Arizona republican., 1909-07-30

rett spoke favorably to the project saying that as there had been some | hitch between the Water Users iasso- | citation and some of its members a good many farmers thought they should make answer to the senatorial committee direct.
 The secretary read a list of the questions submitted by the committee, which are long and have been hereto fore published and which close by in vitfng the water users to mention in their answer any cause of dissatisfac- tion or grievance they may desire to ventilate.
 Dr. Hughes was called upon and said that he came to listen rather than to speak however he would say a few words He said there are two interests concerned in the water system of the valley, the speculator who farms at his desk or back east and the man who Is personally engaged in farming his own land. He said he believed 1t was nec- essary that the latter class be repre- sented in putting the answers before the committee. That there are wrongs practiced, he said, there was no ques- tion, when men with alfalfa. canta- Ioupes or beets or. other crops buy water and a zawero dictates to them how many hours they shall each have for the use of the water He thought that all who had bought water were entitled to it no matter what they raised. He then stated that the farm CTS are supposed to get water through the Arizona canal but it is not large enough to supply the water and there has not been a step taken to correct the situation. He said, We have been short of water this year when we would have had plenty if the canal had not been overlooked We have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this year because we could not get water when it was in the river"
 Mir. Woods spoke at considera bIe length, dwelling first on the necessity of having practical men to represent the farmers rather than theoretical men. The latter, he said. were doubt less as honest as anybody, but they had no practical knowledge of irriga- ton. The government. he said. had come in good faith to help the farm CTS and has demonstrated it with it's millions, wherefore the people must stand together with the government, but the latter. while sending it's best qualified men had sent theoretical men who, if they failed in one point, failed in aIl and what the people need is practical men at the head of their ditches He said there must be practical irrigators in charge and then each would get the water he pays for. no matter what he raises, and without discrimination. He fla vored the. plan before inc meeting as a step in the right Erection. He criticised the distributing system st some length, saying they should have men who understood it from a practi- cal standpoint. J. P. Ivy had told him of a fine lateral in his neighbor hood. but there were others where such a system was lacking.
 Mir Gulley said it occurred to him that the speakers were hammering the wrong people. The laterals are all right; the government is fixing them as fast as possible and taking the worst places first. It is not per feet yet, and is not always the fault of the reclamation service that men do not get the water that belongs to them The worst fault of the service was in not enlarRing the Arizona ca nal. But the real grievance of the farmers, he thought, was against the officers of the association who have helped get water on unirrigated lands He believed the high salaried officials of the association should be done away with. and even the association laI hnA haln organized several years too soon.
 Mir Hedgpeth agreed with MT Gull ley that there had been extravagance in the association, but the senators don't care anything about local troubles that can be rectified at the ballot box, though they will be in terested in knowing how the reclama- tion service has turned water to sugar beets and cantaloupes that should belong to others. He believed in neighborhood meetings to select delegates and let them outline the grievances.
 The next speaker, whose name was not learned, agreed with NIT. Hedg- beth. MT Gulley then read the reso- lutions printed above and they became the subject of discussion.
 
 The next speaker was gentleman bv the name of Smith. He injected a little humor by inferring that he was known as Contrary" Smith. He said he was opposed to the present system which charged him $36 for wa ter and then let twenty acres of alfalfa go dry. as against the old canal sys- tenn that only charged him $1S.75 for the same amount of water. He, said in the good old days MT. Miner could sell a man his water in fifteen min utes and now it takes two men and woman to sell it to him and across at another table sits two more men and q woman and he didn't know how many more there might be scattered in the offices. He said he didn't think Mir Reed knew very much about water and while MT Hancock might be prac- tical he was under MT. Reed. He said the farmers had a big priority lawsuit they had to pay for and now he mo- ticed that a person who had just ar rived here could get as much water as an old timer. He arraigned the reclamation service quite severely though in a later speech he said he did not want to be put down as op- posed to the reclamation service though he thought we had entirely too 1T; . lat 1a. off