Arizona republican., 1916-11-05

MT Hanna and MT. Jones, should name three others, whether engineers or not, and out of those three others, the Sec retary Of the Inferior was to select one to be the third member of this To- cal cost review board. Three were nom mated, and of those, Prof. Taylor, the Dean of the University of Texas, was selected; so that this commission con- sisted of MT. F. w. Hanna, represent ing the government; MT Jones, repre- senting the Salt River Valley Water Users Association; and Prof. Taylor, the third man selected as practically an umpire.
 Board Reports in Detail.
 They came here and they made a close investigation of every item of the cost of this project. It occupies thou sands Of typewritten pages. l had it Driefed. compiled, boiled down to the simplest terms that 1t could be boiled down, and there it is. You can imagine what the original must be if that big book lying before me is simply an in- dex to it.
 These gentlemen went into every item of the cost of this project. They were competent men. They had been charged with that business, to deter mine what ought to be the cost of this project l am not going to read you all of this tonight. But Prof Taylor and
 MT. Jones recommended a deduction
 from the total cost, after giving us credit for certain things that have been done-recommended q reduction of B3.a23.s .s6s.56 - practically S3,600, ,000.00 Is what was recommended: and Mir. Hanna, the representative of the gov ernment. recommended a reduction of {54G. .000.00-nearly three million dollars 1 difference between the three gentlemen ! The matter then went to q central cost review board: and that central cost re- view board would not agree with MT 1 Hanna or with Mir. Jones or Prof Fay.
 Tor. singly. two by two, or in the az gregate of the three, and recommended
 q reduction of S3S2 000. % and so report ed
 An Astonishing Sequel.
 It has been suggested time and agair
 by the Department of the Interior tha | this project was 10 be declared open
 and that the cost would be fixed: ana | while that has not come to us officially il has come from those officers who
 when they do append their signature to q paper in a formal way. makes i
 official. that not only would the Re claamtlon commission not accept tn
 recommendation of Prof Taylor an,
 Mir. Jones of q reduction of three mil
 lions and half nor would they accep
 the recommendation of Mir. Hanna 0
 six hundred and fifty some thousan,
 dollars. they would not accept the rec
 ommendation of the central cost revle1
 board Of ail abatement of three hundre
 and eighty two thousand dollars The
 rejected all of them. and added fou
 dollars an acre to make il good for u, I don't know just why but they dit Of course we protested. and we hay
 protest
 Protesting at Washington. r Last May We secured a hearing l , Washington before the commission
 We went before the commission know
 ing that it's decision would be advers to us, but We had to go. because if VI , di6n't and went to the secretary, th secretary would refer us back to tn . commission. There was no misundeI B standing between the commission an , the representatives Of the Salt Rive , Valley Water Users Association. W , knew that they would not make th E abatement. We there appeared and fC , Il number of days we discussed u f question pro and con. We had ot f engineer there. We had our repor ! item by item, bill of particulars I every item that We think we can su: p tain by the testimony and the judl I ment of those engineers, and finally e the end. notwithstanding the declar; ton of their legal advisers, that und' a the law not one dollar could be abate
 they did abate S3S2. .000.00.
 n Before the Secretary.
 q We were not satisfied with that, al e we told them we would not be satisfi, e with that. and we went to the Seer
 tary of the Interior, and the Secreta
 of the Interior, with most considera - attention, gave us a long hearing. al n finally said. Present to me personal f a brief" I came home, and prepar q that brief. and If l did write 1t, l W . say that it is a pretty good one. IL t now lodged with the Secretary of t If interior, and l don't know what { n ruling may be. I am satisfied ire .- all have heard that il is not going l. be satisfactory to us, and I am perfeC d ly satisfied that I am going to advi Ie the Salt River Valley Water Users A Is siciation not to accept the decision n. the Secretary of the Interior.
 d Protected by Contract
 Id Now. what is going to happen? Ma O. you, l told you moment ago that Il l. project was essentially one of lands ,- private ownership-not of public Ian D. that any relation that we bore to { s, government of the United States W s. one of contract. not that of the owI .h of lands as public lands and the owI ,- of the water in which some man a III piled to enter and have patented Id him when he compiled with the ter n. of his application; but there is a co o, tract. this contract away back in 19