Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1912-05-09

Fort Worth, May 7.-Congressman
 Oscar Galloway, from this district, was
 in Forth Worth yesterday on his re-
 turn from Phoenix, Arizona, where he
 went as a member of a subcommittee of three from the committee on ex- lpenditures of the interior department
 to make an examination of the reclam- ation services work and expenditures an the Roosevelt dam, in the Salt riv- CT valley.
 In discussing the investigation and the methods used by the engineers in doing the work Mr. Galloway said:
 "The first estimate made by the en- gineers of the reclamation service of the cost of the project was $1,90S,000. The last annual report of the reclama- ton service showed an outlay of about S9,000,O00 on the project, which is not yet completed. This caused the com mittee on expenditures of the interior department to believe the matter should be looked into.
 Project was Switched
 "The evidence submitted to the sub- committee showed that the project was switched from the San Carlos dam site on the Gila river to the Tonto dam site on the Salt river. The Gila river site was within six miles of the railroad, was on an Indian reservation and it would have cost the government noth- ing; was not connected with any gen. eral canal system that would have had to have been taken over by the government at any considerable ex- pense, and was sufficiently near to a demand for power that all power gen. erated by the water from the resrvoir would have had ready sale without any great outlay in building trans lines. The Tonto or Roose- velt site, to which the project was switched, was in the hands of a cor poration, to which the government paid $40,000 for the dam site. The government also built road, at an outlay of $1O,OOO, to a clay pit to se- cure clay for the making of cement, and then discovered clay when the first pick was stuck in the ground to make an excavation for the founda- ton of the cement plant.
 Drop Logs 4,ooo Feet
 "They also set force on top of some distance up Salt Riv- CT for the purpose of cutting timber | logs which they expected to push over a cliff 4,O00 feet high, down to the | bed of Salt river, and then raft them | down to the dam site. They cut the l timber before they attempted to pass the logs over the bluff. The first logs they passed over the bluff reached the river bed in splinters and they had | to abandon their timber already cut on the mountain top and find their timber at another place.
 "When the dam was built the engin- eers conceived the idea of taking over for the government the irrigation can als of the Salt river valley. These were owned by canal company. The government bought these canals but lid not take over at the same time the power rights on the canals, which were owned by another company, in part of the same men who formed the company owning the canals. They paid the canal company what it would have the cost the gov srnment to build the canals; then hey contracted for the power rights with the company retaining the power tights on the canals, granting this company an exclusive right to dispense electricity generated by the power tt the Roosevelt dam in the city of which this power company capitalized for more mon- 1; y than the canals were worth. These anals were built on the bonds issued 1 " the company greatly in excess of he value of the canals in the first after which the canal con- i any sold to the land owners and the . water users of the valley by deeds or i ecord transfer what they termed an l