Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-07-31

There has already been spent for construction
the four projects of this state 600. OF
that. only $62s,0O0 has been repaid. On four I'M
portant divisions not dollar of construction
these projects $2,S76,5OO. OF this only $s26,S0O
has been collected. All the money that has been
received would not the government what
it has expended in operation and maintenance. An
irrigation work that is not worth enough to pay
for its operation should not be continued.
Acting this conviction, arranging TO
sell the williston project. and have seriously
to consider whether the same action should not
be taken with regard to the Lower Yellowstone
project, where out Of ssssooo operating to
December 81, 1924 only $174.0O0 has been repaid
the deficit today standing at $4,000,
These results not believed to be due to lack
of agricultural resources. They the result
of too large holdings lack of belief in the neces
sity for irrigation, poor cultivation imitation in
the prices of privately owned land and the lack
of capital and equipment needed by settlers to
enable them to cultivate their land as irrigation
requires.
In considering new projects must remember
that thousands of farm areas under federal IT.
rigating bitches have never been farmed and other
thousands have been Abandoned that about half
million farms in the United States were abandoned
last year; that railways that once best
aid for settling the West cannot carry people
who will not ride and not interested in peo-
plng land with those who cannot produce freight
for them haul, We must be able to show congress
that have men enough in sight to work these
projects or congress- will not advance money to
develop them.
We are canvassing old projects to determine II
It is impossible for settlers to the costs and
charges assessed against them. We are making
a study of proposed new projects, their physical
features. fertility length of growing season, crops
adapted, markets accessible, financial require
ments of settlers. ETC., but principal concern
is to discover the attitude of the people, locally.
For I must certify to the congress these points:
whether the land is being held for speculation;
whether those living in town realize that the sue
cess of proposed project is vital to them; whether
the business disposed to exploit the new
venture to get the money appropriated by the gov
eminent Immediately, or to treat these new set
tiers as neighbors and community assets and not
as voters to be cajoled or strangers to be preyed
upon
II ia of vital moment to the future of fsderal
reclamation that first reclaim reclamation, that
sentatives, re-establish the enthusiasm brought
to projects by settlers, and discredt those who
to let federal reclamation continue to ride reck-
Iessly its own ruin without an effort to save
1t 10 those who by their and industry have
earned the right to home ownership.
Leaving settlement and agriculture to shape
themselves was a mistake that has cost the
reclamation fund millions of dollars and will cost
more" said Commissioner Mead at Denver "The
situation In the case of The older reclamation
projects has created financial conditions that can
be cured only by refunding settlers private debts
or getting a new body of settlers. This is not
conjecture; 1t is fact On some Of the projects
settlers were accepted without any inquiry into
their fitness and were given neither advice nor
aid. What Is the resuIt2 They have undergone
crucifxion. Many have lost their homes through
foreclosure. Payments not made to the gov
eminent. Nearly all this trouble has Its origin In
accepting unfit settlers and leaving the good ones
to struggle unaded against obstacles too great
for them to overcome"
ut Is purpose to build reclamation from
the ground up. From the farmer to the govern
nent, rather than from the government to the
dam and the dam to the desert says Secretary
Work "The reclamation bureau is not now being
conducted in the interests of individuals but for
the best interests of those who live on the land
and who we hope may eventually own it. 1t is
the human element involved In reclamation that
should be our first concern; to protect the inter
ests Of those already the land and prepare
for those we shall invite to come"