Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1914-08-06
HAYDEN MAKES ELOQUENT PLEA FOR EXTENSION OF
 PROJECT PAYMENTS


 being then in comittee of the whole, Congressman Carl Hayden made a plea for the further extension of time under irrigation projects, with special reference to the Tonto project. He said in part:
 "The reclamation act was passed a little over twelve years ago. To be exact, it was approved on June IT. 1902. l With your permission, 1 desire to sketch briefly the history of irrigation in the United States in order that it may be understood why our national irrigation policy was adopted-a poli- cy new to this government and as yet imperfectly appreciated by many of our citizens"
 The congressman then went into an | elaborate discussion of the history of irrigation in the United States and of the early attempts made in the arid and semi-arid districts of the west to | conserve and use the waters of the streams. He pointed out that these attempts were the cause of endless 1 litigation and that they were success full in spite of the handicaps under which their promoters labored. He said:
 'The Americans who came into Ari- zona and New Mexico after the Mexi- can war soon learned the art of irri- gation from the natives. In both ter ritories the Spanish laws and customs relating to water for irrigation were, in measure, recognized by the early legislatures. In the valley where I was born there have been many bitter ly contested lawsuits, but finally the irrigators came to see that instead of lquarreling over the meager minimum flow of the stream, their only saliva tion lay in the storage of water that went to waste to the sea when the big river was at flood.
 "The requirement. that the cost of all irrigation works shall be returned to the reclamation fund was the very height of wisdom; first, because il placed this appropriation in a class by itself free from the smell of the pork barrel, and, second, because by this revolving fund, every practicable irri gation project in the entire west will ultimately be developed
 He then referred to the fact that the time of payments should be ex tended owing to the fact that the time of payments should be extended owing to the fact that the costs oi the projects were invariably larger than the estimates and that the same formed an almost insupportable ta, on the owners of the lands. He ex plained that the original estimate fol the Tonto dam and reservoir amount ed to but $15 per acre, while the com pleted cost is more than $6O per acre and, arguing from this premise of fact advocated that the settlers under the project should have such extension o time as would enable them to pay of , the debt without too great hardship Reciting the several clauses of the bil and explaining the reasons for them Il ha said:
 "The passage of this bill will be tt , the mutual advantage of the govern ement and the water users under tn. projects. The settlers will not onI, obtain twice the time in which to pa,
 his debts to the United States. bu We have graduated his payments S, that they are smaller during the earl, part of the payment period. The farm
 CT is thus given an opportunity t,
 improve his land, to bring it int, : cultivation, to purchase live stocl
 or to have an orchard in bearing be fore the burden of payments become heavy"