The Sunday Oregonian., May 21, 1905, PART FOUR, Page 44, Image 44

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OREGONIAN NEWS BUREAU.
IVasalngton, May" IS. The most
gigantic of the Government irri
gation construction work in progress
is the Salt River., or "Roosevelt," flam.
In Arizona, and considerable criticism
has been made of the course of the
Secretary of the Interior In setting
aside hetween $3,000,000 and $4,000,900
for this project, which will irrigate no
public lands, but only those already In
private ownership, vastly Increasing,
of course, their value. The work which
the Government will do under this
project will double and quadruple land
values, and in fact make much land
that is now practically useless worth
from $30 to $100 an acre. Some 200,000
acres will be irrigated " under these
works, and the artificial reservoir to
be formed by the Roosevelt dam will
be by far the largest In the United
States, with the incredible capacity of
nearly 400,000,000,000 gallons. This Is
three times the capacity of the great
"Wachusett reservoir, which is to sup
ply Boston, and twice that of the fa
mous Croton dam of New York's new
water works.
The criticism referred to of bulld
in'g Government works to supply water
to such a section as the Salt River Val
ley, where the lands are all in private
ownership, instead of going out onto
the desert and reclaiming public lands,
is one which will not hold upon sec
ond thought. The Salt River Valley
has been a famous section of the arid j
"West. Twenty years ago it was a vast,
flat plain, skirted by mountains re
flecting the wonderful colors and
tints of the southwest, but nourishing
only thev cactus and 'other desert
plants. The Salt River cut its center,
a sparkling, life-giving stream, and
private capital undertook to utilize its
waters for irrigation and build up a
great community. Dams were built,
canals were constructed, and thousands
of acres were planted to oranges, lem
ons, figs, dates, raisin and wine grapes,
almonds, pomegranates and all the
fruits and flowers of the semi-tropics,
Government Dam in Arizona Will Make a Vast
000 Gall
the payments of the irrigators, ths
Government Constructed an immense
cement mill, and will Itself manufac
ture the 280,600 or more barrels of ce
ment needed for the dara. A splendid
roadway, rivaling the mountain roads
of the Incas. has been built from
Phoenix to the dam, at a cost of over
$100,000. The cost of the entire. con
struction. $3,500,000. will be appor
tioned among the lands receiving the
water, to be paid back to the Govern
ment In 10 annual installments, and no
water-user can hold more than 16C
acres.
The River to Build Its Own Dam.
An interesting feature of the con
struction work is the power canal,
which has already been built. The reg
ular flow of the river has been divert
ed above the dam site, and at that
point is tumbled over the rocks, gener
ating some 10.030 electrical horsepower
to be utilized in building the dam- -Jt will
be required day and night for drilling,
moving great rocks, pumping, grinding
rocks and clinkers .mixing and han
dling cement and handling machinery.
The river Is thus being forced to erect
its own dam. After the construction
this power, added to large additional
power to be extracted from the heavy
fall of the river below tne dam site,
will be electrically transmitted to
lands not covered by the gravity canal
for pumping purposes, and by this
means fully 60,000 acres additional
will be watered from the underground
supply found throughout the Salt Riv
er Valley. t
An ample spillway will provide an
escape for excessive flood waters, and
a tunnel driven through solid rock will
enter the reservoir directly on its bot
tom to supplement the spillway and
also to allow for the discharge of sedi
ment from the reservoir.
The valley is already well provided
with transportation by the Santa Fe
and the Southern Pacific railroads, and
the exceptional climatic conditions In-
j sure an early market and high prices
Lake Holding 400,000,
m!mmmmu&bimmmf3Hmt - SSiSBmmmmmaSM : - M - iBIIHB
Wc ' j
not to mention broad fields of emerald
alfalfa where fat cattle stood knee
fleep in the luxuriant growth. But the
valley is today crippled and sick. The
canal system laid out was based upon
the heavy annual rainfalls which pre
vailed at that time, and sufficient data
had not been gathered to show that the
period was one or fat years, and that
che lean years of drought would surely
follow. They came, however, over the
whole Southwest, as can be seen by a
study of the rainfall charts of that re
gion, and the result has been that
thousands of acres of orchard and
farm have returned to aridity. The Old
Man of the. Desert came in and claimed
back his own. It is simply a question,
then, in tho Salt River Valley, and In
eonie other sections, as to whether it
Is not as good or better policy for
"LITTLE SERMONS" by Elbert Hubbard
EVERY truth is a paradox, and every
strong man supplies the argument
for his own undoing; each truth
is only a half-truth and the statement
of truth always involves a contradic
tion. "Wise men realize these things,
and so they cease to quibble. They
know you can explain nothing to any
one. it tne man does not already-
Know It, your anxious efforts to make
him see will all be vain and futile.
