heartily in favor of the bill because we hope that it will get rid of that constant menace of the Hanlon Heading Dam.

Mr. SWING. Colonel, did you ever hear talk of violence down there between the people on both sides of the river?

Mr. FLY. Yes, sir; I have heard some of my distinguished fellow citizens of Yuma County say that if they put another rock in there they would go in there and blow it and you to Halifax.

Mr. SWING. Well, you have heard a number of them say it, haven't you?

Mr. FLY. I have heard quite a number of them, and I have heard them say if any of the board of governors would vote to allow you to put another dam in there, one said he wouldn't exactly head the mob, because he was not physically strong enough, but he would follow any mob to go and put a rope around their necks and hang them if they let you put another dam in there. Now, that brings up this question-my friend Judge Swing wants

Mr. SWING (interposing). I want to show up the situation as actually acute, and I want you to show this situation.

Mr. FLY. Now, don't get away from this point, that we want that connection made with Laguna Dam for the purpose of doing away with that temporary weir. Personally we don't care a continental whether they ever build the all-American canal or not; we want to save our own lives. Their dam in 1916 caused an overflow to come through the city of Yuma, and the water was 6 feet deep in our main street caused by that dam. We don't want that to occur again.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Thomas C. Yager desires to make a statement in support of this bill on behalf of the Coachilla Valley County water district. We will now hear Mr. Yager.

STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS C. YAGER ON BEHALF OF COACHELLA VALLEY COUNTY WATER DISTRICT IN SUPPORT OF H. R. 6044.

Mr. YAGER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, as a representative of the Coachella Valley County water district and of the people of the Coachella Valley I am before this committee earnestly urging the passage of bill H. R. 6044.

We are not asking in this bill that the United States, as an eleemosynary institution, appropriate or donate moneys to this territory known as the Imperial and Coachella Valleys, but we are here merely asking that you provide the machinery making it possible for the people of this country to develop a million acres of land into one of the richest producing territories the United States possesses, and upon a sound business basis, at their own expense and the expense of this land.

I say to you that it is a sound business proposition, and those engineers who are not actuated by influences other than their better judgment will openly lay their figures before this committee and tell you that it is. Let me present to you some figures. According to engineering estimates approximately 1,000,000 acres can be irrigated from gravity flow of the Colorado River, this territory being the Imperial and Coachella Valleys. There are about 584,000 acres of this land within the territorial limits of the Imperial irrigation district, and approximately 150,000 acres within the Coachella Val

ley County water district; there are about 400,000 acres under actual cultivation in the Imperial irrigation district, and the representatives of that district have told you what has been produced and what can be produced by this land..

Let me tell you of Coachella Valley. Approximately 8,000 acres are being cultivated in the Coachella Valley, this land being irrigated by means of artesian and pumping wells. The water supplying these wells comes principally from the watershed of the San Jacinto and San Gorgonia Mountains, which percolate into the underground streams and flow into the basins underlying the Coachella Valley. This water supply is limited. It is conservatively estimated that the water supply of this valley is not sufficient to put more than 20,000 acres under cultivation, and even now the drain upon the wells is gradually lowering the water level from year to year.

During the season of 1918-19 the Coachella Valley, with its 8,000 acres of cultivated land, grew and produced foodstuff of a valuation of over $1,000,000, an average of over $125 per acre. Of this 8,000 acres approximately 500 acres were planted to onions, which netted a return of approximately $800 per acre. Their grape crop netted the farmers a return of over $500 per acre, and I will state that this 8,000 acres consists of several hundred acres of young date trees which are not bearing or producing, while some of the eight and nine year old trees netted the grower from $2,500 to $4,000 per acre. Early vegetable and other crops have been very favorable.

It costs the farmers to develop water for this land between $50 and $75 per acre, and from $20 to $40 per acre per year for the pumping of this water on the land, depending upon the lift, and with these expenses the farmers of the Coachella Valley have been prosperous and consider their farms sound business propositions.

And I say to you, if this 8,000 acres in the Coachella Valley will stand from $50 to $75 per acre for water development, which it has and does, then the 150,000 acres within the valley, which consists of the same soil, and has the same climatic conditions, will.

Witnesses have shown you that the Yuma Valley lands within this same territory have averaged $113 an acre production for this season, and the million acres susceptible of irrigation from the Colorado River will do the same if this committee makes it possible for them to be irrigated by these waters.

There can be no sounder business in this country than farming, for without foodstuffs this country could not exist, and is it not a sound business proposition to spend $50 per acre, or even $75 per acre for water development, when these same acres bring a net. return of over $100 per year, year after year?

Not alone is this bill introduced to make it possible for the development of a million acres of some of the most productive land in the United States, but it is for the immediate protection of the very lives and property of 60,000 people in Imperial Valley.

The people of the Coachella Valley know the situation that confronts the Imperial Valley people, and they have accurately told this committee of their predicament and have not exaggerated the dangers that confront them.

