Arizona republican., 1915-04-16
LOUIS C. HILL

LOUIS C. HILL
 |. Mr Hill said:
 Ten years ago where this broad lake now lies was the busy town of Roosevelt. Forgotten, it now lies under the waters impounded by this great cam builded by its inhabitants for you and your children, and your chileren's children. It is typical of the lives of those among you who in the early days before this project was assured gave their time, their energy and their brains, to secure for you the benefit of these great works. Let their monument be a race of boost ers5'' for the lOveliest valley in the west
 This is a great dam, an immense reservoir and a wonderful valley. Strangers who have visited here are enthusiastic. Magazines and railroads and newspapers and tourists are your boosters. Your only knockers are yourselves
 With water and climate and land of uneNecelled fertility, progress to- ward universal prosperity should be sure and swift.
 This water supply, supplemented by that from pumps to be installed to take the underground water from where it is detriment and to place it on land now not included in the present favored area should make the whole 219,00O acres a garden. Every acre which can be added to Ihe cultivated area will add to the value of every acre now under culti vation
 The world is bearing the losses of the great war in Europe and the Salt River Valley is bearing it's share and sometimes we think more than it's share, but with a water supply assured by this great lake against at least four years of the worst drouth known in the southwest, you should rejoice that about the only factor necessary to your prosperity and the one over which you usually have no control is now under your orders A bank account on which you can draw ct need for four years at least with a certainty that your checks will be ho,iored should give us all that feel ing of peace and of good will to- wards others that will make us will ing to share a little with our less fortunate brothers in this valley, as i well as with those in Belgium.
 If the dam had been finished in 1905 there would have been no short age up to now, and with this years rains to fill the reservoir again to overflowing none for at least four years more. Fifteen years without shortage with the whole irrigable area included and with no reason to suppose that shortage will come even then.
 Conserve your water as the care full man does his bank account ac- cumulated by years of self denial. Add to it by utilizing your under ground water not by wasting it, and no shortage can harm you.
 Tn this valley we have a power system utilizing the by-product of an irrigation system and when we pump for irrigation the underground water, now getting nearer and near CT the surface, we will be using the by product of a drainage system to enlarge the cultivated area.
 When good fellowship and CO., operation take the place of distrust and fear, then will all unite in work
 ing for the Great Salt River pro- ject. The greatest project with the greatest natural advantages in the west.
 1 Tn ten years the assessed valua- tion of Maricopa county has jumped from ten million to nearly seven million. The population has nearly doubled The coun- try and the towns have taken on new life. Energy and hope have re- placed listlessness and despair. The man who believed the Roosevelt dam never would be built or if built would never fill, or if filled would never stand, is replaced by the man who knows it is built. is filled and is here The optomist is crowding out the pessimist.
 If rightly handled in twenty years your power plants will have earned returns sufficient to repay all the United States spent on them and all that you have contributed to- ward their cost and. if properly in vested, a surplus each year sufficient to accumulate a fund great enough to replace all the machinery in all the plants, besides furnishing power for pumping.
 "The lands now temporarily out side the favored area will add from two to three millions to the value of the project when the water now threatening other parts of the project with seepage is pumped. Those lands now having the best assurance of water for irrigation are those where the certainty of the need of drainage is the most evident. One needs helr for irrigation and the other foI drainage, and the ultimate need Of drainage on a great irrigation pro- ject is one of the most certain things in this world. For their success all