White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-04-24

! day OF the combined departments Of
agriculture and conservation and de-
development, Erie ]. Barnes, recently
appointed director, made the an
nouncement that Frank III. Gloyd
former director of agriculture, and
Dan A. Scott, retiring director OF
conservation and development, would
remain with til. department for d
time until Mr.. Barnes familiarized
himself with the details of the Of
flee. Just how long these two mon
will remain is not known but &C.
cord'ng to Information received here
it will be until about the middle Of
May. \
The reclamation policy Of the
Hartley administration has not yet
been fully formulated, Mr.. Barnes
said. No action has been taken by
Governor Hartley or the department
on the Kittitas unit reclamation pro-
ject nor upon the soldier land set
tlement project in this valley.
Governor Hartley has set May
18th as the date on which he will
begin his personal survey of state
institutions and reclamation projects.
According to information received
from Olympia it is the intention of
the Governor to cover first the state
institutions on the west side of the
mountains. In that event it will
probably be about June LIST or pos
sibly later before he makes his visit
here to investigate the state land set
Element project. 1t is expected that
the Governor will be accompanied
on his visit here by his secretary,
A. r. Gardner, Mr.. Barnes, and pos
sibly two or three others.
DR.. Hinton d. Jones, past state
commander of the American Legion,
during whose regime much of the
land settlement work was carried on,
had an article in the April number
of The Pacific Legion, the official
publication of the Legion in this
state, covering the history of the
project. His story is divided into
statement of facts and conclusions.
Nearly every one familiar with the
project will agree generally with the
statement of facts and while there
are those who will take issue with
MIN on some of his conclusions, the
article is nevertheless interesting in
that it gives the viewpoint of one
who through his official capacity is
familiar with the project, yet who
is not personally interested in the
final outcome. The article follows:
At the session of the Legislature
in 1919 approximately $150,000. 90
was appropriated to foster a COLOMBIA
ton project somewhere in the State,
veterans to be given the preference
right. The State officials, after look
ing the situation over, realized that
this was an insufficient sum to make
success of an undertaking of this
kind. Therefore, at the regular SEES
sion in 1921, officials of the Amer
lean Legion and others interested in
the veterans welfare, asked for adj
ditional funds. This was granted, and
a fund of $300,Oo0.o0 became avail
able to carry on this work and the
project was placed under the State
Department of Conservation and De-
velopment, of which Hon. d. A.
Scott was director.
Mr.. Scott asked c. D. Cunningham,
who was at that time Department
Commander of the American Legion,
to appoint committee to assist him :
in selecting location for the pro-
ject. This committee was appointed
with w. D. Morland, Of Tacoma, as
chairman. After dcvoting considerable
time and travelling over the entire
State, viewing many proposed sites,
the committee unanimously recon-
mended Priest Rapids Valley, lin
Benton County, on the Columbia
River, about midway between We
ma chee on the north and Kennewick
and Pasco on the south, to be, in
their opinion, the best location for
a project of this kind in the State.
The Department executive COM
mittee met and studied all of the
phases of the committees report and
after going into the matter thorough
ly, unanimously endorsed the COM
n1ittee's selection.
The project was started at once
in this valley with fifty twenty-acre
tracts, for veterans. About thirty-hve
tracts were taken very shortly, and
at the Wenatchee convention of the
American Legion in 1922 the project
was highly commended and the leg
islative committee was instructed rol
ask for further appropriations from
the State legislature at it's next SEES
sion to double the size of the pro-
ject. The legislative committee sue
ceeded in getting further appropria-
tons Of about S25o,oo0.0O to carry
out this work. Nothing was done
during the early part of 1923 about
securing additional lands, but the
Department of Conservation and De-
velopment devoted its energy to COM
pletely settling the first fifty units,
and the Olympia convention of 1923
directed the land settlement COM
n1ittee to meet with Mr.. Scott and
urge him to purchase sufficient adj
ditional land to complete the project
as soon as possible, because practi-
cally all of the first fifty units had
been settled. During December 900
additional acres were purchased and
arrangements made to bring the pro-
ject up to 100 tracts, as directed by
the 1928 session of the legislature.
Soon after this, dissension arose
among the settlers themselves; news
paper articles appeared at various
times reciting the pros and cons of
the controversy, as to whether the
project was being handled properly
and as to whether it was possible
for a veteran to make a success of
a farm there. A number of resolu-
lions were passed by various factions
on the project and broadcasted to the
entire State. These resolutions varied
in substance from utter condem-