The Lamar register., 1920-12-15
OLD TIME SCRAP
Fort Lyon Meeting Results in One of
the Biggest Scraps in the
Canals History.

pany was speaking of the past entire
ly as at that time the rumblings of an
approaching storm could be easily
distinguished by most any observer.
1t broke upon the meeting Monday at
Las Animas with a fury that kept the
air surcharged with electricity, orat-
ory and epithets from ten o'clock in
the morning until four Tuesday morn
ing. and wound up by showing the
usual non-partisan league contempt
for courts and their DEGREES.
Talk about the lion ana the lamb
lying down together. The left-overs
Of the old Speer gang at Denver, the
old Bent county gang at Las Animas,
ana the non-partisan league at Wiley
and Lamar got into the same bed and
hatched mess that will take the
courts months to untangle. The mess
has been incubating in this vicinity
for some weeks among the non-parti-
sans who were SO sore at their defeat
at the polls in November that they
would rather lose their water to the
west end than to share it with the
farmers of the eastern part of the
canal. Chairman Lubers, who was
spokesman for the majority party, an
nounced it as their policy to prevent
rs much as possible of the water COM
ing TO this end and it was votes from
this section that enabled them to win.
The combine not daring to trust too
many of their members had placed
almost the entire vote of the canal
west of Gageby in the hands of one
man, who is slated for secretary. With
the aid Of this large block of votes
they organized the meeting by elect
ing Harry Lubers of Denver, chair
man and he appointed committees on
credentials and other matters from
the same gang.
The decree of the district court
awarding one director 20 the Amity
interests in order to settle all the old
litigation between the two canals, and
which decree was personally accepted
III writing by large majority of the
stockholders, was entirely ignored and
Mr. Partridge, who has held under this
order of court, was voted off the board.
The Amity company which was rep
resented by Judge Rogers, has invest
ed over a million in the past in I'M
provements on the Fort Lyon and will
not tamely lay down and see its rights
tUtu . lao k.Is, .
the Fort Lyon will again be in litiga-
tion-and that is just where the or
ganizers of the fight in this section
want 1t. They are agitators-not
farmers. Just where the real farmers
will come in for their share is hard
to see.
A large part of the time of the meet
ing was taken up in the fight of the
two factions at Wiley over the control
of large block of proxies left at the
Wiley State Bank. The charges and
counter-charges of the two factions
were SO vitrolic as to leave a stranger
in doubt as to it being safe to stop in
the city. This fight delayed the Gre
dentials committee so long that it was
after midnight before vote on busi-
ness matters could be taken.
Messrs. Lubers and others declared
that they would not be bound by a
court decree even though large ma
jority of the stockholders had signed
acceptance of its terms and the COM
pany materially benefited by its pro-
visions. They refused 10 allow the
usual choice between two men select
ed by the Amity company before the
election of the balance of the direct
ors, but proceeded to elect full board
of five members. This action will be
contested and probably result in some
delay before the new board takes
charge.
The meeting decided that as the
bonds are not payable until 1871, it is
unnecessary to continue raising a
sinking fund at this time and cut off
the 25 cents special assessment for
that purpose. They decided that the
canal should be enlarged at least sew
EN- miles farther east and voted TO
continue the work of the dredge as
far as Gageby at least. The assess
ment was fixed the same as last vear