Mr. TAYLOR. Let me say that there are some people who want to add to one of our Colorado projects on the south side of the Grand River, and Mr. Davis said to them the other day that the Reclamation Service will charge them $300,000 for connecting with the dam that is built in the Grand River right below where I live.

Mr. LITTLE. What did the dam cost?

Mr. TAYLOR. I do not know what it cost, but I think he charged them about one-third.

Mr. SMITH. The gross construction cost of the Yuma project is $9,000,000.

Mr. SWING. I do not mention that to make any point out of it. I simply say that, in our opinion, it appeared to us at the time that it was more than a pro rata charge for what we were getting. But we made no objection at all at any time, and we do not now. It is a question of getting somewhere, and the Secretary says, "I assess you so much." We said, "All right; we will pay." And I say that is all water that has passed under the bridge. We have no choice. We have to go there.

We recognize the Yuma prior water rights up to one-fourth of the water in the river, arranged the question of the division of the power, so that Yuma gets cheap hydroelectric power, practically at cost, and we are now ready to go ahead, except for the question of finances. Mr. Davis said they have just completed the final report on the survey and they are now ready to commence work. I want to correct him in one respect. He said $30,000. It is $45,000 which was expended upon this survey, $30,000 having been put up by the Imperial irrigation district and $15,000 by the Secretary. That is found on the first page of the pamphlet on file. That does not make much difference, but it is just that much more detailed and a much more carefully made survey.

As I said, it is now largely a question of finance, and the Imperial irrigation district, as Mr. Davis correctly says, can not swing that big a financial proposition by themselves.

Twenty years ago, as you men from the West know, the irrigation idea ran away with people. As at one time before banking laws were perfected there was wildcatting in banking; you and I know that 20 years ago there was wildcatting in irrigation projects. Those wildcat propositions have brought grief to many people and have put fear into the investor, so that anything that is now marked CC water bond" or "water district bond" or "irrigation district bond" finds a very slow sale and cold market in the Eastern States by men who have in the past suffered through such investments.

It is a fact that you may say there is nothing in a name, but there is something in a name. The school bonds and the municipal bonds of the Imperial Valley sell to careful bond buyers who investigate the assets back of the proposed bonds. They have sold at a premium, very high, since Imperial Valley has been on the map. And yet when you offer irrigation district bonds, and they are named, it seems to depress them in the market.

The laws have since been perfected, but still we have found little market for our bonds outside of the State of California, and that is a limited market, where it would be impossible to absorb a bond issue of this size.

Then, too, in our particular buyer looks at the case the bond map and sees from a glance that our water is delivered by us out of all physical and legal control and possession; not only the water but the works are out in a foreign country, and a foreign country whose reputation for stability is not very good. That decries at once our credit and depresses the market for our bonds, as you can very readily see. This and our annual controversy with Yuma and the Government over our diversion gives our bonds a black eye.

And the additional fact, if anything additional were needed, was the decision of the Federal farm loan bank to withdraw from Imperial Valley. While it was not made public in the sense of publication, yet you know how those things pass among financiers through the underground railway. I found that all the financiers of the Pacific coast knew of it before I did. And it makes it impossible for us to float any considerable amount of bonds such as those.

In conclusion, I say that the construction of the all-American canal is absolutely necessary. It is necessary if we are to get our irrigation system out of a foreign country and under the protection of a stable government, if we are to get it out of Mexico and under the Stars and Stripes. It is necessary if the Imperial irrigation district is to be permitted to conduct its affairs on a business basis with an efficient organization and central management. It is necessary if 60,000 people and crops on 400,000 acres are not to be left dependent upon an uncertain intake, but are to have an adequate supply of water based upon a permanent diversion. It is necessary if we are to end our annual controversy with Yuma, which threaten either to destroy their country or our own. It is necessary if the United States is ever to undertake the reclamation of 500,000 acres of land now too high to be irrigated from any existing canal or from the district's intake, fully one-half of which is unentered public land now worthless, but with water could be made into homes for 100,000 people. It is necessary if our Government is going to save an entire American community from ruination and prevent its very life being sapped out by a foreign country. It is necessary if you are going to save Imperial Valley from the menace of 800,000 acres of foreign land which threaten to drain our canals of water and leave our homes and farms to divert to the desert.

