Arizona republican., 1913-03-20
DAVIS ADVISES .U.S.R.S.ATTACHES
COunsels Tact and Patience In Their Dealings With Water Users and Com ments on National Work; :; Business Sessions.

| lit auNict OI tnltI t4nSlltef Arthur P. Davis to members of the Salt River Valley force of the reclamation service at I dinner given in honor of 1 the two visiting chiefs last night Being of farmer parentage and hay | ing lived on a bit of the land him 1 self, MT. Davis said he could appre- ciate the difficulties and hardships of having to break in a bunch of new | farms especially when there are 1 complcating circumstances such as l the necessity of irrigating the fields
 Most of you here tonight are members of the operation department | of the service and some are from | the constructing department Now 1 that most of the building is done the maintenance department will in- ! crease as the other decreases in the number of men employed and you will soon all be operators of the project A man whose life is as hard as that of the farmer is not l likely to be of an easy going dispo- stion. l can think of only one job that is more conducive to short tenn per than that of canal operators and that is tilling the soil. Consequently
 
 people depend on you who are the units nearest to the people and for that reason l advise patience and tact in dealing with the water user"
 In speech which was distin- guished as much by the unconven- tional manner in which it was given as by the ideas it contained, Mr Davis touched on the broader matters 1 of nrpject 6pN-alorn1ant nd a1p iniS tration and only referred to the Salt River Valley system as part of the national system. Although the service has come in for some hard knocks and much adverse criticism. the speaker congratulated all his hearers for being members. Tt is about the only arm of the govern ment where progress is the reward of merit" he said. The reclamd- tion service has been unfortunate iu having had so many secretaries of the interior over it It started under Secretary Hitchcock, who did not know anything about reclamation and did not learn any more. Then came Garfield and after him Ballinger. who had his knife out for the service every chance he got. MT Fisher was | ct very dDlt IltI, put ne serve OlllN one year In that time he was so largely occupied with other matters that most of the work was left in the hands of his first. assistant NT. l Adams: so we can almost say there have been five secretaries of the in terOr in ten years of the existence of the reclamation service.
 The new secretary, Franklin K. l
 | man I have watched his career for a long time and though I am not per sOnally acquainted with him. I can ' | safely say that even if his admin | istration has mistakes and troubles, | it will be an able and honest ad- minstration. He is one of the fore 1 , most men on the Pacific coast and has an excellent record.
 ! 'The position of the reclamation 1 | service is a difficult one. For years | the American people have accustomed l | themselves to a lavish giving away , l of public lands, great appropriations | for pensions and for rivers and har- 1 | bors improvements. In all this there has been politics and pie, and there 1 has been no return and none ex- i pected from the pork barrels When i it was proposed to put in the ser.ice 1 which will beside adding immensely i to the assets of the country, return i in actual cash the money expended i the idea was scOffed at and ridi- i culed by the opponents of the rec i l lamatiOn act
 Pathfinder Project
 l Coming down to actual projects i | Mr Davis described the condition. i on the project under the Pathfinder 1 reservoir in Wyoming, where part of l the irrigated land is in one state and
 another in Nebraska, while the river flows also through a third. Dissen- sions have arisen which ought not i to exist, strife over water rights and i trouble with the states. The pro- 1 posal to open more land in this i vicinity brought forth a tremendous holler and it was finally found neces- sary to cOnfine the improvements tC
 old land and not to extend the linn
 it's of the project.
 Policy of Service
 Owing to the prediction of trouble
 it was at one time thought best tC
 install projects in valleys where there
 were no settlers No water righ
 troubles could arise when no on,
 was present to dispute and som,
 thought the dams ought to be pu
 in to open up virgin territory. Blu
 believing that it is better to say,
 an existing civilization than to ere i ate a new one. the recamationS ser ! vice has gone ahead and built fo
 people, not for raw land
 MT. Davis was introduced by Su i | peryising Engineer Louis c Hi
 who ducked the responsibility o | speaking and confined himself '
 turning over his time to his sue | | cessor. MT Fitch also declined t remark on any subject whatever, an
 wouldn't even tell story as he ha
 done at the first banquet Enginee
 C. E. Olberg. one of the veterans c | the service and now connected wit i the Indian service, followed MT. Davi
 in a sketch entitled Something Fun
 ny About the Early Work"
 Business Sessions
 In closing the chief engineer pro posed that beside the dinner idle i l which has been worked up amor