The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-01-10
Hundred Million Dollars
. Will be Needed to
Carry on Work
Local People Organize to Push OPP.
GRAFTON of Plans... Henry's Lake
viii be Used as a Huge
Storage Reservoir

Farris school house west of More.
land on Wednesday afternoon an6
assessed themselves $500 to start the
preliminary work for irrigating the
Snake rive plains. They paid the
self-imposed- assessment forthwith
formed an association, elected some
officers, engaged an office at the
county seat and went home.
Extend the Dubois Project
The plan is to revive the Dubois
project, have an extension to carry
the water down thru Bingham
county, use Henry's Lake as stor-
age reservoir to impound the water
and boost their $40 per acre dry
farms at once INTO the irrigated class
worth 500 an acre.
The project has been talked of by
interested parties for good while,
and Register Carruth, of the Black
foot land office has compiled consid-
erable data relating to it. Repre-
sentative Lewis Robbins has been
gathering all the information he
could, and is carrying on propa-
.ganda at the capital on plans of his
own.
Joseph Stewart, one of the large
land owners of the Taber country,
has been agitating the subject for
some time and Wednesdays meeting
was called by Walter Hagen, who
owns large tract in Farris precinct.
Mr.. Hagen stated that the purpose
of the meeting was to get something
started that would result in federal
legislation to get results. J. H. And
erson, the land attorney, was present
by request and gave a short talk on
how to get such work to going so it
would be effective. Mr.. Anderson
said that legislators in any body do
not act upon requests for appropria-
tions of the peoples money until
they are shown the feasibility Of the
project, and that the first thing to
be done was to employ men to gather
facts as to the resources there are
to build upon. The amount of water
obtainable, the amount of land till
able in the proposed project, the
feasibility of construction at rea-
sonable cost, and the returns to be
expected from cultivation and irriga-
ton. He said that representatives
in congress do not have time for
such work, and it is not their place
to do it. 1t is not the duty Of the
land office officials to do 1t, and If 1t
Is to be done, it must be done by
somebody interested or someone en-
ployed by them.
Secure Large Federal Loan
For such a big project as this, it
would be necessary to introduce
measure in congress, making an ap-
preparation of some millions of dol
lars to be used in construction, and
which shall be repaid to the govern
ment by the individual settlers whose
land is benefited by it. II an ex-
enditure of twenty or fifty dollars an
acre would put the land under irri-
CATION and raise the value from $40
to 500, 1t was manigestly worth the
investment, and when congress Is
shown that there is sufficient water
and. sufficient land, and that con-
struction is feasible, such project
would be entitled to loan under the
present policy Of the department of
the interior whose commissioner is
advocating the reclamation of wild
lands to furnish employment and
homes for returning soldiers and for
all the countless thousands who are
seeking such things in the mighty
adjustment of the next few years.
Puts in Hundred Dollars
F.. A. seeger of the Seeger-Bundlie
company of Blackfoot said he had
heard this project talked of long
enough to put him on the anxious
seat, and that II anything is going
to be done it ought to be done now
while the conditions are right. He
said this locality is famous for hold
ing many meetings and gab-fests over
things that are desirable, and that
he hoped this matter would not get
into the class of things that would
be killed by that process. He said he
thought that Mr.. Anderson had said
Just about what was needed for in
formation, and that the next thing
to do was to organize an association
of interested people, put up money
for expenses, hire somebody to work
and tell him or them what to do. He
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