Arizona republican., 1908-02-11
COLONIZATION WORK
 AND HOW 10 DO II
The Conference of Railroad Men and Reclamation Officials at Yuma.

Messrs. P P. Hastings, general I freight and passenger agent of the s.
 F.. r. & P, and w. II. Daum, indus
 trial agent for the Santa F'e, of Los
 Angeles, were in Phoenix yester-
 day en route home from the re- | cent meeting in Yuma of railroad men and reclamation engineers, when col
 onization and other subjects were dis
 cussed at great length. The reclama-
 ton engineers were in conference all last week, but Saturday was devoted
 to the joint conference and Sunday
 all together enjoyed themselves in sightseeing. The gathering was one that it is believed will result in great deal of benefit. not merely to ! Yuma and its vicinity, by the wider Knowledge gained of it by the railroad men. but to the entire west, through the interchange of ideas and co-opera- ! tion that will ensue in the work of colonizing the newly reclaimed lands with the people who mos, need them.
 There were between twenty and twenty-five of the reclamation engi- neers present, the most conspicuous
 being Arthur P. Davis, chief engineer of the service. and among the others were most of the supervising and many of the project engineers. The railroad men present were C. L. Seagraves, col onization agent, Wesley Merritt, indus trial commissioner, and Messrs. Hast ings and Daum, of the Santa Fe, c. F. Calvin, vice president and general manager Paul Shoup. assistant gem eral passenger agent, and Division Superintendent Platt of the Southern Pacific; Max Bass, colonization agent of the Great Northern; w. H. McDon- ough. colonization agent of the Union Pacific and Mir. Dever, colonization agent of the Burlington railroad.
 Saturday morning was devoted to the reading of papers and the making Of speeches. Saturday afternoon the citizens of Yuma provided carriages and the visitors were driven to points of interest in that vicinity and Satur- day night a splendid banquet was served in the Southern Pacific hotel. the management of the banquet being largely in the hands of the ladies of Yuma. It was an occasion that was enjoyed by all and will be long re- membered.
 Sunday was a day-of adventure. The visitors were all loaded on the steam CT Cochan, early in the morning, for a voyage up the river to the Laguna dam. The steamer only went a half mile or so however until it encountered a sandbar which after repeated efforts it failed to get over and backing off returned to the dock. The visitors then walked the bridge to the Califor- mia side and securing conYeYances made the trip by horse motor. The re- suit was very satisfying in point of the interesting things seen at Laguna. but the return trip was even more eventful than the shipwreck. It began to rain as the start home was made and those in the open wagons got a good wetting. Many however were packed into a big old-time thorough brace stage coach and while they kept comparatively dry most of them got seasick. The old vehicle pitched and tossed worse than a packet on the English channel during a gale. It was a novel experience for the railroad men, supposed to be proof against all vicissitudes of travelling, to become violently seasick in a stage coach on a southwestern desert. but the very novelty of it made it interesting.
 The Southern Pacific has the ma terial on hand for the building of the branch line up to Laguna dam. and construction work was to have begun yesterday morning. The government has given the right of way along the levee it has built for restraining the river and the railroad company will construct and maintain the line. It is believed it will be a profitable invest ment for the railroad and 1t will cer- tainly aid the government materially in finishing the dam and in it's later maintenance. The railroad will also receive a later benefit, no doubt. from the settlement of cOlonists on the Cal ifornia side, on lands to be watered by means of the dam.