Arizona republican., 1914-11-29

some tune ago Congressman Hay den appeared before a body of the water users of the valley and as co-author of the reclamation exten- si"n payment bill delivered an ad- dress to the farmers of the valley upon that measure and it's provisions The speech was reduced to manu- script by stenographer and is here with published in full for the benefit | Of the many farmers and settlers in ! this section who were unable to at tend the meeting but who are at the same time anxious to know just what the congressman said.
 Remarks of Hon Carl Hayden at joint meeting of the Poard of Cover ! nors and Council of the Salt River Valley Water Users Association, Phoe- mix, Arizona. Monday, November ,, l1914
 | MT. Chairman and Gentlemen: l met with the board of governors this morning and those of you who were present at that time may find in my remarks some considerable repetition which l hope you will pardon for the sake of those, who did not hear what I then said
 l l shall first disctiss the reclamation extension act and then take up the revision of the cost of the project Tho act itself, by comparison with lall other reclamation enterprises, furn- ishes supply of money for the con struction of irrigation works, at | less cost than under any irrigation system in any other civilized country in the world In other words, no gov crnment anywhere has ever before at tempted to furnish money for the iconstruction of irrigation works with out interest. This was the hardest flight we had in the hOusc-to prevent | an interest charge being placed upon the construction cost as q cOnsidera tion for an extension of time. MT. Mann, the republican minority leader, said that d mistake was made when the reclamation act was passed in l1902 by not charging interest and that if the time of payment was now Ito be doubled. the government ought ito receive interest on it's money. When the reclamation extension bill came up for consideration in the house, Mir. Mann, MT Fitzgerald, chairman of the committee on appropriations, and humber of members representing agri- lcultural districts. immediately organ ized to attack it on the ground that they could not go home to their con- stituents and justify vote in favor of a bill allowing the farmers in the west to have money without interest when congress had not as yet passed a rurai credit bill permitting govern ment money to be loaned with in lterest to their farmers. Eastern and southern farmers would be only too glad to pay five or six per cent in terest to the United States. since they are now paying eight and ten per cent to the banks. These members said that something must be done in this lrcgard before they could favor q bill Ito furnish money to the west for nothing.
 This argument was hard to answer land many western members feared that We were in great danger of not lpassing the bill. We held meetings and planned our campaign. We took a list of the membership of the house, | divided it up, and made a per sonal canvass of the members in their offices. l had some twenty men on my list to whom I explained that the construction charge was more than twice as high as the original esti Innate. and was so high that to add Ian interest burden on top of it would lgive no relief whatever
 The only theory upon which one can justify the non payment of inter est on money to construct reclama- tion projects is that the money comes from the sale of public lands and Isuch funds have always been consid- cred as the private purse of the na- ton. If the United States sells bonds to build these works. the government must pay interest It is proper, there fore that interest should be paid tby those benefited by the bond is lsue, otherwise this burden goes onto the taxpayer And so with money collected from the custom houseS it lis also an indirect tax like our in Iternal revenue, and if used to assist Iprivate individuals. interest should be paid. But we have given our public lands away without any money and without price under the homestead law. If we can give our land away We can give away the proceeds Of the land, or we can loan such funds without interest as a wise public policy may dictate.
 Underwood Prevents Interest Charge
 We were particularly anxious to lobtain inc assistance of Hon. Oscar Underwood, the democratic floor leader in the house, because his voice meant many a vote in such fight. We said to him: You are the only Iman who can keep this interest charge loff" He replied. 'I think it is but
 fair and just to charge interest on lthis money" But, fortunately, l had read the Record from the very be- lginning of reclamation talk in con igress and in it l found a speech by
 MT. Underwood himself made when he was a member of the committee on irrigation of arid lands, in which
 he pointed out the distinction between money received from the sale of pub llic lands and money derived from tax Iation I handed him his old speech