In the face of this impending disaster, the people of the valley are compelled to meekly submit to any and every demand and exaction of the Mexican Government, as well as those of its petty officers, no matter how unreasonable or unjust, and no matter how heavy or how burdensome they may be. New taxes are levied and collected, apparently, according to the exigencies of the Government-and the exigencies seem both frequent and great.

Mr. HAYDEN. Do you pay duty on materials taken into Mexico to repair the levees?

Mr. SWING. We pay a duty on everything; we pay duty on the rock that we take in there to protect their own lands; they charged us $25,000 on the very rails over which we haul the rock that we take in there to protect them. And when we go to pay them their charges, if we do not pay in gold, and there has been no gold there in the last few years, they discount our money at 7 per cent.

Mr. SINNOTT. When did you send those rails in there?
Mr. SWING. Two or three years ago.

Mr. SINNOTT. Did you ever ask our Government for any in a diplomatic way?

assistance

Mr. SWING. Not upon that proposition; but I appeared before the State Department upon a proposition of securing a waiver of duties on material for protecting the levees. I saw the Solicitor for the State Department.

Mr. SINNOTT. Mr. Breckenridge Long?

Mr. SWING. No; Mr. Baker. And he said, "If you want us to make representations to Mexico City, I will do so. It is reasonable and it is right, what you ask; and I would make representations in the matter to any other nation in the world with confidence of their being granted; but I will tell you in advance that the mere expression to Mexico of the fact that this Government is interested in this proposition and asking that it be granted as a favor would insure its being denied."

Subsequently, I received a letter sent through Ambassador Fletcher in which the Mexican officials said that it was without their power to grant the request.

We have also from time to time had " favors" asked of us, i. e. of the Mexican corporation, which it would have been very undiplomatic to have refused. We were invited at one time to build a road of a certain length in Mexico. We are not in the road-building business, and are under no obligation to build roads, yet we built the road.

At another time certain Mexican tenants down in that section above Volcano Lake who were growing cotton wanted the use of the railroad on our protective levee to haul their cotton. If the cotton came out, the Mexican Government would get $12 or more a bale duty on it. We were requested to grant these cotton growers the favor of hauling the cotton out. We were then busy raising the protective levee; we were not in the freight-hauling business; it was a private road built for protection. And yet, as a matter of diplomacy, and because we knew the situation could become worse, we granted most graciously the favor requested, interrupting the building of the levee to haul cotton out.

The real injustice of the present arrangement is that it throws the great burden of the upkeep of the system entirely upon the American farmer; while giving the Mexican lands first claim to the water. The

Mexican lands pay about one-third as much per acre for water as the American lands. On both sides of the international boundary line the water user pays 50 cents per acre-foot for his water, which goes toward paying the general running expenses of the system; it does not completely pay them.

But on the American side the farmer, in addition to this, pays $2 per acre a year and up to his mutual companies to maintain the distributing system, and last year paid $3.25 per $100 assessed valuation to the district. The Mexican landowner pays nothing that is the equivalent of this tax.

Last year the American lands paid into the district $750,000 in taxes, which was used to pay interest on bonds; the money from the sale of the bonds having been used to make permanent improvements, most of them in Mexico, and to make general improvements during that year in the system. Most of these improvements were made in Mexico, and were just as vital to the Mexican lands as to the American lands; and yet the Mexican landowner did not contribute one cent to this cause.

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Somebody asked Mr. Davis if he knew what the attitude of the Mexican landowner was. I will tell you: We were preparing last year to spend $500,000 in raising those protecting levees in Mexico. It occurred to some one that we had never asked the Mexican landowners to contribute; it was said we had condemned them unjustly. Why, they are Americans; they are good fellows; they will do the right thing. Let us ask them to voluntarily contribute something, because this work will benefit their lands." And one of the directors made the trip, with the consent of the rest of the board of directors, to Los Angeles to see the head of the corporation owning the most land, and asked what amount he thought the Mexican lands would contribute toward this protective work. And when he asked him how much they promised, he said, "Not one cent."

