The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1911-01-26

! knowledge or Understanding OF recla-
nation work.
The committee report criticizes the
adoption of number Of projects that
reclaimed land wholly or largely in
private ownership. "The most cur
sorry examination of the reclamation
act, " says the report, will leave no
doubt, even in the mind of a layman,
that it was the plain intent of congress
to provide for the reclamation of pub
lie lands in order to prepare the same
for settlement. 1t is hard to devise
any theory of construction by which
the law could be tortured into a COM
mission to the secretary of the interior
to use the reclamation fund to reclaim
large bodies of land wholly in private
ownership; indeed, the constitutional
power TO embark in such an enterprise
IS very questionable.
"A project which only embraces land
in private ownership should not be APP
proved. The records show, however,
that very large sums have been ipves-
ted in projects that are now partially
completed, which do not embrace a
single acre of public land. In other
cases, the proportion of public land is
but a trifling fraction of the aggregate
area of the projects"
This criticism is directed at the action
Of Secretary Hitchcock, who approved
all the projects of this type. The COM
mittee holds that the investment al
ready made in projects of this charae-
ter is so large that abandonment would
not be justified.
''The storage of surplus waters near
the headwaters of streams should be
undertaken on a broad and liberal
scale, " says the report, primarily in
the interest of navigation AMI to con-
tribute incidentally to the development
of agricultural possibilities of the
country. Under such plan the gov
eminent would be charged with the SIM
pie task of maintaining the reservoir,
and full return for the construction and
maintenance of the same should be
secured by selling the stored water in
bulk TO irrigation districts, leaving to
the people the task of distributing and
using it for beneficial purposes" The
Committee strongly urges the passage
of the pending Warren bill authorizing
the sale of surplus water from govern
ment reservoirs.
The commtte reports three projects
as doubtful, the Garden City project
in Kansas on which there is not an acre
of public land; the Hondo project in
New Mexico, which embraces only 240
acres of public land, and the Klamath
project in Oregon and California. The
committee also criticises the purchase
of existing rights on the Orland project
in California, and the Carlsbad, New
Mexico project.
Another feature of the report con-
veys the impression that too much
money is being expended by the recla-
nation service on maintenance of pro-
jects. The report indicates that too
many employees are kept on a project
after the work of construction is fin
ished. lone practical man, familiar
with irrigation, assisted by one office
man and two ditch riders, should be en-
tirely competent to look after the needs
of project embracing not to exceed
100, 900 acres of land" says the report.
The committee thinks that the land
owners will be sufficiently interested
in keeping up and protecting their
canals to lend whatever assistance
such corps of government men may
neeG.
The reclamation service is criticised
at some length because its engineers
during the early days, gave offhand es-
Inmates of the probable cost of
projects, and those estimates proved to
be too low. There have been many
complaints from settlers who are COM
pSilSu W pay a hi6hSi piiSS AOl NoASA
than they were led to believe would be
imposed when the work started While
it is admitted that no one but the Sec
retary of the interior is authorized to
announce the actual charge that will be
made for water, the committee thinks
the engineers should either give accu-
rate estimates or none at all. They
cite an instance where the estimate OF
the engineer was $50 per acre, and the
present estimate is S42.50 per acre
The COMMITTEE admits that the lanc
owners are bound to pay the price fixeC
by the Secretary, and cannot take ref
uge behind any rough estimate of ar
engineer of the reclamation service.
Admitting that demonstration farmI