These people are between the devil and the deep sea. The Yuma people on one side and the Mexican interests on the other, and they come to you asking relief. They come to you asking relief through

a proposition which benefits American citizens and injures none, a proposition which has received the sanction of the Department of the Interior, a proposition which can be built and paid for by the people and the land of this district, a proposition the cost of which is not disproportionate to the securities furnished and which will pay back to this Government dollar for dollar with 5 per cent interest, a proposition which will not only protect the lives and property of these people, but will enable the citizens of our country to put under cultivation thousands of acres of land producing untold wealth.

It has been asked if the construction of the first leg of this canal, or the connecting canal from Laguna Dam to the present canal near Hanlon Heading, would not solve the problem and be all that is necessary. My answer to this is that it will not; that to build this connecting link to the present Imperial irrigation system and not to build an all-American canal means the turning of the American waters of the Colorado River into Mexico to irrigate Mexican lands while American farmers and American lands beg you for this water. Even if such a proposition was satisfactory to the Imperial Valley, and even if such a construction would satisfy the Imperial irrigation district with its 584,000 acres, the Coachella Valley and outlying territory, with an equal number of acres of unirrigated land, could not sit idly by and see the waters of the Colorado River turned into Mexico to irrigate Mexican lands when these waters belong to the arid lands of American citizens without vigorously and emphatically protesting against such action.

There is no obligation upon the United States to furnish Mexican lands with Colorado River water, and to do so when our citizens and lands cry out for this water would be to flatly ignore the interests of American farmers and the development of American lands.

Gentlemen, I urge upon you the passage of this bill allowing our citizens to develop this land at their own expense and at the expense of this land, upon a sound business basis governed and controlled by the Department of the Interior with its most competent engineers. It is not a bill of appropriation, but a means by which the land of this territory will develop itself to the great interest and benefit of American citizens.

SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENT OF IMPERIAL VALLEY COMMITTEE.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, since the conclusion of our first statement a number of questions have been asked us by different members of the committee which seem to warrant the adding of this brief statement:

WILL MEXICO RETALIATE BY LETTING THE FLOOD WATERS INTO IMPERIAL VALLEY?

Ever since the agitation to get our water system out of Mexico began the big corporate interests south of the boundary line have "played up the threat of Mexican retaliation. It has been their trump card in their efforts to scare the American farmers out of doing anything to get control of their own water system. In justice to the Mexicans themselves it should be stated that this threat has never been heard from any Mexican official but only from American capitalists who want to retain their domination over Imperial Valley.

When the contract between the Secretary of the Interior and the people of the valley was being voted upon, paid propagandists were sent down from Los Angeles to secure its defeat, and one of their principal arguments was the danger of retaliation. The people of Imperial Valley, who are on the ground and know the situation thoroughly, rejected this plea and ratified the contract by a vote of 5 to 2.

The Mexican officials would be the last persons on earth to want to see. the river break in. It would not only destroy the cultivated area from which the Mexican Government derives much of its revenue but in all probability it would destroy Mexicali, the capital of Lower Califórnia, a city of between four and five thousand inhabitants, which is situated on the direct line the water would take from the river to Salton Sea. It is on the very edge of the deep New River channel. The Mexican landowners would not want to see the river break in. Not only would their lands be the first to be devastated but the force and violence would be greatest nearest the point of the break, and therefore the injury would fall heaviest upon their lands and that part which is in cultivation. Before the flood water reached the international boundary line it would have collected into the New River or Alamo River channels (which are sufficient in size to carry the entire flow of the Colorado River), through which it would pass on to Salton Sea without inundating a single acre of American lands. Lands in Imperial Valley could be flooded only if the river continued to run into Salton Sea uninterrupted long enough to back the water up on to the adjoining lands.

However, this condition would continue for only a short time, as the flood season is only for about six weeks in the middle of the summer, following which the river falls very rapidly, when the break could be repaired. For this purpose every drop of water could be turned out of the river at low season and wasted through the various systems. The closure could then be made on dry ground. The all-American canal is designed to carry a peak load of 9,000 second-feet, yet according to Le Rue report (No. 395, Irrigation Papers, pages 97, 98, and 99) the river went below 9,000 second-feet in September of every year between 1902 and 1914, except three years, and in those years it went below 9.000 in the month immediately following.

The difficulty in closing the break in 1905 and 1906 was that there was no by-pass or divresion sufficient to take out the water of the river while the repair was being made, but the dam had to be built under the heavy handicap of the constant overpour of all the water that was in the river.

THE COST OF THE ALL-AMERICAN CANAL.

The cost estimate of $30,000,000 for the all-American canal was made by eminent engineers, who have had ample experience in large enterprises. Mr. C. E. Grunsky was on the Panama Canal board, was special adviser to Secretary Hitchcock, was city engineer for San Francisco, and for several years was consulting engineer for the Imperial irrigation district. Dr. Elwood Mead has an international reputation as an irrigation engineer. Mr. Schlect, the third member of the board, has been connected for a number of years with the Reclamation Service and has handled some of their large works. They made their estimate only after a most careful survey and investigation, and it was made and based on war-time prices.