Since that time the American people of the Imperial Valley, by a vote of 5 to 2, have ratified the contract to build the all-American canal. Since that has been ratified Harry Chandler, of the Los Angeles Times, appeared in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, and in general words said, “Count me in on anything like the improvement of the Colorado River." That was the same Harry Chandler who told one of the directors of the Imperial irrigation district that there was nothing doing when it came to their bearing any portion at all of the cost of protective work to protect his own lands. They will only do what they have to do, and this American canal is necessary before we can get any just settlement.

Do you know that they charged us for the right of way for the land on which we built these canals and for the borrow pits from which we get material for the protective works to serve their own lands? If this bill is passed, gentlemen, there is a probability that we can get together with those fellows; they will be just as reasonable as it is necessary to be, and no more.

Mr. HAYDEN. Aside from Mr. Chandler, who are the other American citizens interested in this land?

Mr. SWING. The Cudahy people are one interest.

Mr. TAYLOR. Do you mean the Cudahy Packing Co.?

Mr. SWING. Yes; it is called the Imperial Development Co. down there.

Mr. TAYLOR. Who else?

Mr. SWING. The Southern Pacific Railroad Co.

Mr. BARBER. No; that is the Southern Pacific Land Co.

Mr. TAYLOR. It is a subsidiary company of the Southern Pacific Co., is it?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARBOUR. Yes; the Southern Pacific Co. operates the railroad and the Southern Pacific Land Co. owns the land.

Mr. SWING. Then there is an English syndicate down there.

Mr. HAYDEN. Does that syndicate have any representative in the United States?

Mr. SWING. I met Col. McLean here.

Mr. TAYLOR. Who is Col. McLean?

Mr. SWING. He said he represented this English syndicate.
Mr. TAYLOR. Is he an Englishman?

Mr. SWING. He talked like one.

Mr. HAYDEN. And who else?

Mr. SWING. Well, the Colorado River Land Co.; and they have another organization, too, but controlled by the same people; they own a great quantity of land through there. There are about 20 small landowners.

Mr. EVANS. You are speaking of Mexican lands now?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir. When I say "small landowners" I mean 2,000 or 3,000 acres each. There are about 20 small owners in there holding lands that were subdivided; but outside of that it is mostly owned by the Otis-Chandler Syndicate.

Mr. EVANS. I did not understand your statement about those people not paying their share of the cost. Would not those people be liable in a lawsuit for not maintaining the protection works and holding their water together?

Mr. SWING. If so it would have to be in a Mexican court; what is done down there is done by authority of the Mexican Government. That would be a very poor remedy.

Mr. LITTLE. Is it not a fact that this corporation which is distributing the water down there could quit business without being subject to any penalty?

Mr. SWING. Exactly. It is just like a street railroad; so long as it operates it must observe the conditions of its franchise; but whenever it desires it can quit, and the concession will only be forfeited.

Mr. TAYLOR. Has not our Government guaranteed or has not that private corporation agreed it would furnish water, and could they not be required to do it?

Mr. SWING. Absolutely not; there is no American corporation now existing which has any legal obligation, or has ever contracted to deliver water.

Mr. LITTLE. The acquisition of water rights does not include any duty by which a man must keep on supplying water?

Mr. SWING. No, sir. It is a "rake-off," if you gentlemen know what I mean by that. [Laughter.] It is a duty on the transportation of water through Mexico-paid not in cash, but in water.

Mr. TAYLOR. It is just handing them half of your water on a silver platter, as I see it.

Mr. LITTLE. If you do not go through there, you do not owe them anything.

Mr. SWING. Exactly. And on the other hand, the American lands have put into the irrigation system, through the district organization in excess of $7,500,000-$6,000,000 in bonds and $1,500,000 raised in direct taxes-all of which has been used-$3,000,000 to purchase the system, and the balance to improve it and add to it. The Mexican lands, which get the greater benefit from the resulting works, paid not one cent of this.

The American farmers put up all the money for buying the system, for building 36 miles of new canals and works in Mexico, which make possible the reclamation of over 100,000 acres of new land in Mexico, for constructing the annual temporary diversion wiers to get the water out of the river, and for building a fleet of dredges to get the silt out of the canals and keep them open; and in return they get what water the Mexican lands do not use or waste. The American farmers suffer and have to prorate their water in times of shortage; the Mexican lands are never short. This conditions is becoming more aggravated every year. So much for the Mexican situation.

