Arizona republican., 1904-06-25
PREPARING A MODEL
Ways in Which This Valley Is Making
 Irrigation History.

Morris Bien, engineer and legal ad- wiser of the reclamation service, has in preparation a model set of articles of incorporat tion for the use of settlers seeking water storage under the provi- sions of the irrigation law. As yet the articles of incorporation of the Salt River Valley Water Users association are used as a model by settlers under the projects that have advanced to the incorporation stage, but these articles contain some provisions for local con- ditions, not required perhaps in other places, and the form being planned by MT. Bien is rather more general and all so somewhat simpler. The first draft has been printed and proofs have been sent to B. A. Fowler and other men fa- miliar with the local features of the reclamation work under various pre- jects, with a request that suggestions be made. After all suggestions have been received the work will be care fully gone over and the articles re- drafted to suit accepted suggestions. When all is complete it will be submit ted to the secretary of the intericr for his approval, and when approved it will be furnished to settlers under pro- jects yet to be undertaken. as a nu- cIeus for their organization. As inti- mated above. this first draft follows the general lines of the s. R. V. W. U. A, with one notable exception, which is that MT. Bien prefers a more central ized organization, vesting the legisla- tive powers of the corporation in di- rectorate of nine, instead of a council and board of governors.
 Tn all this reclamation work, this val ley is receivins a sort of advertising that it could not get with money and in the future this advertising will con- tinue to expand beyond anybody's present conception, all because the Tonto project is the first one under taken by the government and the ques- tions that are being worked out here with infinite care and patience. are pre- cedents for all future work, though they may, of course, be improved upon from time to time as experience is gained.
 The formation of the Water Users association and its articles are one inn portant precedent. The building of the dam is itself experimental, of course, and therefore precedent. The power canal and the electric generation and transmission plant will form other pre- cedents, so far as their application by the government to the needs of farmers is concerned. The building of the Ton to road is an unusual enterprise In which the people have joined interest, and the full value of which may not be appreciated for a generation to come. The acuuirement of waterways and the distribution of water under government direction will also be in the line Or precedent and there are dozen other large and important details of the pro ject that will serve as precedents for the future of reclamation projects all over the country.
 One of the most important phases of the development of the project in this valley and the one that now con- fronts the prospective beneficiaries of other projects, was about the first thing undertaken here, namely, the getting together of the people; placing themselves in an attitude to be helped. The long and memorable campaign of weeks and months, on the part of faithful committeeman and the irri- gation experts, harmonizing differen- ces that often looked like they could not be harmonized. and adjusting diff ferences that at first appeared inca pablo of adjustment, was the making of history here that not only deter mined the future of this valley, but gave the entire arid west an invalua- ble precedent.