The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-01-28

there is for use by others lower
down the stream.
Soldiers Novel Suggestions
+ Mr.. Dillon made some novel sug-
gestions, which he said had been
made to him by returning soldiers,
and we pass them on to our readers.
The government has a great num-
Der of electric cranes built for max
ing excavations as in the Panama
canal and the Chicago, drainage canal
and such machines were used to
build the great French ports for land
inf our armies and supplies. Some
OF them have a capacity, he said of
as much as thirty tons at one sweep
OF its pair of clam-shells or scoops,
and the conveyor dumps the earth or
mud at almost any distance they
want it, up to a few hundred feet.
The soldiers said these cranes were
just what is needed for the heavy
cuts in making canal, and the cleo
trlcians could easily convey the
power from our various power sta
tions on the upper Snake to where
the machines would work. Instead
OF having the government sell these
cranes for scrap or to spectators,
he said it should ship them and the
men right to the irrigation projects
and start on the heavy excavations,
such as the f1fty-foot cut west of st.
Anthony.
War Horses ON Scrapers
For lighter work it was suggested
that the government. has a million
horses and mules with harnesses and
thousands of motor trucks in Eu-
rope that it is about done with, and
they will probably be sold to specula-
tors. They might be shipped to
America for use in the government
work at home, and give the soldiers
employment making the canals and |
laterals by the use of these animals |
on projects where the soldiers would |
be able to make homes. The motor |
trucks, he said would be useful in
transporting supplies to the construc-
t1on camps along the line of canals |
and at the reservoir sites. The |
heavy tractors used for moving the |
artillery would be good for hauling |
and plowing the canal and reservoir |
work, and much of these outfits could |
be sold to the soldiers and home
steaders after construction was COM
pleted, without the necessity Of hav-
Ing the service Of spectators and |
their profits. |
Water for Everybody
G. e Harris suggested that the |
government might make use of, all |
the available reservoir sites and sup
ply water to all the projects in south
ern Idaho, and make the state |
greater than would be possible by
giving any one or two projects pre-
ference. .,N
Another Source OF Wealth
He said the state has another
source Of wealth second only to its
reclamation projects-the phosphate
deposits of the eastern counties,
ranging clear across the state, there
being enough In one township near
Montpelier. to make 1,4O0, ,000, 900,
tons OF commercial phosphate and
enough in that region to last the
whole world thousand years. With
the vast plains for agriculture and
the phosphate deposits for fertilizers
II we could get the government to
build reduction works to handle It
and add to 1t the valuable Sulphuric
acid from the smelters, it would
multiply fertility, and relieve the
smelter communities from the dam
age which the sulphuric acid does to
vegetation. The vast increase in
crop values per acre from applying
the fertilizer and the vast saving to
America as compared with buying
from Germany as Of old,
puts Idaho in the Hmelight Of the
big things that need only men and