The all-American canal must be built, gentlemen, and we have the necessary assets, we have the potential wealth, but it is difficult, if not impossible, for use to realize the cash upon them without your assistance.

You can do this thing for us, you can make a success of this great undertaking, you can free 60,000 American citizens from the domination and tyranny of Mexican control, you can remove from Yuma a menace that threatens their project. You can give to Imperial Valley an adequate and permanent source of supply of water and remove the constant threat of their drying up and reverting to the desert. You can make possible the reclamation of a veritable empire and turn a half million acres of worthless desert into one of the most productive communities in the world. You can prevent the spoilation, by foreign lands, of a sturdy American community and make secure for all time to come the right of the American farmers to use American water on American soil for the making of American homes.

You can do all this, gentlemen, without the cost to the United States Treasury of one single dollar. You can do it by merely saying to the financial world, "We have confidence in those people and in their country."

Is that asking too much, gentlemen, on behalf of a people who on their own resources, and God knows how small they were, by their pluck and courage, and God knows how great these were, with indomitable spirit and determination fought the forces of nature, and God knows how hostile they were, fought and conquered and won for themselves and for their posterity and for the American people forever an empire rightly and truly named Imperial. Before the advent of these hardy pioneers this country was known as the land that God forgot. Since they reclaimed it and made it what it is the popular author, Harold Bell Wright, in his novel, The Winning of Barbara Worth, refers to it as "the land God holds in the hollow of His hand." Will you give just and fair recognition to these people for what they have done? Will you help them to hold what they have won? Will you help others to reclaim these outside lands and make new homes for thousands of people and add another empire to our Nation's resources.

In the name of these people whom I represent, in the name of thousands who desire a chance to earn a home for themselves, in the name of what I conceive to be right and just, I ask your favorable action upon this bill.

Mr. SINNOTT. I want to ask a few questions. What is the present indebtedness of the irrigation district?

Mr. SWING. $6,000,000.

Mr. SINNOTT. What is the assessed valuation of the property?

Mr. SWING. The Imperial irrigation district's assessed valuation is about $25,000,000. It assesses only land, and it assessed that at the hightest rate, $50 an acre; from that down to $5 and $1. The market value will average $150 per acre.

Mr. SINNOTT. What is the aggregate?

Mr. SWING. I think $25,000,000 is the aggregate, according to their last assessment. This is on the land only within the district. The proposed project will embrace more than 900,000 acres.

Mr. SINNOTT. Have you tried to sell bonds sufficient to construct this all-American canal?

Mr. SWING. No, sir. We have not actually voted or undertaken to put them on the market. We have made tentative inquiries.

Mr. SINNOTT. How long would it take to construct this all-American canal?

Mr. SWING. Mr. Davis answered that question this morning. I think he said three years.

Mr. SINNOTT. You were going to explain your purchase and control over that canal here. Did you do that?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir; through the ownership of the stock of the Mexican Co.

Mr. SINNOTT. I wish you would explain what justification there is for giving the Imperial district the preference right to the water

under section 12.

Mr. SWING. I think it is the law, based upon prior appropriation and use, and it is common, ordinary justice to those people who went down there when the odds were all against them, who tried out this

experiment at the time the United States Government itself, in a published pamphlet, declared it was doomed to failure, who risked everything they had, put the best part of their lives into it, to try it out, and now, having won, I say it is not fair nor just to say to them, "You have got to divide it with somebody who comes in after having waited for you to try out the experiment." There is only one place I know of where it says a man who comes in at the eleventh hour shall be made equal unto the first, and that is in the Bible; and, as you remember, it was there denounced as unjust, resulting in the first labor strike in the history of the world as a protest against it.

Mr. SINNOTT. How much water will be needed to irrigate the district, and how much water will the canal carry?

Mr. SWING. The all-American canal?

Mr. SINNOTT. Yes. There will be a great surplus of water there over what you need?

Mr. SWING. Yes; there is no question about that. I can only refer to that in general terms, but it will be later presented very completely. I know this; I know the times when we were needing water it was running past our intake, and if we could have gotten it we could have used it. I know that even after that we wasted it and lost it through this poor canal system in Mexico.

