ton service The Call cites the fact that the Modesto -TurIock irrigation project in California, constructed by the people. cost but $1O per acre. whereas all the government projects will cost :2O O. more per acre. The Call fails to explain. however, that the Modesto-Turlock enterprise did not in- volve the construction of a reservoir: 1t comprises merely a diversion dam and system of canals. And the cost of enc project is no criterion for an- other that is wholly different
 The engineers under MT. Newell { have been selected with great care. and it is difficult to perceive how a change l in the official head would secure better engineering talent The people of the i