Evening times-Republican., 1909-07-13
CHANGE OF METHODS IN HAND
LING RECLAMATION PROS.
PEcTs SEEMS IMPERATIVE.
NEW SCHEMES MUST WAIT
FOR LACK OF FUNDS
Government Has s42,ooo,ooo Tied UP
in Work at Present Time-Propects
Cost More Than Anticipated-Cor
porations Making Money in Promot-
ing Private Schemes.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
Washington, July 13.-Since the fed
eral government, under the reclamation
act, took up the business of irrigation,
it has spent about s42,O0O,0OO on it's
various projects. The work which has
been accomplished is demonstration,
to the satisfaction of all concerned, of
the success of the great enterprise; but
that there will have to be good deal
of reshaping of methods, and modifica-
ton Of administrative and financial
policy, is also accepted as pretty GER
tain
The reclamation work is based on the
theory of an endless chain of money
working at the business of reclaiming
arid lands. 1t is assumed that every
project will in the end pay back all the
government puts into it, and even more
! if a policy should be adopted which
would make profits possible Private
enterprise makes big returns out of
irrigation; the government, wanting no
prohts, simply proposes, as soon as its
money is taken out of one project. to
put 1t into another one. and thus keep
the work going on indefinitely.
Just at present, because of having
too much of Its available resources
invested in uncompleted projects, the
service is crippled for need of funds
The money has been coming in satis-
factorily from sales of lands and of
water rights: but the demands for
financing the big enterprises undor
construction have outstripped the re-
iceipts. About sl,000,00G was received
In water rents for the year ending with
June just past, while land sales pro-
duced about s7,70o,o0o to the credit OF
the reclamation fund. Despite this.
work on some o fthe projects is tied up
in part, while hundreds of settlers are
waiting for water and almost starving
themselves in order to hold lands on
which they have homesteaded. which
viii be very valuable when they receive
water, but which meanwhile are ut
terly nom productive. All the money
that comes in is demanded by the cur
rent liabilities of the service
The first difficulty of the service. il
is explained is in the fact that most
OF the projects have cost a great deal
more than was anticipated Some NJ
lhem nave cost twice as much Against
this is the fact that the work was new
and experimental, and the further fact
that the service has not the record of a.
single failure
How the federal governments partic-
ipaton in the work of irrigation has
promoted private interest in that en-
terprse is one of the most interesting
experiences since the reclamation act
was passed.
There was much of prediction that
private enterprise would be discour-
aged in the irrigation field. The con-
trary has been the case The govern
ments participation in the work on a
big and spectacular scale has brought
to it an amount of effective advertis
ing which could not possibly have
been secured in any other way. Can
ital. studying the plan which the gov
ernment had adopted of making the
work pay for itseI became more con-
fident that the irrigation investment
was good thing; and as result
some Of the bigges, irrigation enter
prises now on foot in the country are
private; probably. indeed, the very
J i1i socSt pii'- IL pi dte. j he corpora
tions doing such work have benefited
by the governments exploitation in
many ways They have indeed. by
dint OF their efforts TO secure settlers,
left the government somewhat at a
disadvantage, for the government
doesn't hustle for people to occupy its
irrigated lands
Getting people TO farm the irrigated
lands is matter of educa ton, in large
measure. Thus a large proportion Of
the people who have gone into the r-
rigated section Of western Nebra ska
came there. not from the east and mid
die west. but from Colorado, where r-
rigation farming is an older story and
1 a generation of husbandmen have
been trained to understand it and know
its possibilities. These people who know
all about it have no misgivings about
paying the price necessary to get land
and water. They know it is a good
thing.
In the effort to straighten out the
embarrassments of the services for
want of ready money just at this time
Secretary of the Interior Ballinger will
have a convention at Portland, Ore,
the end of this month, when the pro-
ject engineers and others will discuss
the whole situation and it is hoped "a
scheme will be developed to meet the
current exigencies.
The attorney general has rejected as
unconstitutional plan which was de-
vised under the Roosevelt administra-
ton, for cooperation between govern
ment and settlers to hasten completion
of some Of the projects. The attitude
of the people affected is indicated by
the observations Of Senator Burkett,
whose state has an unfinished project
on which the settlers are anxious to
carry forward this cooperation plan.
Our people," said the senator, don't
care so much whether Roosevelt and
Garfield were smashing the constitu-
ton; they know they were building the
ditch, and that's what we want more
than anything else just now."