The National tribune., 1909-10-28
desert lands will be phenomenaily large.
Advertising the Lands.


work. He was also aware that the Rec
lamation Service has already @ well
organized department for inducing set
tiers to look up unoccupied irrigation
| farms. While the Government Is no
expected to advertise its wares, the al
vantages of it's irrigated lands are beint
extensively set forth in hundreds of sec
tions in the West. Agents of the Rec
| Iamation Service find ingenious way:
| of letting the farmers who attend State
| and County fairs know where the Gov
ernment's irrigation projects are located
and what are the advantages for set
tiers. Considerable literature bearing
| on that subject has been distributed II
the States of the Mississippi Valley.
An influx of settlers is indispensable
| to the ingenious scheme of turning ovel
investments which the Government has
undertaken in irrigation. This amounts
now to approximately $50.00O,0O0
When settlers have paid for the lands
il is expected the Government will he
Irecompensed practically in full for its
expenditures. The payments now are
running at The rats of less than $1,000
0G0 annually. but should increase ma
terially before long, when newly COM
pleted projects begin to yield revenue
Ten years are allowed. however, fol
the final installments and it will be g
long time before the bulk of the $50,-
900. 900 is all back in the Treasury al
Washington, available for further irri-
cation projects. In the meantime the
receipts from the sale of public lands
are coming in at the rate of few
million dollars annually to recruit the
irrigation funds. the Reclamation Act
having provided that the funds for new
projects must come from that source.
A Big Reclamation Fund.
As there is now an unexpended bal
ance of about S10,000,000 in the Rec
lamation Fund, the totStl of available
money since the law went into opera
ton is about 100000, 900. In all proba-
biIity it will amount to nearly 500. .000.-
600 within the next six or eight years.
For while il Is q frequent saying that
the public lands have been exhausted,
the statement is true only by comparl-
son with the vast domain which the
Government once owned. 1t will be at
least a decade before the receipts from
sales of homesteads and other public
land properties fall to an inconsidera-
bic aggregate.
One could not we'll justify Il state
ment that the operations of the Reclaim
alton Service had been in any sense un-
successful. Government irrigation pro-
jects have. without question, increased
the wealth of the far western country.
1t is estimated on good authority that
$l5.000.000 worth and more have been
added to the property of that section
thru the products of the soil on rec
lamation works under the Govern
ment's supervision. That does not take
into account the enormous increment
to land values which has been the di-
rect result of reclamation, and the
Governments reclamation activities are
now only seven years old.
But another aspect of the situation,
that Secretary Ballinger has been bound
to consider, is that the Reclamation
Service is rapidly approaching the day
when ii will be the custodian of $780,
100000 of public funds and will be held
to account for the investment of that
very large sum under sound business
management. which will assure the re-
turn of the money in compliance with
the terms of the original Act.
It is said by the Secretary's friends
that enthusiasts who have led in criti-
cism of him are responsible more than
he for certain difficulties encountered
In the administration of projects. When
"co-operative work. was prohibited
these enthusiasts were the first to
ciamor that it WAS q blow at the Roose-
welt Reclamation policy. There was
such an uproar about it that many peo-
pie believed both President Taft and
TO :'big business" than TO the opening of
arid lands TO settlers. The Reclama-
tion Service has trained up a very eX-
cellent force of competent engineers.
Every time private corporation picked
off one of these engineers by offers of
larger salaries. the cry went up that
this trained corps had become dis
couraged because of the unfriendly at
titude of the authorities higher up.
Difficulty of Keeping Good Men.
Be that as 1t may, the Reclamation
Service Is having an identical expert
ence with its. trained men that other
ident Roosevelt decided to put Army
Engineers in charge of the Panama
Canal, for one reason, because capitalists
in New York and elsewhere were offer
ing tempting salaries to every civilian
engineer on the isthmus. who was maxi
ing good but had become little tired.
Treasury experts in numerous lines al
most invariably gravitate toward pri-
vatc employment, which is more lucra-
tive. No year passes without the Gov
ernment losing scores of valuable
trained men. because. as rule. Gov
ernment employment pays less. Their
places, however, are filed by others.
whom the Government trains for its
business, and the Reclamation Service
Wili FOLLOW The same course.
a deal of emphasis has been laid in
Reclamation circles on the resignation
few weeks ago of Ira W. Mcconnell.
an unknown man this side of the Mis-
sissippi Valley. but famous in the West
as one of the greatest and most sue
cessful OF Reclamation engineers. He
was supervising engineer for strict
that comprised Colorado. Nebraska,
South Dakota, Kansas. Oklahoma and
southern Wyoming. His skillful man.
agement OF the details of the construc-
ton of the six-mile tunnel under the
mountains TO the Uncompagre Valley,
which tunnel President Taft recently
opened, brought him rapid promotion.
but now he has res gned to accept a
much larger salary in private employ
ment. Some have been arguing from 1t
that the Reclamation Service must in
crease salaries. However. the exper-
ience is only that Of other Government
bureaus
All the agitation. pro and con, prom
ises to define the Reclamation Service
in the public mind as q great business
entity very large majority of the
people. unfamiliar with its projects and
operations have been regarding it as
little more than an experimental mat
ter. But Reclamation has grown into
a mighty Government inst tuition in
which the entire country properly has
some concern, as 1t must have in the
Panama Canal and River and Harbor
improvements.
The 5th Mich. Cav.