East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-12-13

Mckay creeks and neighboring lands
and who searched for reservoir sites.
Mr.. Davis was in the employ of the
government reclamat on service from
the beginning in this field and until
after the Cold Springs reservoir of
which he was the chief engineer, was
completed and has recently returned
from the employ of the Peruvian gov
ernment and in Porto Rico, and he
will entertain you with some valu-
able facts.
But, the SPECIAL fact I want to call
your attention to is the Andrew s.
Smith filing in the state engineers Of
flee. In May, 1910. DR. \. c. Smith
of Portland. PAL d the government rec
lamation service at Hermiston $500
for a copy of the prepared maps and
plans of that date of the west extern
sion canals and lands. With these he
made water filing in July, 1910. on
identically the same water as the west
extension which filing will become
effective If the government is induc-
ed to withdraw from the field. The
/ Smith fling is understood to belong
to DR. II. w. Coe: in fact, DR.. A. C.
D
pie last year as interfering with the
west extension disclaimed any fur
ther interest in the matter than a fa-
vor to his friends and business asso-
ciates among whom were DR.. Coe
In this connection yesterday the
! Hermiston Commeicial club wired the
state engineer the following: "Wire
us date of A. c. Smith filing; amount
of water and status of claim if the
west extension fails" In reply we re-
| ceived this message:
| President of the Hermiston CONNER
cal Club, Hermiston. Oregon.
"a. c. Smith filing. July, 1910, in
good standing and effective if prior
government filing lapses. One hun
dred and seventy-five thousand acre
feet for sixty thousand acres. Identi-
cal with government project.
Signed:
JOHN H LEWIS.
estate Engineer"
DR.. Andrew C. Smith of Portland is
president of the bank that bought the
bonds for the Furnish-Coe dam be-
low Pendleton and whether he or Dr.
Coe or some one else owns the filing
at this time it nevertheless is ahead
of any other filings that might be
made should the west extension be
abandoned. He would get the water
and as the scheme is a good one the
filing would be taken care of. He
would at least have something to sell
to the large land owners down the
river whatever might happen to the
large body of public lands under the
west extension. Why this fact has
not been made public. we are at a
loss to know. We understand how
the sm/l water users up the creeks
and a great many of the people of
Pendleton and vicinity, in fact of the
| entire county might not be familiar
with such an important fact, but we
| do know that some of the leaders OF
! the opposition to the west extension
! are fully aware of the Smith filing
! and we believe that the newspapers
of this county have been dilatory ir
their duty to their readers by no
/ pub .ishing the details of this import
ant item in the matter before us
When they were giving space to th'
various false statements and outra
geous claims in some of the resolu
tions of protest, why did they not sa!
! something about the A. C Smith fill
ing? We must believe at least that tn,
Pendleton papers were ignorant o
the facts and we hope not malicious
Now, members of the Pendletol
Commercial club, do you prefer tina
the United States government or pri
vate interests enter upon this field
Do you want the government to us
some of the money oregon is entitle,
, to or do you want speculation? D.
you want DR.. Henry Waldo Coe o
| some one else to undertake to financ
| this great undertaking, especiall
| when irrigation bonds are low o
shall you remain on record as in ia
vOr of government reclamation o
these lands? Do you want anothe
f'asco like the state land board
now troubled with on the Deschutes
Do you want failure like at Attal a
Do you want more litigation an
busted companies like that of Whit
Bluffs? Do you want the history c
the majority of private companie
! repeated under your own eyes?
II The west extension lands are 30 [
/ NJ per cent ldiluS, ~
80 per cent belong to the r. r. con
pany. 80 to 40 per cent to the Ore
gon land and water company. Thes
public lands will be under the direC
control Of the government under tn
reclamation act and will be cut int
10 and 30 acre homestead tracts an
given to the settlers. Under privat
enterprise this land would be sett e
in $50 and 800 acre tracts, with II
old homestead shanty and the Irish
mans gamble. The railroad lanC
and the Oregon Land and Water con
pany's land will be sold under go,
ernment control and direction an
easy terms made by the governmel
to actual settlers. This will mean
. great body of free and low price lar
and a settler on at least every :
acre tract Do you want this or {
you want these lands to stay in lart
holdings and be held at high prices
Again, these lands are part of II
original Umatilla project There h;
/ appeared in the newspapers of recei
date the statement that Oregon's on
i hope for a share Of the reclamatiC
fund for the next five or ten years liz
in the west extension. The govern
ment will neither set apart preseI
Il funds nor will congress vote ne