The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-03
THE IRRIGATION REFUND.

the whole. the Washington judgment is
favorable in this respect, the reports be
ing that in the initial payments thc
farmers are responding with almost uni
versal promptitudc and sufficiency. The
probn bility. therefore, is that on the
crucial point of the law. the reclamation
measure will score a success The land
takers will be able to pay, and they
will pay. A surprising percentage OF
them have paid already. far iu advance
of the timo their initial payments were
due.
But il might be as well TO record
right here that if the farmers do pay
as they are ready and able to do. they
will be the first to reImburs the United
States on any large scale for loans OF
money or distribution of public funds.
When the Federal Treasury was burst
ing with coin in Jackson s administra'
| tiop, the States took to them selves
some s31 100000 Of money not imme'
datelv needed BY the Government, dis
tributing it among the States III pro
portion TO their popula ton, on a dis
tinct agreement that the money was
TO be paid back To the Federal Treas
urv at need and on call. Yet not
cent of that has ever been paid. Not
only that, the States have made large
claims against the United States from
time To time for expenditures for war
and militia purposes, and have collect
cd Tho I.htc tDn IN fDp
Federal Government from that distribu-
tion of public money seem TO have
been forgotten altogether. The States
even made claims and collected the
money by way of repayment for per
capita war tax imposed and paid dur
ing the war of the Rebellion. Claims
against the United States are collect
ible, no matter whether just or not,
but the claims of the United States
against the States arc disregarded,
It will be remembered, ALSO that the
State of Arkansas borrowed the great
legacy of Mr.. Smithsou, which later
founded the splendid Smithsonian lnsti-
tuition, Uncle Sam going down into his
own pocket 10 make the loss good. This
money was borrowed on the high pledge
of repayment on call, and yet it has
never been paid. another instance where
the Government is wronged by state
without remedy,
But a keen interest was aroused In
Washington at once when 1T was sur
missed that perhaps the pioneers, the
settlers on the arid lands of this west"
erp part of the United States, may not
pay back the money expended in recla-
nation projects No heed was paid to
the argument that whereas the public
lands OF the United States sold IN for"
mer DAYS were ready for tillage, these
arid lands were not fit in their natural
condition, and that plausible claim
ght have been set up that the Nation
ought in fairness to put these lands IN
the same condition as other lands, that
is, fit for tillage and use, before requir-
ing the settlers to pay for the lands.
But with respect to these lands re
claimed from their desert condition, the |
United States charges the usual price
for the lands and then charges against |
the settlers the cost of making them
fit for use. And still there was specu-
lation and fear in official minds that
tho settlers might not be able TO bear
this burden so much greater than had |
ever been imposed upon pioneers and |
settlers before in the development of |
the country. 1t would have been a
dreadful thing. to be sure, if it had |
trauspired that the settlers on this re-
claimed domain bad been shifty and dis |
honest with respect to their obhga- |
tons to the United States, as the States
we're which have divided among them
selves S37 100000, or as Arkansas was
when it pillaged the Smithson fund. 1t
might not be bad idea for those Of
fcials. mostly from the States who are
vet debtors 10 the Federal Government
on these old grabs, to clear their skirts
from the obligations due to the Fed
cral Treasury before exercising their
minds on the point Of whether the set
tiers In the arid West are capable and |
willing 10 meet their payments 10 the
Government or not. If these Western
States, 10 place themselves In some de-
gree on the common basis OF debtors
TO the Government, should band togeth-
er a sufficient number of them. whose
inhabitants are interested in this rec
lamatjon and repayment question, and
instruct their Senators and Representa-
tives to resist payment altogether. and
thus rob the Treasury Of the Nation
in this matter, as the other States have
done in matters that concerned them,
they could plead ample precedent We
can see no other way in which these
States and their Inhabitants can get
even than to put up the same kind of
a job in this matter, as the other States
did against onr good old Uncle Sam
ueI, who is 80 prompt to pay his
debts but is such lenivnt creditor,
1t might teach the nervously disbon