White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1927-01-14
SPEAKER URGES WATER
POWER Development


Water power isgt the golden key thl
will unlock the natural resources o.
the state of Washington and make i,
the greatest manufacturing state in
the Union, declared the report of the
stream flow investigation committee
read at the morning session of the
fourteenth annual meeting of tht
Washington Irrigation Institute at the
Chamber of Commerce in Seattle last
Friday, according to the Seattle Times
c. E. Magnusson, dean of the col.
lege Of engineering at the University
of Washington, presenting the report
as chairman of the committee, told
the institute that the estimate of g..
100000 horsepower Tor the streams
of this state is far too low.
1T is now declared by noted au-
thority," he said, that in the Colum-
bia River als,ne there is go, ,03j, ,GS01uI GS01uI
horsepower awaiting development. The
proposed Priest Rapids power project
Washington could be made to develop
at least twice as much horsepower as
Shoals. The Columbia River has for
future development twenty-seven times
as much power as the Muscle Shoals
project can ever give"
Development of Washington's water
power, far exceeding that of any other
state, linked with intensive develop
ment of its agricultural resources
through irrigation of vast areas of
land that is now desert, the COM
mittee report asserted, ultimately will
give Washington permanent industrial
leadership in the sistertood of states.
The committee report dealt at length
with the water resources of the state
for irrigation and power use and made
technical recommendations tor ,Ileir
survey and allocstion.
A similar linking of industrial and
agricultural development in Washing
ton was visioned also by E. F. Blaine.
Seattle lawyer-fatmer and one of the
states pioneer airrigationists in a
paper read before the institute this
forenoon on Irrigation at a Fore
runner of Manufacturing"
Another speaker at the morning ses-
sion was Judge Carroll B. Graves of
Seattle who spoke on the need for
revision Of the laws covering the or
ganization and management of irriga-
tion districts and introduced a reso-
luton asking the, institute to name a
commission TO revise and codify these
laws.
Widely different views on the fu-
ture or the reclamation in the state
were exp essed at the meeting. K.
X. Tiffany, state hydraulic englneM,
lead tine report OF Erie 4. Barnes,
state director of conservation and
development, in which Mr.. Barnsc
said tnat the experience of recent
years has SHOWN that it is neither
wise or necessary" to emphasize the
issiamation of arid 8ands, adding that
the paramount problem is to market
the crops already being produced.
He characterized the development of
the White Bluffs Hanford pr3jeet
as "uneconomical, un-American, So
c.alistic, paternahstic and contrary
to the best interests Of the settlers
and the state"
An exactly opposite view was ex-
by D. A. Kern OF Eilens-
burg, president of the institute, who
declared that the need 2or food is
growing faster than the food pro-
ducticn and in view of the fact that
it takes Is years to bring an irri-
agtion project into full production it
would appear that within the, next
decade this nation will have use for
all the land that can be reclaimed.
Another view somewhere midway
bstween these two was expressed
by DR.. John A. Widtsoe, former
president of the University of Utah,
and a noted irrigation authority.
go ahead-but with caution" he
told his hearers. He said that the
day of the dreamer is past and gone
so far as irrigation is concerned,
and that land reclamation in the
future must be made in accord with
the sound economic principles which
he outlined.
DR.. Widtsoe said that states en-
gagged in irrigation should:
/. Make sure that the project will
lave permanent water supply.
Q. Extend greater aid 10 settlers
along technical lines.
8. Make projects self governing.
4. Arrange for repayment on the
oasis of the productivity and income
Of the land benefited.
Arid land reclamation of the future,
he said, would not be as it often had
been in the not distant past, jump
ing off into the unknown. but would
be the extension of the existing pro-
ects rather than the invasion of J
the new deserts. The development
Of the Kittitas project in this state,
now being made, he cited as an ex-
ample Of the proper kind Of devel-
opment by extension. I
Before adjournment Friday even
ing, the Institute adopted a reso-
uton urging the state legislature
70 make nrovisiony, through the prop
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