Now, the Yuma situation I will discuss as briefly as I can. If Mexico threatens us from the south, just as grave a danger exists for us on the east, where the Yuma project threatens to prevent us from getting any water at all out of the river. The circumstances are these:

In 1909 the Colorado River, at a point about 20 miles south of the California boundary line, broke through its west bank and began flowing down the Bee River into Volcano Lake. The fall toward the lake was much greater than the grade of the old bed of the river toward the Gulf, and the river at once started scouring and cutting down its bed. The recession of grade continued steadily upstream until it finally reached our heading, lowering the bed of the stream to such an extent that it became and is now impossible to get water out of the river and into our canal in low-water season without the aid of a weir or diversion dam.

The Federal Government undertook to put the river back in its old channel, which would have restored the bed to its former elevation and would have left us free to get the water without the use of this weir.

Mr. HAYDEN. What is the nature of the works at the intake?

Mr. SWING. It is an immense structure. These two photographs at the top [indicating card containing photographs] show the present intake structure, which we built at an expense of about $300,000, and $200,000 more to connect it with the old canal. This [indicating photograph] represents Hanlon headgate, which was abandoned, and which is now used merely as a check should the river break into the canal, which parallels the river. [Passes photographs among members of committee.]

Mr. LITTLE. Does the same corporation which owns that system own the new one?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir; it is the Imperial irrigation district, which the people own.

Mr. LITTLE. Would it avoid any possible complication to have two different corporations own the different systems?

Mr. SWING. I do not think any complications follow.
Mr. LITTLE. Well, I do not know that they would.

Mr. SWING. I say the Federal Government undertook to put the river back in its old channel. I do not want you to think that I am ungrateful to our country. But the fact is we received no benefit from this work. This money was expended, of course, and the spirit in which it was expended is appreciated; but the results were nothing. Mr. LITTLE. When was the first water taken to the Imperial Valley?

Mr. SWING. In 1901.

Mr. KETTNER. When was the first water taken into Yuma?

Mr. SWING. Do you mean through the Yuma system?

Mr. KETTNER. No; I mean through this.

Mr. SWING. I think that was about 1911 that the siphon was completed pleted and put in use for carrying water from Laguna Dam to the Yuma project.

The dam that the Government built was breached in 1911, the very year that it was completed, and the river has run right through it ever since.

The CHAIRMAN. In what year was that new passage made by the river?

Mr. SWING. The river broke in 1909, and the work was prosecuted down to 1911; then they pulled up stakes and left.

Mr. HAYDEN. The first break was closed in 1906.

Mr. SWING. That was by the Southern Pacific; the Government never put any money on that.

The CHAIRMAN. When that work was done, was it deemed adequate to meet the danger?

Mr. SWING. No; the Government work was a complete failure. The CHAIRMAN. The Government simply gave up the remedygave up the job.

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir. It was recommended by the President the year following that they renewed the undertaking; but, largely through inability to get anywhere with the Government of Mexico on an agreement to let our country go down there and spend the money, they finally gave it up; and it appeared that it was as dangerous as it was at first thought to be.

Mr. LITTLE. How far is it from the California State line to the Gulf of California?

Mr. SWING. About 60 miles, I believe.

Mr. SMITH. If this all-American canal is built, will it be necessary to build the levees above Volcano Lake to protect the lands of the Imperial Valley?

Mr. SWING. They must be maintained; yes, sir.

Mr. SMITH. In that case, you would have to get a permit from the Mexican Government, would you not?

Mr. SWING. Well, I can not imagine anybody refusing to allow you to improve their property?

Mr. HAYDEN. They have not refused heretofore, but they have penalized you.

Mr. SWING. Yes; they profit two ways; first, the protection derived from it when completed; and, second, the taxes and duties they collect while the work is going on. They collect duties on the material that goes into the protection work. We have had as many of 500 men down there working, and all at once a crowd of Mexicans will show up and claim that the night before there was a head tax im