The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-11-26
TAFT ON IRRIGATION
President Will Ask Congress for
s100,000,00O Bond Issue.
Outlines His Plans for Continuation
g; Reclamation Work in Speech
Delivered at Spokane for Pre-
serving Waterway Sites.

In a speech on the conservation of
natural resources delivered recently
at Spokane, Wash, President Taft de-
clared that he would ask congress to
authorize >the issuance of s1O,OOO,OOO
IN bonds to complete irrigation pro-
]ects already begun in the west and
on Which work had been stopped for
lack of funds.
This has been the hope of many
settlers in the arid regions who had
taken up lands in expectation of pro-
curing supply of water to make
them fertile, and the presidents dec
laration was enthusiastically cheered.
The president said: MY admins
tration is pledged to follow out the
policies of Mr.. Roosevelt in this re-
gard, and while that pledge does not
involve me in any obligation to carry
them out unless l have congressional
authority to do SO, it does require that
take every step to exert every legiti-
mate influence on congress to enact
the legislation which shall best sub
serve the purpose Indicated"
The president had praise for Chief
Forester Clifford Pinchot, and referred
to his wonderful work for the con-
servation of the forests, supported by
Mr.. Roosevelt"
President Taft declared as to water.
power sites that congress must au-
thorize the government to allot these
sites to private interests for develop
ment, the government retaining gen
eral control and supervision. y.
He declared also that he would urge
on congress the necessity of an au-
thoritative classification of public
lands to prevent difficulties of the
past, such as the setting aside of coal
and mineral lands as agricultural
lands, and vice versa.
In speaking on the subject of irri-
cation President Taft said:
The plan of the government to re-
claim the arid and semi-arid lands,
manifested in the reclamation act, has
been carried out most rapidly by the
bureau charged with its execution.
There. are some 80 projects which
have been entered upon by the recla-
nation bureau, and believe that all
of them are to be commended for
their excellent adoption to the pur-
pose for which they were erected, and
for the speed with which the work
has been done.
Now, it appears that it will take
$1O,0OO,O00 or more, which is not
In ha nj
present, fully to complete the projects,
and it also appears that.a great num-
Der OF persons, by reason of the be-
ginning. of the projects, have been
led into making settlements, the ex-
penditure of. time and labor, with the
hope and upon the reliance that such
reclamation enterprises would be car
RED through in reasonable time
Something must be done to relieve
the present situation, which is one Of
disappointed hopes to many settlers
on the arid lands, who counted on an
early completion of the projects I'M
dertaken and invested their money
and spent their time and seem to be
no nearer the goal of satisfactory irri-
cation than they were when the pro-
tjects were begun.
Il think it wise to apply to congress
for relief by urging the passage of an
enabling act which shall permit the
secretary Of the interior to issue
bonds in. the sum of $10,O0O,OOO or
more to complete all the projects.
These bonds should be redeemed
from the money paid into the recla-
nation funds after the completion of
the projects. %