No student of pedagogics now be
lieves that the free use of the rod
evt-r made a child "good," but all agree
that it has often served as a safety
valve for pent-up emotion in parent
and teacher.
God only calculates on each man be
ing himself, and the presumption orig
inally was that he would be honest
The universe is not planned for duplic
ity. Statute laws, to a degree, aro con
trivances for revenge, but principally
for making the many pay tithes and
taxes to the few. Are the politicians
you know men who love their fcllow
tnen? I am fully convinced' thatj.he world Is
growing etter; but I "am- also fully
convinced that the jsrogress has not
be& Mie that many think. Any mas
who believes that God is everywhere,
that a certain divinity is In all men,
and that Deity manifests himself today
as much as ever he did, is still hailed
by many as an Infidel. Too much faitii
receives the same punishment at the
hands of the mob as none at all.
Sin is Its own -jmulshment. God
never punishes men for their sins; a
eelf-lubricating and automatic law
looks out for that. Men arc .not pun
ished for their sins, but by them.
As a cold business proposition, let mo
give you this: J would not trust an
amateur gambler as far as you could
fling Taurus by the tail.
Life Is a bank account, with so much
divine energy at your disposal. What
are you going to do with It? If you
draw your checks for this, you can
not for that tak your choice. And,
above, all, do not draw on the Bank of
Futurity by breathing bad air, keep
ing bad hours and bad company.
That was a foolish wish of Bobby
Burns. Let a man once see himself
as others see him and all enthusiasm
vanishes from his heart: and when that
is gone, he might as -well' jdle at qnce. j
for, enthusiasm Is the one necessary in-,
gredicnt la the recipe for doing good :
work, j
17 tho discharge was S35 cubic
feet per second. Increasing the
next day to 154,000 cubic feet, and
on the 19th to 276,000 cublc"fceUThls
was followed by a second greater
swell, until on the 24th a maximum of
500.000 .cubic feet was Tcached.'
The Roosevelt Sara is to control and
store such floods. About 60 miles
from PHoenlx the Salt River enters a
profotuttf 4ayoa. with lofty. rcl-
Itous walls and a narrqw floor. In
which Is located the. dam site. Above
the dam - the canyon opens Into wide
valleys, providing the most capacious
reservoir In the 'West.
"It would probably be Impossible to
find anywhere In the arid regies." said
Government Engineer Arthur P. Davis,
tho projector of this magaiaeaat ester-.
prl. "x storage jvrJt in wMch all
cn4kkas are al faverabU a la tkU
one. The capacity of the reservoir in
proportion to the dimensi6ns of the
dam is enormous, aad the. lands to be
watered are of remarkable fertility,
with a climate which may be clawed as
almost seml-ttepJc"
Air. Davis also made the Important
diecaverx that material for maktag
good Portland cement aad bricks lies
immediately by the dam site. He states
t&at tfc muoiiry 4am sow aadec eea-
struction will be absolutely permanent
s,isfe. solid and secure for all ages to
come,, a "art at th everlasting hills of
whiefa ItVlll feecdms an integral p&ru"
Findiag; that tho prices Bid ay" the
GMMRt manufacturer would a44 an
lacrMi ur4a -$tW,s r mors U
for the various' products of agriculture
and horticulture.
Tho- draiaage area of the Salt and its
tributaries - aggregate aora r 12,M-'
square miles, aad ssrae of the., moaai
&Ib Pks rant the 30isr.ee fierce tfci
sky at aa altitude of 1M09 feU
'A,'