The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1922-02-21
CIT ES VARIOUS
AUTHORITIES ON
CONTRACT LAWS
L. J. Magee Takes Ex-
ception to Statements
Made by MIR. Antrim at
Luncheon.

Taking exception to statements
made by c. J. Antrim at a recent
kiwanis club luncheon relative to the
organization of an irrigation district
to supplant the present water users
association, L. J. Magee, secretary of
the association, Monday issued the
following statement:
There appeared recently in The
Tribune an article by Mr. Antrim so
full of transformation that | deem it
necessary to call the attention of the
water users of the project to the facts
in the case.
Knowing Mr.. Antrim as | do,
am sure what he said was in good faith
and had he been informed on the sub
ject he was trying to discuss would
not have made those statements in
public. There are only few men
who hold similar views and no doubt
Mr.. Antrim unconsciously used bor-
rowed thoughts without taking the
time to inform himself as to the true
conditions. There is no need of any
| one being Ignorant of just what the
situation is except that some one be-
| ing ignorant of just what the situa-
ton is except that some of us arrive
at our conclusions by letting disinter-
ested attorneys do our thinking for us.
| Il desire briefly to call attention to
some OF the statements of Mr.. Antrim
and show by the record where these
statements cannot be relied upon. Mr..
| Antrim says:
| IAN association or district is
| merely form of government
management and in the opinion
of many disinterested attorneys, as
well as by direct statement of
Reclamation officials at Washing
ton in no way affects the con-
tracts or rights now held by the
settlers. We have a private cor
poration today with certain rights,
bad, good or indifferent If we
become an irrigation district to-
morrow, we have merely changed
our form of management and re-
tain exactly the same rights
The reply to this statement is
found in the following law:
Federal Statutes Annotated. Volume
6, Section 1897.
(No Transfer of Contracts)
mo contract or order, or any in.
the party to whom such contract or
Iorder is given to any other party. and
any such transfer shall cause the an
nulment of the contract or order
transferred, so far as the United
States are concerned All rights OF
action, however, for any breach OF
such contract by. the contracting par
ties, are reserved to the United
States"
I'm view of the statement by Mr..
Antrim, l think it fair to say he did
not know of this statute.
Quoting again from Mr.. Antrim
"All lands under the project,
operated under an irrigation dis
trict, will be compelled to pay
| just proportion of the costs and
expenses"
The following bill is before me:
House Roll. 1882: To Provide for
the Application of the Reclamation
Law to Irrigation Districts In ref
erence to the above bill, ] have the
report of House Committee on Irriga-
ton of Arid Lands, which report con-
tains letter from the acting secre-
tary of the interior, E. c. Finney and
Mr.. Finney offers the following
amendment to the bill and the amend
ment was adopted and Embodied in the
bill as shown by the committee report
Provided: That no such lien so
reserved to the United States in
any patent or water right certi-
hcate shall be released until the
owner of the land covered by the
lien shall consent in writing to the
assessment, levy, and collection
by such irrigation district of taxes
against said land for the payment
to the United States of the con-
tract obligation"
1T is fair to assume Mr.. Antrim is
not aware of this proviso else he
could not we'll have made the state.
ment he did. We quote again:
That the organization of an ir-
j rigation district will also serve
to permit liberalized loans on pro-
ject lands, particularly under the
Farm Loan Act"
. Several months ago this office tool
the pains to find out the facts as t
the question of Federal Farm Loan.
on project lands and have a Letter
from the presiden, of the Fedora
, Land Bank, Spokane, Washington
, from which l quote the following:
Under the law the Federal
Land Bank must secure first
mortgage lien. If the lien for
water is direct lien against the
J land, loans cannot be made by the
, Federal Land Bank unless the
former lien be retired. You refer
to the Boise project and you
state that a large portion of the
land is patented under the Act of
y August 9, 1912, and you ask if