In addition to a most careful survey made on the ground at a cost of approximately $45,000, they had before them for their assistance and guidance on this subject the investigations, surveys, reports, and cost estimates of Green and Murphy, United States Reclamation engineers (1904), Sellew, United States Reclamation engineer (1909), P. N. Nunn and Anderson, Imperial irrigation district engineers (1913), Frisbie, Imperial Laguna Water Co. engineer (1915), and Joseph Jacobs, United States Reclamation Service engineer (1917). Sufficient to say that the present cost estimate of $30,000,000 is the highest price ever named for connecting Imperial Valley with Laguna Dam and that the present engineers, having the wide experience they have had, doubtless made ample allowance for unforeseen contingencies.

IS THERE A CHEAPER ROUTE AVAILABLE THROUGH MEXICO?

Mr. Davis, Director of the Reclamation Service, is authority for the statement that the difference between the cost estimate of the all-American canal cut through the sand hills and the cost estimate of the same canal built on a loop around the sand hills through Mexico is only about $2,500,000. The estimate of the loop was based upon a recognizance made on the ground by Mr. W. W. Schlect, project manager of the Yuma United States Reclamation project and member of the all-American canal board of engineers.

However, before even this saving could be secured, we would have to suffer the uncertainty and delay of securing a treaty with Mexico which would give

us this right. We have not made any noticeable headway in negotiating treaties with Mexico in recent years. Furthermore, it is not to be supposed that Mexico would grant us this concession unless our Government reciprocated with counter concessions of at least equal value. So in the end nothing would have been saved. The people of Imperial Valley would rather pay the difference-nay, twice over-and have their system all on American soil free from international complications.

WHY NOT BUILD THE FIRST LEG?

To build the one leg, or a canal from Laguna Dam to the boundary line, and then stop is the Mexican program, pure and simple. Such a canal could not truthfully be said to connect Imperial Valley with Laguna Dam. It would be a direct connection for the Mexican lands. The only "connection" Imperial Valley would have with the matter would be to pay for it when it was done. The increased amount of water resulting from the use of the improved diversion at Laguna Dam would be quickly absorbed in the rapidly spreading area of cultivated land in Mexico. The benefits would not be felt in Imperial Valley, but our lands would be burdened with the cost thereof, which would make it difficult, if not impossible, for us to ever finance the remainder of the all-American canal. We would be bound tighter than ever under the Mexican yoke. Yuma would gain by the construction of the one leg. It would remove the menace to them of our present method of diverting water, and upon the completion of the canal would give Yuma cheap hydroelectric power necessary for the development of her mesa. The provision for the development of this power is included in the contract executed between the Imperial irrigation district and the Secretary of the Interior.

But to build the first leg and make no provision for the completion of the all-American canal would be for our Government to unintentionally play directly into the hands of the Mexican land barons. Such a canal would not only give them a higher and more adequate diversion to be paid for not by themselves but by Imperial Valley, but it would also give the Mexican lands the thing they desire above all else, and that is a basis for a claim of a water right. For our Government to divert water over a Government structure, transport it through a governmentally constructed canal, and deliver it directly to a Mexican corporation organized to irrigate Mexican lands or even to do this thing indirectly with the full knowledge that the water so delivered was to be used in developing Mexican lands would amount to a virtual recognition by our Government that these Mexican lands had a right to the waters. Up to the present time our Government has most carefully and studiously avoided doing this very thing and is, therefore, fortunately in a position to protect its citizens and its own property rights in the waters of the Colorado River.

The existing scheme was "conceived in sin and born in iniquity," and by it the shackles were fastened upon Imperial Valley at its birth by exploiters who tried to give away to the Mexican lands, which they themselves owned, American waters worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Even if Imperial Valley were willing to continue the present arrangement of delivering virtually all the waters of the Colorado River into Mexican control the National Government, in the protection of its own property and as a matter of public policy, ought to put a stop to it.

In our efforts to free ourselves from Mexican domination and control we have been and are now being fought by all the power and influence of the big landed interests south of the boundary. If you have not seen the evidence of this it is because they think it best serves their purpose more effectively to fight from under cover and not in the open. When the contract executed between the Imperial irrigation district and the Secretary of the Interior, which provides for the building of the all-American canal, was up for ratification by our people, these interests fought that and sent their propagandists down from Los Angeles, as well as published full-page advertisements in the local newspapers. And that is not all. When they saw that the people were determined to build an all-American canal, as a way out from under the Mexican tyranny, these same interests undertook to cripple the financial credit of the valley to prevent their being able to carry out the undertaking. We believe the fact is, and if anybody looked it up they would find that the Mexican interests played an important part in persuading the Federal farm-loan bank to withdraw from Imperial Valley. We believe that if the truth were known-and it can be