The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1947-10-02
j ensen Assures
Pro ect Support

Representative Ivor ID. Fenton
of Pennsylvania and Representa-
tive George +. Schwabe of okla
homa, key members of the house
interior department appropriations
committee, accompanied Jensen
on his tour of the countryside.
Congressman Hal Holmes, rep
Iresentative from Washington'S
fourth congressional district, play
ed host to the visiting congress-
men, TO whom he expressed his
unqualified support of the pro-
jected development.
After listening TO brief state
ment Of the projects scope and
future, made by Jay Perry, chair
man of the Kennewick Irrigation
Committee, Jensen declared that
the attitude of his committee
would be favorably influenced by
the prospect that the project might
pay out in full in less than the so
years allowed for repayment.
The 1900 acres Of reclaimed
land now in production here will
be expanded to 20,961 acres when
the present project proposal is
approved and completed. In pre-
senting an outline of the project
to the congressional delegation,
Perry stressed that the land pro-
posed for reclamation is even more
desirable than that now under ir-
rigation.
Approximately 80 per cent Of
the new acreage has been classi-
fled as class I land, 81 per cent as
class ii land, with the remainder
as class III and class Iv-H land,
Perry explained. '"'@ss"
Sale of power will repay S.
322, 800 of the project cost, he
continued, leaving only $3,IO7,72O
to be repaid by land holders over
the fifty year period. Fish and
Wildlife funds in the amount of
$683 1898 will be expended in the
development, but are not reim-
burseable. Ew .EE -T-7a.
Perry also stressed the condi-
ton created in the Kennewick area
by removal Of an estimated 5000
acres OF land from production,
when the Hartford project was
constructed. The resulting land
deficiency, he told visiting con-
gressmen, has never been replac-
ed. - +
Nor is this the only effect of the
wartime development, Perry pro-
ceeded. Tenancy on the acreage
left under cultivation has been on
the sharp increase, as new resi-
dents settle in the locality. In
1910, there were IT'S owners of
land, where 500 live now. The
result has been to constantly di-
minish the size of land holdings
to point where many farms have
been virtually cut up into home
sites.
Accompanying the congression-
al party to Kennewick were c.
Girard Davidson, Assistant Secre-
tary of the Interior; Frank A.
Banks, basin bureau chief; Will
liam Dey Ermand, secretary to
Congressman Jensen; Major S. e.
Hutton, director Of information
/ for the Bureau of Reclamation;
and Ralph Williams, administrative
assistant to the director of region
of the Bureau of Reclamation in
Denver.
Making up the reception party
that greeted officials upon their
arrival here were Frank d. Maui
pin, secretary of the Irrigation
Project committee; committee
members f.. r. Gtagg, Frank
Lampson, N. l.. Foraker, E. J.
Brand, and HI. G Fyfe; David
James, Benton County extension
agent; Harold Schultz, assistant
extension agent; Jack Mcclure,
of the agricultural development
division of the Northern Pacific
railroad; F. M. Ludlow, general
manager of the Church Crane
Juice Company; A. r. Burr, agron-
omist for the Charles II. Lilly com
pany Of Yakima; Paul E. Thomp-
son Of Priest River, Idaho; and
M. M. Moulton and Charles T..
Powell Kennewiclr af4oy-na,,e