White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-05-01
0, WAD SOME POWER
THE GIFTIE gle U.S..

/ VdlicyI He caught on lately, some
| how, to the fact that the state was
conducting a land settlement project
here for ex-service men and became
at once intensely interested. He
rushed madly into al meeting of the
Yakima Post of the American Le-
gion about the first of April, altho
it is said he had not attended meet
ing of the Post for three years pre-
vious, and m AIDE an impassioned
Speech" demanding that the Post
make an investigation to find out
just how the boys over here were
getting along.
Not considering the matter to be
very serious, the commander of the
Post appointed Mr.. Burianek- or
Observation-Disclosures Of an in
vestigating committee, and the stage
was set for him to buckle on his
armor and in the role of Don Quixote,
to sally forth TO attack the wind
mills and other Pigments of his inn
agination. Four other men of the
Post were appointed on the COM
mittee, three of whom stand very
high in the estimation of their fell
low Legionnares, and the actions
of at least two of them while the
Investigation" was being made
tends to justify this opinion of them
But their importance seems to have
been ovcrshadowed by Mr.. Burian-
ek's-or Boomeranik's- b e n
that the settlers over here needed a
Heaven sent champion.
The committee left Yakima one
morning about two weeks ago and
under Burianek's--or Boomeranik' s.
direction, landed right in the midst
of the few malcontents on the prof
ect. Whether this was accidental or
otherwise is left to the imagination
of the reader. After spending FIVE
or six hours in the valley, during
which the committee claims to have
talked to IL or Is settlers on the
project, and to Project Manager
]. G. Scott, the committee returned
to Yakima to make its report to the
Post. Before this report was finally
agreed upon it is said that a real
battle took place between the men,
bers of the committee. Burianck-
or Boomeranik-wanted to condemn
the. whole district over here while
other members wanted the report to
conform more to; the truth and facts.
The result, as is generally the cases
was compromise. Being impressed
with his own importance as chairman
of the COMMITTEES, Burianek-or
Boomeranik--sensing chance for
little cheap publicity, sought to
have the report published in the
newspapers. But the executive COM
mittee of the Post informed him
that the information was secured
only for the Post and refused to
allow it to be cveBS sent to state
headquarters. In fact, the report
promised to- create so much d:ssen-
sion in the Post itself that the ex-
ecutive committee voted to table it
without even reading it to the mem
bers.
Stripped of official authority to
get his name in the papers, Buria-
nek-or Boomeranik-playing on the
fact that he was chairman of the
committee, got an interview on the
front page Of last Saturdays Yak
ina Republic, giving his personal
views on the subject and was quite
generous with his advice as to Just
what the state ought to do about
the whole matter He says the loca-
ton of the project in this valley
was great mistake on the part of
the state and American Legion who
sponsored this location, and if it
were his investment he would simply
write it Off the books as a total loss.
Even if the state should give the
settlers clear title to the land / do
not believe they would survive five
years" says this learned authority
"The overhead is excessive, the soil
has not been proved and the water
supply is questionable" is another
gem he dropped. He says that aspara-
gus and grapes are about the only
crops that can be grown here sue
cessfully and he wants to know
why the state should encourage
the sinking of money in an en-
tirely experimental proposition when
it does not know what the con-
ditions will be in FIVE years?" and
condemns the whole country over
here on the ground that the soil is
no good and the water supply doubt
full.
After reading Mr.. Burianek's-or
Boomeranik's lament one can
not help but feel what tragedy it
was the state did not know of his
existence when it was seeking the
proper location for the project. Of
course it sent in the state hydraulic
engineer, soil experts and biologists
and other experts of one kind and
another to prove the soil conditions
and water supply. These men spent
vUaa Hc ~
ms, the assistant state geologist,
prepared and had published parnph-
let, or bulletin No. 26, covering
some IS pages on the water supply.
1t is no secret that the state did
not want, for political reasons, to
locate the project in this valley.
But the report of every expert the
state sent in just made the chances
OF locating It somewhere else i'm
possible.
While these experts spent years
in qualifying themselves to do their
respective jobs and spent weeks in
Their investigations here Mr.. Buria-
nek-or Boomeranik-was able in a
Six hours jaunt through the valley
to determine that they were all
wrong. And what about the old
timers who have been farming here
tor the last is or 20 years and paid
four or five times what the soldier
settlers paid for their land7 If, as
Mr.. Burianek-or Boomeranik-
says, the soldier settlers will starvc
out in FIVE years just how does he
account for these cid timers HANGING
on? Maybe If he took a day or two
OH from his important business ac-