The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1911-01-26
THE SENATE IRRIGATION REPORT
Has Been Filed At Last By Chairman Carter Il Sheds No
Light On Irrigation Problems And Is Now Defined As A
Simon Pure FiaScO Without Results.

Fall of 1909, the Senate committee on
irrigation finally has drafted a report
which is of practically no value.
This tour of inspection was more or
less of farce from the first. Only two
or three Senators on the committee Wis
tied all the projects; seldom were there
more than five members together at
any one time; and in consequence the
full committee has at no time been in
a position to sit inteligently on the
various questions presented, for, al
though very large volume of testi-
mony taken by the committee has been
printed for the exclusive use of the
committee, hardly a member has gone
through this mass of evidence.
Senator Carter of Montana, chairman
of the committee, was responsible for
the trip. 1t was he who proposed it
and secured the necessary authority of
the senate. And Carter wanted his
senatorial friends to travel with him
through Montana, making speeches and
meeting the people, for he knew full
well that if the senators were called
upon to speak while in Montana, they
could not Go otherwise than to speak
fovorably of the honorable chairman
of the committee, and the honorable
chairman, that time as now, being can
didete for reelection, needed all the in
dorsements that he could get. II this
surmise Carter was not wrong, for
members of the committee who went
with him through Montana were pro-
fuse with their senatorial bouquets,
and the listening throngs were given to
understand that Carter was one of the
best ever"
Similar speeches were made in other
states, but not so frequently, for after
the committee had finished its "inspec-
ton of the Montana projects, its
members began to scatter. However,
good deal of "taffy" was handed out
to the people who gathered to hear
learned talks on irrigation, and the
fragment of the committee proceeded
on the favorite senate plan of you
tickle me and I'll tickle you"
Carter, chairman of the irrigation
committee, has long "had 1t in" for
Director Newell, # the reclamation
service, and he has today. So when it
came to writing the committee report
(and Carter has been at this task for
nearly a year,. the chairman of the
committee found nothing whatever to
commend in all the work he had inspec.
ted, save the fixing of farm units, and
his commentator of this one thing is
qualified. In this respect Carter is at
variance with the Board of Army En-
gineers, which in nearly every instance
spoke highly of the character of the
work that has been done by the reela-
nation service, though finding some of
it unnecessarily expensive.
But the report drafted by Carter tells
nothing of what the reclamation SER
vice has done; it gives no idea of the
extent Of the work that has been under
taken and accomplished; it gives no
idea of the vast desert that has been
and is being reclaimed; no idea of the
vast sums of money expended, the
homes built, the settlement resulting,
etc The report is absolutely value
less. The most it does is to eriticise
what are regarded by Carter as errors
of administration, every one of which
has been corrected by Secretary Bal
linger long ago.
The Carter report will not satisfy
anybody; it will not enlighten the pub
lie; it does not open the way to any
further reforms; it does not even fur
nish ground, which some had expected,
for demanding the removal of Director
Newell, $50 much desired by Carter,
for it fails specifically to fix the blame
for past errors. In point of fact, the
report SINNERS down to a rather Sc
we're criticism of ex-Secretaries Hitch
cock and Garfield. and to a complaint
that not enough money has been ex-
pended in Montana. And for this kind
of report, thousands of dollars have
been taken from the contingent fund
of the senate.
The report is inclined to be critical
of the reclamation service for its strik-
ing independence, and points out that
during the administration of Secretar-
les Hitchcock and Garfield, the recon-
mendations of the service were merely
approved by the head of the interior
department, in prefunctory manner,
the secretary having no information as
to what the reclamation department was
doing other than that furnished to hin
by the service itself. The two imme-