Imperial Valley press., 1929-12-28
MITCHELL
RENDERS
OPINION
Money For All-American
Canal Building Not To
Bear Interest.
INTERPRETS l. AW
Attorney General Also
Approves Power Price
Set BY Wilbur.

W ASH NGlON, Dee. Is. UR)-
Attorney General Mitchell, in an
opinion on the Boulder canyon pro
jcct act which he presented to Sec.
retary of the Interior Wilbur today
held that advances for construction
of the All-American canal in Cali
fornia should not be interest bear
ing, that the S2J 100000 allocated
need not necessarily be amortizcd
within 80 years and that interest
on the unpaid principal should not
necessarily be paid out of power
Iovnue within 80 years.
The decision that interest should
rot be charged on advances for the
All American canal was based prin
cipally upon the Boulder canyon
project acts Incorporation of the
reclamation laws and its different.
alton between the dam and power
plant, which arc to be paid for with
interest out Of power revenues, and
the All American canal, which is to
be paid for under the reclamation
law "without interest"
at is my opinion that the secre-
tary of the interior is not required
in fixing the sale rates for power to
be generated at Boulder dam to
make provision for amortization
within the 30 years Of the $25, 5,000,-
600 allocated by the act of flood
CONTROL" Mitchell said.
Act Ambiguous
The act was described as every
ambiguous" with respect to the mat
ter of interest on flood control al
location in the opinion.
at does not seem reasonable to
suppose that congress intended TO
make the payment of interest on
the $2j,000,000 allocated to flood
control an absolute charge during
the 80 years when il left the pay
ment of the principal to the chance
that there might be excess earnings
during that period" he continued.
81 am inclined to believe that
congress intended that interest
should be ultimately paid on the
S25 100000 allocatcd to flood control
from the same source as is provided
for the principal that is out of 62.j
per cent Of the excess earnings dur
ing the 80 year period and theraf-
ter"
The opinion also approved the
tentative sale price of 163 mills
from power at Boulder dam which
has been set by Secretary Wilbur.
In commenting upon the decision
of the attorney general, G. l.. Chile.
crs, attorney for thc~irIig igatim dis
tr;ct gad one GA those most clostlv
connected with the drafting of the
so-callcd Swing johnson bill, de-
clared:
"This ruling of the attorney gen,
eral, being the final word upon the
subject, is indeed gratifying. The
subject is one that has been under
consideration fer number of wears
The matter was considered fully by
the proponents Of the bill mt all.
times before its passage and partic-
ularly the last few days before final
vote much care and thought was
given to this particular question,
and we have felt rather confident
OF the final outcome.
at means saving to Imperial
valley Of some 80 or 40 million dol
lars depending upon the cost of the
canal. Under the reclamation law
the cost is returned over a period OF
20 years so that in fact it means
that the cost Of the all-Amcrican
canal will amount to an average OF
= l-2 per cent per year after water
is available, over Il period of 40
years. In other words it is the equiv
alent of paying IL per cent in.
terest for 40 years and having the
principal forgiven"