The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-03
RECLAMATION
GROUP TO AIR
FEDERAL STEPS
Body to Tour West and De-
eide If Policy Is Worth
While.

By Scrfpps-Hotcdrd Newspaper Alliance
WASHINGTON. Oct. S.-Declar-
ing that the time has come for an
honest appraisal of the United States
reclamation service and the part it
is playing in the west, Secretary OF
Interior Ickes has dispatched fact
finding committee to visit the gov
erment's reclamation centers and re-
port in December.
The committee on federal recla-
nation policy includes John w. Haw
of the Northern Pacific and F. E.
Schmitt, editor of the Engineering
News Record. A third member Will
represent agriculture.
The investigation will shed light
on a controversy raging for a dec
ade between farmers of the east
and west. The former allege that
the government should not spend
money bringing in new land when
there is a farm surplus now de-
pressing agriculture. The west
points to reclamation as the ma
TONS greatest sef-liquidating and
enriching project.
Six Dams Building
Since the Reclamation Bureau
was started under Theodore Roose-
welt in 1902 the government has
built eighty-flve dams and now is
engaged in constructing six more.
in a recent report. Secretary Ickes
and reclamation commissioner Ell
wood Mead cited these facts in sup
port of the reclamation policy:
More than 100000 acres of desert
have been transformed into prosper
Gus farm land.
On reclamation reject lands now
are $4,000 farm homes, supporting a
population of 177,000 people. The
projects have aided in the develop
ment of 227 cities and towns with
additional populations of $4,000.
The east benefits from this new
wealth and buying power. In 1899
one federal project bought 1877 car
loads of merchandise, not counting
what was brought in by truck. To
seventeen of the projects in 1882
went $4,000 carloads of manu-
featured merchandise valued at
$120,000000, while from them were
shipped 113,400 carloads of produce
valued at $159,000,000.
Taxpayers Not Stuck
The value of reclamation project
corps in 1929 was, however, only IL
per cent of the value of all United
States crops.
Reclamation projects are built
from a revolving fund, which is re-
turned to the government through
annual payments from water users
No part of the expense is paid for
by taxpayers.
No activity of the government
has brought greater private and
public benefits to the nation than
the money spent on these govern
ment reservoirs. Many more are
needed. Unless they are built scores
of Impoverished communities will
give up and thousands of farms
will be abandoned.
This would be a national loss as
we'll as local disaster. 1t ought to
be averted An unhappy ending to
the courage, sacrifice and industry
of thousands of worthy people who
blazed the trails and began the de-
velopment of irrigated agriculture
would be national calamity.
The future Of cities, railroads,
mines and factories, as we'll as
farms of the arid region, rests on
the measures taken for the con-
Servation of the waters of western
rivers. Water is the dominating
factor in all its development. Fed
eral reclamation is meeting a ma
tionai economic need and averting
a crisis in the business and indus
trial life~.of the arid region.