Arizona sentinel Yuma southwest., 1915-11-04
(By B. F. Fly)


 Yuma project for 3 months and, without throwing any unnecessary bouquets at him, it is only fair to say that he has done more in those three short months to bring the water users and the U. s. R. s. into harmonious accord than was done by his lex tinguished'' predecessor in 10 long years.
 h paying this deserved compliment to MT. Lawson, it is not my purpose to de- tract in the smallest degree from the very efficient assist ance that has been given him by his office and field force, for they are working in per feet accord with his ideas, and the very first of these that was instilled in them was the courteous treatment of the water users.
 A few of them thought "the. old way is the best" and lost their jobs as a result. Every man now knows exactly what to do-and he must perform his work faithfully, and when he gets his pay-check he knows he has earned it.
 Having become intensely interest ed in upbuilding Yuma project, be- cause I have chosen this as my home, and realizing the wonderful possibili- ties of this section, have probably given Reclamation matters a closer study than any other one person on the project. Not only that, but I be- ieve have pursued a course that has enabled me to get all the news per taining to the service.
 All this has been honestly and fear lessly printed from time to time in these columns, and the readers of the Yuma Daily Examiner can now see the wisdom of the Course I pursued.
 When Mr. Lawson came here every thing was in utter chaos. For brief time, my friend, Ray Priest, had been "actinAproiect ma lger." But his hands were completely tied. He did as well as any man could have done under like circumstances. The "old way" was in full force and he had no authority to change it. Now, that "'the Lawson way" is in force, MT. Priest, as superintendent of construction, knows exactly what his duties are and he does them faithfully
 Instead of chaos there is now regu- lation and order.
 Instead of every man fighting for himself and treating water users as though the latter were the servants, every man on the force now realizes that he is the servant of the water users and treats them with the con sideration they deserve.
 Instead of pumping sand and silt direct from the river by means of the old pumping plant, new pumping system, connected with the siphon canal, now furnishes water to the high landers in West Yuma.
 Instead of over half of the projects equipment being locked up on the Gila side of the river where it was falling into decay, nearly all of it has been transferred to the Bard side where it will do actual service,
 Instead of thousands of doIIa1A worth of material of various kinds and character being scattered to the four "AAAo VI A1OaNOh, dll ONSI- ll6 pIOJ0CI, it is being rapidly assembled at the Reclamation headquarters where ali that is not actually needed will be sold on November IT, to the highest sealed bidder, and the money thus realized credited to the cost of the project
 Instead of the Cocopah canal being so choked up with mud, silt, weeds and grass that it could hold but half head of water that main central ar tery is now deeper and wider than when first constructed.
 Instead of the telephone lines being constantly out of order, they have practically all been rebuilt and very shortly I shall hope to have a report as to whether or not the poles can stand a general telephone system, so each water users home can De con- nected with the service.
 Instead of a prohibitive freight rate between Yuma and Gadsden, we now