White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1926-01-08

a natural reservoir which it was plan
ned would be improved and made to
supply these farms and hundreds of
thousands of acres of good land, fur
Their down Snake River, with water
The settlers waited and waited, year
after year. Their funds were ex-
hausted. They could raise no crops.
And one by one they gave UP the
struggle and moved away.
! Twice American Falls Project
The dam and reservoir at American
Falls, had they been built, would
have averted these tragedies and
other tragedies due to shortage Of
water on some of the irrigated dis
tricts further down. But 1T would
cost about $10,0O0,000 to build this
dam and reservoir and impound suffi-
cient water to irrigate these lands.
The government did not have the
money to carry on the work.
There are other irrigation projects
in Idaho that suffered the same fate
from the same couse. The Black Can
yon dam, at Emmett, in Gem County,
was dream for many years and that
dream held hundreds of men and
women on desert claims, waiting for
water" But the Black Canyon dam
and reservoir would cost several mil
Hon nd hn 1i1
not have the money.
And yet the oleomargarine manu-
facturers defrauded the government,
by the simple trick of selling uncol-
ored oleomargarine and giving the
coloring to the purchaser, out of ST.
246,362, or enough to have built and
equipped all of the proposed irriga-
ton projects in Idaho.
What Would 1t Mean to Washington
/ What is described as the biggest IL
rigation project ever planned in the
United States lies almost wholly in
the State of Washington 1t is the
Columbia Basin project. 1t would
irrigate nearly 100000 or fertile
lands in Eastern Washington-lands
that would produce millions Of dollars
in crops every year, whereas, without
irrigation, crops are uncertain and
many farms have been abandoned be-
cause of this uncertainty, just as they
have in Idaho. The cost was placed
at $193, 100000.
Let us see how long it would take
for the tax on oleomargarine to pay
for this project-if the government,
instead of the oleomargarine manufac-
turers, got it. 1t would require less
than nine years to pay for the Colum-
bia Basin project if the oleomargarine
manufacturers colored all of their
margarine and paid the 10 cents a.
pound tax on it, and the people could
use that sum for completing the Co.
lumbia Basin project. The lodging"
Of this tax on colored oleomargarine
means something to the people al
Washington, does it not?
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What Would 1t Mean to Oregon?
am not as conversant with Ore
gon's irrigation needs as / am with
those of Idaho and Washington, but
know there are a number OF irriga-
ton projects that were turned down
cold' by Secretary Work, and Com
missioner Mead because there are no
funds available to put them through.
Coored Oleonargarine
The Agricultural Yearbook for 1923
shows that in the fiscal year ending
June 80 there was made in the United
States total of s,26O,0OO pounds of
colored oleomargarine. It is supposed
that the tax of 10 cents pound was
paid on this, and that would mean
$4,000 paid in taxes on the colored
imitation of butter.
If this petition, which is to be pre-
sented to congress, succeeds in get
ting all taxes removed from oleomar-
6oA 4AO We may lOOh LII CAO u1dhuldS-
ture of this product to be greatly in
creased, for it will then be colored
and made to more closely resemble
butter, of which it is counterfeit,
and the markets will be flooded with
it. Men, women and girls will be
employed to go from house to house,
canvassing and urging the use of this
substance. The manufacturers and
salesman of oleomargarine will be
given standing of semi-respectabil-
ity, for they will not have to dodge
the law with a trick, as at present,
and the dairy industry will receive
blow from which it will be difficult to
recover.
Killing the Farmers
Friends
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