Arizona republican., 1914-03-10

Two members of the reclamation commission, the supervising engineer of the southern district, local en- gineers. officers and members of the board and council of the Water Users Association will meet with the shareholders of the North Side Friday morning at the Phoenix High school assembly room for one of the most important meetings ever held on reclamation in Arizona
 Subjects to be discussed:
 Delimiting the project in accord ance with the report of the sur Vey board and the recommendations of the commission, and the forty acre homestead limit. Objections or pro tests from the farmers will be heard under these rules: No speaker is to have more than five minutes to pre- sent his case, and no one will be heard d second time until after all others who would protest have been called upon.
 Mesa Meeting
 No south side cases will be con- siderfd Friday as a special hear ing has been arranged for Saturday at Mesa, at which all matters relative to the south side lands will be heard.
 Reclamation history will be written at the two highly important meetings at Phoenix and Mesa this week. The things the farmers have to say on the subject of trimming the project down to resources size will be the second factor in making up the policy of the commission on the two main subjects noted. clear opportunity will be presented to the tillers of the soil to make their desires known. The reclamation comr' as l~ie- lv sh ~n tso1e.4 to heed the wishes of the Ind owner, and these two hearings will he the places at which the final chance will be found to present them.
 Chief Engineer A, P. Davis, who ar rived yesterday would not say much about the hearings. His view is that MT. O'Donnell is Secretary Lanes representative in the coming debate. and that the new superintendent Of irrigation is the man who will handle the subject. O'Donnell will probably preside. There will be addresses by himself. MT. Davis, MT. Hanna, and probably MT. Orme.
 T only know" said MT. Davis, that it has been found necessary to place definite limit on the amount of land to be watered by the present sources of supply, just as it has been found necessary for the secretary, in conforming to the law to declare a limit on homestead hold ings Naturally there will be some hurt to some of the present holders of land and it will be our duty to cut down the prescribed acreage with as little injustice or hardship as pos sble. We feel that no one is more interested in the complete success of the project than the man who owns land under it. The project will not be a success if it's resources are SO taxed that all must suffer. So some one must be left out. This is mo new thing Some seem to think that the project limiting is a thing of the past six months. This is not true. It has always been understood that some time shortly before the formal open ing there must be a cutting down of acreage That time has come
 Homestead Rule
 In a formal statement yesterday. Supervising Engineer Hanna declared that Secretary Lane had .no other s4s ternative than to declare the. homie stead holding at 40 acres. "This a.e- ton was prescribed by law. It is provided that some time prior to the oper ing of the project, the secre- tary of the interior must declare what, in his opinion, after due con- sideration of all the facts, is the low est limit of land on which a man can successfully maintain a home. He has studied the subject, and has become convinced that forty acres. is the logical unit.
 There has been no argument ad-