Arizona republican., 1912-02-06
MEASURES OF
 IMPORTANCE
Water Users and Congress sional Delegation Held a Conference
 Yesterday
MOVE TO EXTEND
 PROJECT PAYMENTS

 also to secure the approval of the sec retary of the interior in various mat
 ters of administration changes O method. a letter was read from tn,
 secretary disapproving by lazy re c,ntly passed amending the methods
 of the association as to water pay merts: and the council was asked to amend the by laws in respect of tn, last half of this years payment of tn, conStruttion assessment. other busi- ness of d routine nature Was also tran acted.
 The session yesterday was joint meeting of the board and the United States congress to be. as represented by Senators Ashurst and smith anC Representative Hayden. The principa purpose of the conference was to out line a plan for cooperative work ir securing legislation extending the tim, of payment from ten wears to twenty years and providing for graduated scale Df payments when the payments are begun. the scale to be made in the discretion of tn secretary of th inter for. IL was decided that the associa- ton should formulate such a bill as il d. ssires and the three statesmen al agreed to use their best endeavorS tI push it through congress.
 It will probably ievolve upon Repre- sentative Hayden to take the first in itiative as he will probably take his seat sometime before the senators do. Thre was little discussion yesterday as to what the association wants. That Was pretty well understood before hand. The question that demanded most attention was how to secure il. l. was thought by some that the mat ter should be left with the federated water users associations but that body has rot vet been organized, a Suffi Cient number of associations not vet having approved its constitution and sent in the necessary $200. Moreover the < R V is one of the few ass Jcia- tions in which an extension of time iS the thing most n~eded. IL was decided therefore to so ahead and start some thing and if the federated association later feels to inclined it can help along the good work
 The board then specifically approved two resolutions passed by the last ses- sion of the irrigation congress and asked the secretary Of the interior to make them effective. as il requires no legislation to do so. IL also directed that the president of the association and d member of the council vet to be appointed. be made committee Of two fo proceed to Washington and in com pany with congressman Hayden take the matter up with the secretary in person IL is also designed that the will endeavor to secure the help of the secretary of the interior in assisting th Arizona delegation in secure the passage of the bill for extension of payments. The resO- lutions referred to above are a fol- lows.
 IL Holding that full understand ing of the plans. progress. and cost of irrigation works on the part of water users associations will promote good will ard harmony between the repre- sentatives of the government and the water users. we recommend that here after complete plans and specifications ,f any work contemplated on any pro feet shall be delivered to the project association before the work begins: we further recommend that itemized semi-annual reports of ill charges and expenditures under any irrigation project shall be furnish ad to the officers of the water users association under such project.
 F We favor such administration pr the Reclamation Act as shall pro- vide that before any contract for the sale of power developed by any rec project is made. it shall first be submitted to and approved by the ton under such project.
 The by law diSapproyed by the sec -etary was that projected some time ago in the interest of homesteaders who could not buy water for all their and under the regulations. at the pres =nt time as portions of the land are not yet entitled to it. and requiring hem to pay assessments on only such acreage as they could buy water for. It was dnlcnutd lo dpplN lo dllA idHu owners and require only that he pay 3Sse ssments on such acreage as he elected to buy water for. The situa- ion now stands as it was in the begin hing The land owners. homesteader pr otherwise. must pay the assessment ,n all his land
 The council was requested to sol .hange the by laws that the last half Df the present assessment all of which $ due May I. need not be paid until Nov. l. The reason is that the work f construction for which the assess nent was levied has progressed so slowly that the association will not leed the money to be raised by the asst half until next fall and it is not likely that there will be an assessment his ear for other than administration md office expenses. A further con- 'ideratiOn is that the farmers lost heavily last year through the rains md this winter through the frost., that ale short feed and they are rather lard pressed