The Arizona sentinel., 1907-08-14
WHY NOT ASTRONOMY?
Mir. Theiimann Tells Facts and Asks
 aFeW Pertinent Questions.

l
 that the Hon. James R. Garfield,
 secretary of the interior, during
 his rush tor rather, rushed) visit
 to Yuma was so completely con
 trolled by Mr. Newell and MT.
 Bondesson as not to allow a com
 mittee of farmers and water users to discuss matters with him or
 obtain any information at his
 hands. He~waS first announced
 to be here on the 10th, then on
 the 9th, then the reality was that
 he was rushed through on Sun day, the 4th. The secretary got
 no chance to see the gravity DOT
 tion of the valley where the ef- fects of the present policy are
 most visible, nor. to interview a committee of those who could shox him.
 This was probably wise pol icy for their own protection.
 At the public reception Mir. Newell announced that the pump system had been paid for and the trade for the Farmers Gravity
 was about completed; that this would be put in repair and water furnished through for next years icrop-an of which had been pre- viously announced through the press.
 He said the dam was about 70 per cent completed, but did not say what it would cost when complete-a very important point to the people who have it to pay for. The time of completion, he said, would be in the winter of 1908, orin 8 bout eighteen months, if they did not suffer disappoint- ment. But he did not advise us why J. G. White 6 Go. were re- leased from their contract to have the dam completed within two years from date of contract for little less than $500, 1000, and for which they were under forfeiture bond of $500 per day for every day over contract time. This would have been valuable information for the people, and an explanation they were enti- tied to receive. If the contract had been enforced the dam would have been completed at the pres ent time; or at any rate the cost of construction would not, as it is now, be piling up on us to an unknown amount.
 No mention was made of the 'Siphon under the Gila-when it would be commenced or com pleted or the cost thereof. The tunnel through the mesa; the main canals; the distributing system of canals, he treated in like manner. Is it asking too much for those having an amount to pay to want to know what that amount is, when it is to be paid and the benefits to result therefrom are to begin?
 One point he impressed upon us-they would commit the pos terity of the valley to the theory of practically managing the farmers old gravity canal, which the engineers of the service and the officers of the company had declared to be impracticable. This is proposed to be done by pump. The canal should be cleaned to a gravity grade at low water mark. A gravity ca nal takes it's water from the surface flow of the river, and therefore contains less per cent of silt than water from a pump, whose suction must be consider ably below the surface. Why pump this muddy water into a canal that can be supplied with clearer gravity water? The ca nal has to be cleaned, whether supplied by pump or gravity; pumping, therefore, adds to the necessity and cost of cleaning, and were the pump transformed into dredge, great point in economy is at once scored. Why not repair and put in operation the present dredge in the head of the gravity canal and keep the grade of the canal low enough to take low water fow2 It is at once seen that this will ho n,oro,