Arizona republican., 1904-04-24
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. APRIL 24, 1904
Enemies in Ambush.

 Tonto Basin reservoir project. and oi the reclamation service generally These enemies are actively operating from ambush; who are they? It IS their purpose, doubtless, to disclose their identity only in the event that they achieve some measure of success. Speaking broadly, Arizona has nothing to fear, of course, from any attacks upon the governments storage pro gramme, nor can we see that the of ficials of the geological survey need pay much attention to these enemies.
 It is interesting, however. to take ncte of the opposition. The activity of these enemies is disclosed in dispatches and correspondence from Washington, printed in many of the leading news papers of the country. This corre- spondence takes as its text the state ments recently made before the house committee on public lands by MT. George H. Maxwell wherein he admit it'd that the western railroads had been contributing literally to the expense fund of the National Irrigation asso- citation. The Republican pointed out some time ago that there had been no secret as to the aid which the associa- ton received from the transcontinental lines, and why so much noise should be made over the discovery" at this late date can be accounted for only by the knowledge that the outcry is part of the campaign which is being waged against the plans of the reclamation service The following extracts are taken from the Washington corre~ spondence of the Minneapolis Tribune, and are typical of the attacks which are appearing in numerous papers with such suspicious uniformity. Os- tensibly the articles are showing up Mir. Maxwell; in reality the object is to discredit and break down the en- tire national irrigation movement, for MT. MaxwelTs course has been open, frank and straightforward, and he needs no defense:
 But the s39,OOO per annuIn which MT. Maxwell receives from the rail- roads (says the Tribune) does not by any means represent his profits from the irrigation association, so-called. and in this connection there are some circumstances of peculiar interest.
 Before the irrigation act was passed the geological survey and the interior department had declared in favor of three projects as the ones which should be first taken up, should the bill be- come a law. These are known as the AIilk river, Montana, the Nevada and the San Carlos, Arizona, projects. The San Carlos projtct is one for the irfiga- ton of something more than 100000 acres of land in Arizona, every acre of which belongs to the government; and, should this project have been carried into execution. could have been pur- chased by settlers direct from the gov ernment at a cost not exceeding SIS to $2O per acre.
 lover in the Salt river valley, about GO miles from San Carlos, considerab ble progress has been made in irrigation, and in some instances as much as $20 to S25 an acre had been expended by the settlers. Many thousand acres had been taken up in this locality when MT. Maxwell and his friends came along and gobbled up in the neighbor- hood of 175,0G0 acres, much of which was taken under the laws which MT. Maxwell is now so strenuously trying to have repealed.
 Notwithstanding the departments declaration in favor of the San Carlos project and the fact that most of the land at San Carlos is government land, Mir. Maxwell's pull with the govern ment and the geological survey was so powerful that as soon as the act was passed the San Carlos river project was abandoned and the Salt river val ley or Tonto Basin dam project was taken up in its place"
 We amputate the Minneapolis Trib- une's article here, temporarily, in or der that The Republicans readers may stop and take breath, and prepare for the horrible revelations to come. Tn passing, it may be worth while to say that the geological survey and the de- partment of the interior never did "de- clare" an intention to construct a res- ervoir at San Carlos Tho most the geological survey ever did was to sur vey the site, as has been done in the case of every reservoir site in the country, and to make soundings for bedrock. Bedrock was found 60 feet or So below the surface, and the survey reported that the project was feasible from an engineering point of view, while pointing out some of the diffi-
 
 oulties in tSe way. It is possible, how ever, that the San Carlos reservoir would have gone on the governments list of projected enterprises if the in tegrity of the officials of the depart ment had not been so viciously assail- ed by misguided local advocates of San Carlos. But that is another story.
 There Is, of course. not word of truth in the assertion that MT. Max