Evening star., 1923-10-21
UNCLE SAM HOLDS BAG
IN RECLAMATION WORK
Secretary Work Will Strive to Undo
Mistakes and Instill- Business
Principles.

/
recorded at the Department Of the
| Interior. E-e
- In In one project. where the cost OF
farmer at $3.50 an acre. the actual
| cost is $3.50 an acre. On 600-acre
farm this difference is between S750
estimated and $2100 actual cost Of
| maintenance.
! The estimated cost of building one
project was $40 an acre. while the
actual cost of construction was $72
an acre.
In another project the estimated
cost was SIS an acre and the actual
cost $96
IN still another project the gov
ernment contemplated irrigating
area embracing 10000 acres To
! this end canals were built to irrigate
72,000 acres, while the actual num-
ber of acres under irrigation finally
amounted to $1,000. The estimated
cost of maintenance in this case wav
virtually doubled for the water
; users.
| But $4,000 Repaid on One.
! On one project which has been I,
/ running for FIFTEEN years the gov
ernment has spent about 100000
The settlers were under origina
/ agreement TO repay this amount il
twenty years. The actual amount paid
| to date has been about SAL 900. This
! leaves a balance of 81, 959, 600 to be re
paid in five years.
| Another project has been in opera
| tion for about thirteen years. Its
| cost to the government was approx :
mately $1,000 900. The government
J has received from this project about
I $500 600.
| Still another project has cost the !.
! government approximately 100000
! TO build. the government still is >
losing money annually for its main
! tenance, while nothing has been paid :
| back on the original investment.
Instances such as these, and there =
| are more of them, together with +
| stacks and stacks of letters to the
! department from settlers complaining
/ OF conditions, might indicate that !
! reclamation is a failure.
But within the reclamation bu
| reau itself there are many men who
/ have spent years of studious appli-e-
| cation to the reclamation problem
| TO whom these instances are an old
story and who are still far from cor
vinced of the failure of reclamation
/ and who are ready and willing to De
| investigated every day if necessary.
Can Lift Head Proudly.
The reclamation bureau itself is so
| accustomed to being investigated
/ that it can lift its head proudly
| among the government agencies
which have undergone. from time 10
time, this more or less trying ordeal.
Secretary Works investigation is too
| broad in its scope TO confine itself :
merely to the question of whether or
not the reclamation bureau itself has
/ been deficient. He states the fact
! himself that he is only anxious that
| the investigation develops policy
| TO safeguard the future of govern
ment reclamation, and he declares
! further that no comprehensive, in
| dependent and comparative study of
a Tfi a or fai
, ure of reclamation projects has ever
| been made before.
But Investigations Of the reclama-
tion service have been conducted
ganized in 1907. Every congressional
| committee called upon for approprf-
ations has gone into the matter OF
reclamation, and very little has been
done to remedy the principal evils
outlined by Secretary Work.
Reclamation Started In 1902.
Reclamation started in 1902 tile
law creating the service contempla-
ting a revolving fund which should
originate from revenues from public
lands, oil leases. etc. and be applied
partially to retaining waste areas
Settlers in this reclaimed land
would repay the original cost Of the
project at the rate of 10 per cent
year IOT d pSTiOu Oh Wnlte
the government bore the expense Of
maintaining the projects until paid
for.
1t looked too good and too easy to
be true to the hearty settlers who
proposed to take over this converted
land and turn it into prosperous
farms. But they found It harder
than 1t looked. 1t took years to get
the farm on its feet, to purchase
necessary Equipment, to construct
suitable buildings. and at the same
time to keep paying off that 10 per
cent every year. And about 1912 the
reclamation work began to present
the same problem it does today. The
farmers couldn't meet the payments
The time had TO be extended. A law +.
was passed year or so later making
the farmer pay certain percentage
| of the construction cost when he tooi>
over the land, and then gave him
five years leeway before the rest OF
the payments started. The time for 3
from ten to twenty years. and things
began to look up for the farmers.
Farmers Plunge During war.
There are those who believe nov
that If It hadn't been for the war,
the present law which allows the
farmers twenty years to repay the
government would have been a sue
I cess. But there was a war. The
farmers became prosperous and be-
gan sinking their surplus cash into
more land. Instead of buying TWEEN
ty acres and paying cash, they bought
:. a hundred acres and borrowed money
which looked then as If it would BE- 4
easy to repay. Then the crash-thc
banks frightened UP, and the farmer
was put in the hole again. with no
markets and no money. He was =
forced TO stop paying the govern
ment for his water and for his land
because he couldn't. He began to
cry for another extension. and in
/ every case where it seemed the
farmer was in earnest and in actual
Interior granted him extensions.
Some of the settlers were evicted,
but a very small percentage, for to
evict those who couldn't pay would
be to rid the land of more than half
it's tenants.
Discrepancies Explained.
The discrepancies which exist be-
tween the estimated costs of the
projects and the actual cost are ex-
planned In two ways by the reclama-
tion service. There have been cases,
| where the settlers themselves urged
that the government do more in the
way of irrigation than the original
investment called for. The govern
ment acceded to their request, with +.
the result that the actual cost was
| far greater than the estimated cost
| ancy is found in the increasing costs
| of labor and materials, the estimate
being made before the great Increase
which made itself apparent in every
| industry. Two suits against the gov.
! ernment grew out of this difference
hetweeD the estimated and the arfuaJ