Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-20
WANT UNCLE SAM
 ID CURB THE G|LA
Residents of The Valley Hld Meeting and Address Memorial which Legisla- ture Will Present to Congress-Want S20O,oo0 Appropriation.

Grown desperate by the continued ravages of the river the citizens com mittee appointed to devise ways and means for controlling the Gila, met in Thatcher Saturday last to take definite astion, says the Bulletin. It was de cided best to try to get government aid The legislature will be asked to memorialize congress for immediate as sistance.
 In addition to that petition to con gress will immediately be circulated throughout the valley for signatures. The following is the memorial to con gress which the legislature will be asked to pass:
 "To the Senate and House of Repre-
 sentatives in Congress Assembled:
 ''Your representatives, the twenty fourth legislative assembly of the terri tory of Arizona, respectfully represent that:
 "Whereas, What is known as the Gila valley, in Graham county, Arizona, em- bracing 100000 acres of fertile land, lies adjacent to and on both sides of the Gila river; and
 "Whereas, After twenty-five years of toll and hardship incident to the pio- neering of the arid west, approximately 5O,OOO acres of said land has been re claimed and transformed from a desert waste into fruitful fields, until now, un- der the almost magic hand of the in dustrious husbandman it provides com fortable homes for 5000 people; and
 Whereas, In the cultivation of the said land the people are entirely de- pendent upon the waters of the said Gila river for the purposes of irriga- tion, said watres being conveyed to the land by means of canals, all of which are owned and operated by the farm CTS themselves; and
 Whereas, The frequent floods and unprecedented high water of the past two years have swept away dams and damsites, destroyed canals and devas- tated hundreds of acres of the most fer tile land, sweeping away the aecumu- lations of a lifetime in an hour; and
 Whereas, This devastation and ruin can only be checked, the perpetuity of these homes and the continued cultiva- tiOn of all these fertile acres be secured by the partial control of said flood wa ters: and
 ''Whereas, The settlers of this said Gila valley are all people of very mod crate means and in no way capable of coping with a situation so serious
 'TherefOre, Your memorialists most earnestly request that in order to per petuate these hundreds of homes, to pro- tect and preserve this, one of the gar den spots of the arid west, the officers of the United States geological survey be at once instructed to make a careful examination of the situation, to prompt ly report thereon and that congress make an appropriation of at least S2O0,- 900 to be expended under the diree- tion of the secretary of the interior for the controlling of the said flood waters of the Giia river in Graham county, Arizona.
 "The secretary of the territory is hereby directed to immediately trans nit one copy of this memorial to the president of the United States, one copy to the president of the senate of the United States, and one copy to the Hon. Reed Shoot, member of the Unit ed States senate from the state of Utah, one copy to the Hon. George How ell, member of the house of representa- tives from the state of Utah, and one copy to the Hon. Marcus A. Smith, Ari- zona's delegate to congress.