Mr. SINNOTT. Of course, according to the contention of some, we will have to predicate any legislation that we pass upon the proposition that we are going to improve Government land, and there is a lot of Government land there to improve, as I have been informed, in the east and west mesa. A serious objection might be made to giving the Imperial district the preference right to the water over this public land upon which we will have to predicate this legislation. Mr. LITTLE. Is there any analogy between assisting you and giving all these land grants to the railroads that were built out in the West? Mr. SWING. I think there is some analogy.

Mr. LITTLE. If that was justifiable, do you think this would be, even if there was not any public land?

Mr. SWING. I do.

Mr. EVANS. What is your expectation of the increase in population, acreage, and security?

Mr. SWING. Inside of the district?

Mr. EVANS. Yes; acreage and security?

Mr. SWING. The existing security will be greatly enhanced, and 500,000 additional acres will be added. I can say most conservatively that the district is not 50 per cent developed, in my opinion. The holdings will, by natural process, be subdivided. If the all-American canal is built, the population of Imperial Valley will doubtless be tripled in the next 10 years.

Mr. SMITH. Are there any large farms in there now, farms of a thousand acres?

Mr. SWING. There are a few, probably a half a dozen. Of course I am leaving out this large syndicate in the north end, which is selling land on the market as fast as it can in quarter sections and half sections.

Mr. SMITH. It has thirty or forty thousand acres?
Mr. SWING. Yes.

Mr. HAYDEN. If you have accurate figures as to the amount of State land, railroad land, Government land, and land in private ownership, particularly the land in private ownership, it will be highly desirable to place them in the record.

Mr. SWING. I will be very glad to do that.

Mr. TAYLOR. We want to have the data there to answer any charge of land grabbing, or speculation, or benefiting some large landowners, real estate jobbers, and all that sort of thing.

Mr. WELLING. I would like to ask you the present estimated cost of water per acre in the Imperial district?

Mr. SWING. You mean the cost of the system to the land?

Mr. WELLING. Perhaps I do not state it correctly. We buy our water right for an acre of land up in our State. Do you own it down there?

Mr. SWING. It is a dual proposition; yes, sir. They first pay from $20 to $30 an acre for what they call a share in these mutual water companies.

Mr. WELLING. What is it worth now?

Mr. SWING. It is worth that.

Mr. WELLING. $20 to $30 a share?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir.

Mr. WELLING. That is a primary charge, and then there is an annual charge each year?

Mr. SWING. Yes, sir.

Mr. WELLING. What is the annual charge each year under this project now?

Mr. SWING. $2 an acre. This is to the mutual water companies.

Mr. WELLING. I mean the total cost to the farmer. If I had a farm of 40 acres, what would I have to pay for the use of the water for a year?

Mr. SWING. I will have to give it to you in two sections. The first charge is from $20 to $30 per acre for what we call water stock in the mutual water company, and $2 an acre per year assessment on that.. Mr. WELLING. I want the annual maintenance.

Mr. SWING. Then, in addition to that, his land is bonded by $6,000,000 worth of Imperial irrigation district bonds, and in addition to that he pays an annual irrigation-district tax. This last year was $3.25 per hundred, which would be $1.62 per acre.

Mr. WELLING. Can not somebody tell the aggregate cost per acre of annual rental?

Mr. TAYLOR. How much does the farmer have to pay in cold cash a year?

Mr. ROSE. They pay 50 cents an acre-foot for that water, and on the average use about 3 acre-feet of water per acre per year, which per acre per year. That gives you $3.50. Then, in addition to that, they have the maintenance of their system, which averages about $2 per acre per year. That gives you $3.50. Then, in addition to that, you have about $1.50 to $1.65 irrigation-district tax, which runs it up to about $5 or possibly $6 per acre per year.

The CHAIRMAN. The tax mentioned by Mr. Swing is paid on the bonds. That is paying the bonds off. And the bonds represent the $20 an acre which was the cost of the permanent water right.

Mr. ROSE. No; that $20 was paid the mutual water company in cash.