Arizona republican., 1908-05-19
AN INTERNATIONAL
 WAFER COMMISSION
L. C. Hill Named by State Department to Represent the United States in Conference With a Mexican Enei- neer Concerning Colorado River Dis
 

L. c. Hill is no longer a mere inter-
 state official in matters of reclamation
 and irrigation but has been projected into the international field of activi- I ties as q representative of the United States. This is not the result of any previously conceived ambition on his
 part and it was all fixed before he
 knew anything about it. When he drop ped into the office of the secretary of the interior the other ray MT. Garfield asked him if he had yet undertaken his
 work in Colorado. He replied that he
 had and had the Laguna dam well along in construction. His chief re- piie6 that he knew all about that but meant something else entirely. having in mind the settlement of the respec- tive rights of the United States and Mexico, to the waters of the Colorado,
 which business said the secretary, had
 been turned over to Mir. Hill by the
 state department. It was then ex-
 plained to him that by an arrange
 nent with Mexico a commissioner was
 10 be appointed by each government to
 inquire into all the facts in the case and report back their' recommendation
 as tu the rights of the two nations.
 Mir. Hill had not previously heard of the matter and so informed the chief, explaining that he had been moving around pretty rapidly of late and his mail had not yet caught up with him. When he returned to Phoenix Satur- day night he found awaiting him a commission appointing him to the of flee mentioned signed by Acting Sec retary of State Bacon. Asked yester- day who the Mexican commissioner was or when he would undertake this work, MT. Hill said he had not yet been informed as to the identity of his col league. The matter under dispute Is one the southwest is more or less fa- miliar with. It grows out of the fact that the Colorado's lower reaches run through Mexico and to the west Mexico has quite an area of irrigable desert land. Naturally that govern ment desires to retain control Of as much water as possible. No better man for the purpose could have been selected than MT. Hill for he is what might be called the general superin- tendent of the Colorado and comes as near owning it as anybody could. More than that, he hopes some day to have
 it thoroughly tanned and brought un- der control so it will practically eat out of his hand, though it was mighty recalcitrant down Imperial way while back. MT. Hill is not only supervis- ing the Laguna project but he has in his official territory the entire water shed of the Colorado. That includes the sites for many reservoirs that will probably be built some day. One of them will store great deal more wat CT than will the Elephant/ Butte dam shortly to be built on the Rio Grande river The Elephant Butte in turn will hold twice as much water as the Roosevelt basin is designed to hold and the Roosevelt basin as everybody knows will be the biggest artificial lake of water in the world when it is finished.
 Returning to MT. Hill, this commits sion was no part of his business to as explained. When he left here he had no notion of going to Washington but did so when he saw the need of it, in connection with the effort to secure a little more money for the Arizona projects. In this he was entirely successful. The rate of by MT. O'Rourke's force at Roosevelt has been so great during recent months that the fund for ev-