The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-01-28

concluded, ana eaCn one thereafter,
was on its own responsibility.
AS soon as the arrangement refer
red to was completed, the bondholders'
committee came to Hollister for the
purpose of ascertaining the difficulties
that existed, having known that there
were some and met with the Settlers
association, l believe with its board
of directors, and came to what they
thought was a settlement of the diff
culties. That settlement however, fail
d of effect, through what cause l do
not know. Mr. Robinson, chairman of
the committee, when he left here was
under the impression that it was eff
fected, but it was not the negotia-
lions were resumed and continued
until April 1914, when there was an
Irrigation Congress of some sort in
Denver At that time, Mr.. Bowen, who
was attorney for the Settlers associa-
ton, together with Mr.. Green, who
representing the bondholders' and
Judge Hays, who was the bondholders'
and the company's attorney, met the
committee at Denver, for the purpose
of submitting to the committee a pro-
posal from the settlers The COM
littee agreed to the terms of that pro-
posal, but 1t failed of effect when Mr.
Bowen returned to Twin Falls. The
committee then, through Mr. Green,
and probably Judge Hays, proposed to
the land board that all the differences
existing be submitted to arbitration.
Mr. Peterson: "You mean the bond
holders committee?'
Mr.. Edwards: Eyes, the bondholders
committee"
The consent of the land board was
given to the plan, and through some
fundamentally, l do not know what,
Mr.. Don Bark was engaged to ascer-
tain the views of the settlers on the
project. 1t seemed that their views
differed with the others and that plan
failed. While this was going on, a suit
was filed in the state court by some
of the settlers, which later was taken
to the federal court, and a decision was
rendered by that court, with which
you are no doubt familiar That re-
suited in a feeling on the part of the
management of the Salmon River Land
& Water company and the representa-
tives of the bondholders, that another
effort should be made to settle the diff
ferences existing. With this in view
/ l met Governor Alexander in New
York for the purpose of getting him
to join with me, for the committee, in
an effort to have the commissioner of
the general land office determine the
water supply of this company Mr.
Day was present at that time The
governor consented to meet me in
/ Washington for that purpose, and later
we met there, and the commissioner of
( the general land Office, on finding that
! it was agreeable to the committee
went ahead with that request and
gave us a conclusion under date of
October Goth, 1915, in which he indi-
Gated his conclusion, subject to re-
vision, was $4,000 acres, with a net of
10000 acres. In July of this year,
your state engineer made an exam
ination of the project, and his con-
clusion, more or less qualified, was a
trifle over that. between $4,000 and
200 acres. When l talked with the
governor, l told him that as soon as
l got this conclusion of the commits
sioner of the general land office, l
would come to Idaho and endeavor to
accomplish settlement So on Mon
day week ago, came here and called
on the governor, and then met with
him and the attorney general in the
afternoon. In a general way, | ex-
planned that the letter had been re-
ceived, and that l would be grateful
for any suggestion that either the
attorney general or the governor nad
to make with regard to the situation.
They suggested going down and meet
ing with the settlers, and further, that
in their opinion, the tract should be
contracted, and that the control of the
operation should be given to the set
tiers.
went to Twin Falls and called up
on Mr.. LOngley, who is the attorney
for the settlers. l found him a pleas
ant gentleman and very anxious to
do what he could to accomplish the
result desired. He endeavored to get
some of the settlers, whom he thought
would be representative of all of them,
but was unable to do so that after
noon The next day was Thanksgiv-
inc. and he spent that day getting
these people together. We met on
Friday afternoon in Mr.. LOngley's Of
flee. There were six of them pres
ent: H. M. Sims, c. H. Robbins, w f.
] Mikesell f. F. Hertz, l. f. Finney and
j. w Beauchamp.
Mr.. Peterson: "You state that they
were representative of them all, Mr..
Edwards"
~ Edwards eyes, that is my
opinion and Mr. Longley, felt the
same way. The first suggestion made
/ by the settlers was that they wanted
/ 2 "a acre feet of water per acre on
the tract. 1 told them that I would
very much like to give it to them, but
that it was utterly impossible, due to
the fact that there was a certain
amount of water which provided 2 "a
acre feet per acre for so many acres,
and if there was not sufficient to fur
nish that amount of water for the
balance, and we would have to respond
to its equivalent in dollars; it was
impossible If that was the sugges-
ton I had to meet, we might just as
well let the matter proceed as 1t was
proceeding before l came.
The mex. question was Don't you
think the tract should be cut down p"