Arizona republican., 1915-06-20

| the club d paper embodying the result | of her studies of the Salt River Valley
 project. Mrs. Woolery came to the valley a year ago and for business | reasons began familiarizing herself with the project. The paper is divided into three parts, the first dealing as
 follows with the organization of the Salt River Valley Water Users Asso- | ciation:
 Let us go back a few years to the 1 time when cheerful, hardworlling men and women struggled along on few farms in the Salt River Valley, trying | to raise crops and stock enough to
 make a living, each year hoping to lay | aside a few dollars for the proVerbial rainy day, or to keep the boy and girl in school. They were the men and | women who had faith in this awful, i God -forsaken desert. as short sighted | people sometimes have called it. l Dame Nature provided an ideal cli mate and the richest of soils, but she put the water all in one channel and l would not distribute it over the land.
 So man decided to do that distributing | himself by means of a dam and ditch | es But scarcely had he completed his | tasE when floods came rushing down
 as if to test the work. The river seemed | to laugh at him and say: Do you | think your are stronger than I? Do you | think you can harness me and make
 me do your will? I'm a companion to
 the wind. independent wild and free" When she was tired of her rushing and
 tumbling. she would quiet down and ! lift her smiling face. invitingly, as if
 to say: Come. I'm ready to help you i ha In | paired. she became more and more l quiet anc shy until. with dam and ditches ready. she had not the energy
 nor volume to supply the farms with | the moisture they required. So for years the struggle on the farms went | on, with always too little water for the l land or too much for the dam.
 But the minds of those pioneer men | and women were busy with the prob- lem. encouraged by the vision of what could be and must be the future of the | valley Here were climate and soil waiting for the tanning of very per verse river.-and man must be the master We will not recount the de- | tails of that period of preparation. when men willingly spent time and money in letter writing, mass meetings. committee conferences trips to Wash ! ington-Vith all the ups and downs triumphs and discoura agements-tha l inevitably accompany the accomplish ing of a great purpose.
 1 But at fast the word went forth that
 the government of the United States
 had devised a plan for the reclamation
 of arid lands.-that. under the national | irrigation act. approved June r. 1902.
 the farmers of Salt River Valley had reason to hope for the realization of 1 their dreams. There were more con | ferences. more meetings. more time and | money spent: and on February o. 1903. the February following the approval of the national irrigation act-articles of incorporation for the salt River Val | ley Water Users Association were filed with forty-nine incorporators. The | farmers in the valley were organized
 and ready to claim the aid of the gov | ernment under the recently approved act Like the framers of our national l constitution the men drew up those articles of incorporation looked far in
 to the future and gave the water users of this valley firm foundation. Their ! association is a very strong one. Concerning the structure of this or ganizatior. I quote from the sixth ar
 ticle. sec. l: The exercise of it's affairs
 shall be vested in
 l. A council
 2. board of governors.
 l 3. One or more local boards Of wa l ter commissioners and
 4 president. vice president. treas
 urer. secretary and such other officers
 and agents as shall or may be from time to time created and established 1 by the council"
 The council consists of thirty mem bere For the purpose of electing the | council the entire area, of the project 1 is divided into ten districts. One mem | Der from each district is elected an- nually to serve for three years, thus making two-thirds of the council hold | over each year. Elections are held an
 nually on the first Tuesday in April, | and the terms of office begin on the | first Monday in May. following cleo 1 tion. The council has complete juris- I diction over the bylaws for governing | the business of the association. It | makes. amends, and revises them to | suit existing conditions. But acts of 1 the council must not conflict with any annual meeting of the council is begun
 on the first Monday in May and con- ] tinued at it's pleasure The articles i provide for special meetings.
 The board of governors consists of ! the president and ten members-one 1 elected annually from each district | This board has complete charge of all | business of the association, subject to the articles and bylaws. It meets reg
 ularlv on the first Monday in each month Provision for special meetings is made in the articles.
 According to article TX, sec. 1, the | lands under each separate distributing | canal system may, on proper petition | of the water users under that canal. | he formed into canal division, to be | governed by board of water commis | sioners in accordance with the rules of | the association. This for the purpose | of local mana cement of the system
 and for deciding for or against local
 assessments for improvements or any l local purpose so voted by the owners
 of water rights in that division. ~ The president and vice president of