Arizona republican., 1916-02-08

| of the papers themselves have here tofore been handed to you, and they will he more particularly noted later in this report.
 Mir. Arthur F. Davis, Chairman of the Reclamation Commission and MT Cone, Project Manager and the President Secretary, Engineer and legal adviser of the Association, had a conference upon this and other subjects, on Wednesday the 2nd in- stant. at the office of the President of the Association, the result of which will be stated later in this re- bort, in its order.
 We are also in receipt of a letter from MT Morris Bien of the Recla nation Service, too late for trans initial to you This letter will receive reconsideration later in this report. We have never had official notice of the completion of the Salt River project; nor have We ever had any official definition of what the Salt River project comprises. We have asked information from the Secretary of the Interior upon this subject, but have not vet received it.
 No official estimate of the cost of the project has ever been made, so far as we have been advised.
 It will be impossible to embOdy in this report detailed statement of all the matters to which it relates. only a brief but a comprehensive state ment will be here attempted
 Early last year the Association was advised that a Cost Review Board was to be created by the Secretary of the Interior to investigate the matter of the cost of the Salt River project. This Board was to consist of three members, one of whom was to be selected by the Reclamation Service, another by the Water Users Association, and the third member Was to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior from three persons to be nominated by the member se- lected by the Service and the mem Der chosen by the Association
 Acting upon this, the Association selected Mr. Fred A. Jones, an En- gineer of concededly high standing. The Reclama tion Service selected Mir Frank W. Hanna. an Engineer of equally high standing, then of the staff of engineers in the employment of the Reclamation Service, and at one time Supervising Engineer of the Salt River project.
 These two gentlemen nominated for the third member, Judge John T. Mcclure of New Mexico: Burton F. Fleming, Professor of Engineerng in ha T Thomas U. Taylor, Dean of the En- gineering Department of the Univer- sity of Texas. Of these three nomi nees, the Secretary of the Interior appointed Professor Taylor to he the third member and Chairman of the local Cost Review Board
 The duties of this Board were fixed by the Secretary of the Interior by letters over his official signature These duties were, briefly stated: First To ascertain the proper construction cost to he collected nm der the terms of the Reclamation Act. from settlers upon. or owners of lands under the Project
 Second To fix the proper charges on projects where the charges had not been announced where such pro- jects have reached such stage of completion as to make it practical and desirable to do SO
 Third: To determine whether any expenditures, direct or indirect, have been, or are being charged to the projects that under ordinary condi- tions of carrying out similar works should not he so charged and are not necessary for the laying out. de- signing and construction of the com pleted project.
 Fourth: To scrutinize and analyze each item of the statement of cost as shown by the books of the Ser vice which were to be submitted to it by the Project Manager.
 Fifth To keep a complete steno- graphic record of it's proceedings. the cost of which and incident ex- penses of the Board, are to be charged to the operation and main tenance of the project
 The reports of the local Board were to be transmitted to a general or central Board of Review, consist ing of Dr. Elwood Mead of the Uni yersity of California, General William l Marshall, Consulting Engineer to the Secretary of the Interior and MT. l. D. O'Donnell. Supervisor of IT, rigatiOn of the Reclamation Service.
 The local Board, all of it's members lconcurring in that respect. construed the instructions of the Secretary of the Interior to authorize it to in quire into the propriety of the sev- eral items of cost included in the statement submitted to it.
 At an expense of many thousands of dollars paid by and to be charged to the Water Users and the ex- ,penditure of much time, the local Cost Review Board investigated the matter of the cost of this project
 The stenogra phic records of it's proceedings are very voluminous, covering more than 5000 pages. aside from numberless documents read. in lspected and considered by the Board.
 The proceedings of the Board were open to be attended by those inter- ested; but such proceedings were practically unintelligible to the non expert and incapable of collation. and intelligent consideration during the progress of the investigation.
 The local Board concluded it's in- vestigations on the 31st day of May, 1915, and so far as we know, prompt ly forwarded it's report to the Central Review Board of which Dr Mead is Chairman
 Nl h1r not Sf+ +Iot