The Washington times., 1924-12-25
GROWTH Of
At TITlU)E
SHOWN
Government Still Makes APP
preparations For irrigation
In Fertile Sections
By WILLIAM HARD.

Dill Whlch apprOprlAteS VSf0sUUU
for Investigations" and "con-
struction" and Operations" on an
irrigation project in the Salt
Lake Basin in Utah.
Thus that project gets started.
Since it is started it must be
continued.
Therefore, the current appropri-
alton bill for the Interior Depart
nent, now in the Senate, carries
an appropriation of 5000, 900 for
the irrigation project in the Salt
Lake Basin in Utah.
PeOpling the Desert.
So we are about to expend an
other huge sum Of money in a
Western State for ''peopling the
DESERT"
That is the picture which The
public will form of the prospect.
President Roosevelt started the
Reclamation Service in the Interior
Department to people the desert"
The argument was:
ISIS Wo nave ah kHlo u0ScEI,
which is doing no good. Let US
make 1t blossom with roses and
bloom with a new additional home.
loving, God-fearing, and alfalfa
growing population"
That was the argument. That
was the idea. That was the justifl.
ton Of the whole adventure.
It was to take arid unirrigated,
unpeopled lands and give them a
population.
On no other argument could the
Reclamation Service ever have been
Iegislated into existence.
Progress Of PaternaIism.
Now observe, however, the prog
Fess Of paternalism.
What is the condition of these
lands in the Salt Lake basin for
which these new reclamation" Ap-
preparations are being made?
Thase lands are already irrigated.
They are already peopled. They
tude. They consist of farms. They
are inhabited by farmers who ara
growing crops.
Why, then, are we going to spend
all this money on irrigation works
for them?
Why, because, although they have
water, they just simply want more
water.
1t 10 just as If a lot of farmers
in Louisiana should say:
Here we have our lands. We
are growing crops on them. We
are settled here. Our lands are
dry enough so that we are grow.
ing crops and staying here. How
ever, our lands are not dry
enough. We would like them
drier. We could then grow more
and other crops. So let the Fed
eral Government come down here
and build for US a system of extra,
additional drainage"
Cases Parallel. +.
The two cases would be precisely
parallel.
Our Reclamation Service started
Cry lands wet. 1t has now ad-
vanced into being service for
making wet lands wetter.
Presently somebody will start q
service in the Federal Government
for making wet lands dry, and
then In time that service will de-
velop into a service for making
dry lands drier.
In fact, the bill just signed by
the President bill calling itself
q deficiency" bill-contains an
appropriation under which the
Bureau of Reclamation is to obtain
necessary information to determine
how swamp lands may best be
developed"
Thus even under Calvin Coolidge
Federal paternalism proceeds to
ever larger and larger exploits.
1t also proceeds to be not only
more expensive but more benignant.
The farmers in the Salt Lake ba-
sin Of Utah, who are now growing
crops which are called field crops,
and who want to turn from field
crops to garden truck crops, and
who accordingly have succeeded in
persuading the Federal Government
to loan them the vast SUM Of money
desired by them for doing IL, will
repay that money on terms illus.
trating paternalism's farthest phil
anthropic recorded fling, unless
gan, in charge of the Interior De-
partment appropriation bill, gets the |
Senate to join with him in his ef-
fort to stop It.
Il AS Cramton Sees It.
Congressman Cramton expresses
the situation as follows:
The old reclamation act provided |
I. Tor the repayment of the cost of |
construction In twenty years with |
out interest. The new deficiency
bill provides for the repayment Of
the money. not in stated annual
\ portions, but with reference to the |
gross crops produced upon the farms. |
Under this method It is estimated i
that instead of the money being re!
paid In twenty years without inter.
est 1t will run from thirty-five to |
( forty years without interest, and az |
to certain Of these new projects the |
director of reclamation gave us to |
understand that probably the time |
80 repay would be as much as one
hundred and thirty.cight years with |
out interest
Here then is desert which is