Imperial Valley press., 1910-07-23
INDICATES HIS BELIEF THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE
 REIMBURSED FOR OUTLAY IN BUILDING LEvEE
fo HoIabird and Allen Kelly Given Personal Interview at Taft Summer Home and Head of Nation Informally Questions His Visitors Regarding DetaiIS.---He
 Presents New View of the Case

gress had not appropriated million dollars definitely and positively for the construction of a levee in Mexico, but had placed that sum in the hands of the President to be used at his discretion and in accordance with his judgment. The resolution of Con- gross gave the President wide dis erection and therefore placed upon him great responsibility, and his view is that he is under obligation primarily to conserve the interests of the gov ernment in expenditure of the money.
 Dispatches from Beverly to the Boston papers, sent by correspondents who obtained their information from the executive officer, make clear the Presidents view of the situation. The Globe said this morning:
 "The plan proposed by the Presi- dent at today's conference is to de- termine all the parties at interest in the project, to secure a detailed re- port from engineer Ockerson as to the practicability of the levee idea and an estimate as to whether the improvment could be carried out within the appropriation available.
 "If the improvement can be made for $1,0O0,OO0 the question arises as to how the government is to be re- imbused. In dealing with Mexico the President has proposed that a court of arbitration be appointed by the two countries and that the arbitrators shall direct the work It is also pro- posed that they shall assess benefits wherever they find they can legiti- mately be levied"
 The President asked Col. Holabird if he would present the matter in that form to the court under whose di- rection he acts as receiver, and ascer- tain if the court would make the Cal ifornia Development Companys as- sessed proportion of the cost of river control lien next in order to the receivers certificates already issued and equal in amount, and also as- certain what proportion of the costs other interests in the valley would be willing to bear.
 The Colonel was somewhat non plussed, and he replied that he would do whatever the President, in his wisdom, deemed proper and necessary.
 The suggestion was made that the Southern Pacific's contribution to re : imbursement of the government should be taken out of whatever sum Con gress may appropriate for reimburse ment of the Southern Pacific for clos ing the break of 1906-7 in fulfillment of President Roosevelt's promise to MT. Hartman, and that such dispo- sition of part of the money be made condition of the appropriation. As that was none of our business, we made no comment on the suggestion. The President then asked me di- rectly if I knew any reason why the farmers of Imperial Valley could not or should not pay out of their own pockets a part of the cost of restoring the river to its old channel. I replied that the settlers of Imperial Valley had been waiting for years for the patents to their land, which they had earned by fulf1llment of all reuuire- ments of the land law and which were withheld from them by the needless delays of the Land Office; that but few of them had title to their land and could neither sell, mortgage nor bond their property to raise money with which to help out the thrifty government in doing public work {; that their only resource was what they earned by hard labor, and that any contribution from them would have to be taken out of what they received for their crops. For that reason they could not contribute to the reimbursement of the government except at great sacrifice.
 There were reasons also, I believed why they should not be expected to contribute, and among them cited