Arizona republican., 1914-06-09
4 FEW WORDS
 ID KNOCKERS
Some Difference Between Damming a River to Inn pound Water for Irriga- tion and Damning Coun- try So Irrigated
(The Reclamation Record)

Personally we believe that it is form to knock your project, 5ldging from recent letters from the water ! users If there are still any knock CTS left, however, we want them
 lined up with the boosters. There would be fewer knocks and more boosts if every knocker rcalizd that : every time he brought his hammer down he lessened by so much the ! value of his own holdings. The fol- i lowing quotation from the Rio 1 Grande Republican contains so much good hard common sense that we hope it will be read by every water : user and be brought to the personal attention Of every man known to be ia knocker. From now on let's boost 1t is acknowledged that one Anocker cen undo the work of ;t ! hundred boosters in an hour We have seen some of the work of the | lnocker in various communities, and
 we have yet to know of a good citi-
 zen or settler being brought into any community and located there by the work of the knocker. We have known of men with money and am bition and deep interest being sent away from q most desirable place by the dynamite of this destroyer We have known right in this valley of eighteen farmers who knocked VOlu bly to rich man, who was having
 made for him deed to $10,000 worth iof Dona Ana county land on which
 he wished to expend a like amount. and bring his family from an eastern home to live in this healthy climate,
 enjoy it's sunshine. and who desired and intended to educate his children Ut our agricultural college. After
 ordering the deed made he took q livery and started out alone over the
 farm districts to interview the peo
 pie living there and to see what jclass he was bringing his family to reside among. It took but d part of
 a day, or perhaps of two days. and
 this homseeker president of
 q railway company, came back to the land agent who was preparing
 the papers to close the sale and what he said ran about like this:
 Don't finish that deed; I shall never want it. I have gone out
 among your people and l do not
 want to live here now | went to
 them man to man, took them as
 they came and they are a disap-
 Iointment They are pessmistic and
 have no hopeful outlook. They tell
 me of a droath last summer and of
 a frost last spring. of rains on their
 last crop of alfalfa, and they seem
 to set so little store by this mag
 nificcnt work that the government
 is doing in building the great dam
 at Elephant Butte, that it makes me
 sick, and I don't want to live among
 such a pessimistic people It's too
 depressing. I am tired with years or steady application to business,
 and want to live among more
 cheerful people who lock forward to : good times and stable conditions and
 who are satisfied in some measure
 at least, With their surroundings I do not want to fight the windmill . of pessimism and neighborhood con- tention, which I have encountered : i here l have earned my money bv iifAlu NOl h anu l lillt1lu to lfldhp II ? buy me d home amid hopeful, con- fident people to whom the trials of every day existence are trials merely not tragedies
 t T want to live in an atmosphere of hopefulness where development of d a great valley like this is, while "a d task. pleasure also, to those f work with and meet daily I have Q met few such here but this visit |, off dress parade has discouraged me d and I do not want to stay Your g country will be developed into the e splendid class of assured profits, but Il not by the men l speak of as pess-
 mists. They will growl, and grum e ble. and knock over what l find is l. their own mismanag cement. or theii $ lack Of means, or lack of energy q till some man pays them the fine O price they, after all their complaint 1t demand for their lands, and they
 will move into some other country e and do the same thing over. l have l. no less faith in your country anC = it's prospects, but I will not experi- = ence for myself and family the years n that must be spent with thes, . knockers before they all get out h Life is too short. I am glad to pay h you for your work and your time S spent in my behalf" he said to the
 agent, but I have decided to try d Tor q better local condition else % where"
 fl 1 What was to be done? Nothing. r. This is a. true tale and happened - in Las Cruces. It is not alone Tht e other day a land seeker got his a without leaving Main street, and h, n returned to the gentleman who hat . been instrumental in showing hin l., land and said:
 s Not for me. I'd rather liv, @ where they exaggerated about wha - they have, and where they have fal d less and oVer-eXtol il, than to liv,
 in country promising all this does
 and meet knockers in part of tn, . business men and many of tn, . farmers that l have met here Fol q instance. if a man knocks on hi: {I neighbours farm or holdings while