East and South, to begin the reclamation of the arid West. The fight which Senator Newlands has been waging, practically without assistance, to bring about systematic control and conservation of the Nation's water resources promises the only feasible method of ever putting a stop to the rivers-and-harbors pork-barrel grab.
Senator Newlands is up for renomination on the Democratic ticket in August and for reélection in November. At the time of writing all efforts to bring out a contestant for the Democratic nomination had failed. Samuel Platt, a former U. S. district attorney of Carson City, is the lone contender for the Republican nomination.
Tasker L. Oddie, the present governor, has no opposition for renomination at the hands of the Republicans. Only one candidate, Lemuel Allen, a former lieutenant governor, is making an active canvass for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Underneath the surface Nevada is tiring of the monotony of life, according to reports, that followed the reform wave of two years ago. This wave not only swept the lively colony of unaffiliated affinities out of the state, but it also put an end to roulette, faro, horse racing and similar divertisements. Though popular opinion is divided even in Reno on the question of relaxing the speed laws in favor of mismated couples, sentiment in western Nevada appears to favor horse racing plus legalized betting. under the pari-mutuel system. Body and substance were given these reports when George Wingfield, the banker, miner and stockman who actually declined a proffered appointment to the U. S. Senate, came out as a Republican candidate for the state senate and advocated bookless betting at the racetracks. It is not impossible that the next legislature may legalize pari-mutuel bets even if the present strict anti-gambling law remains unaltered.
Reclamation Put in the Pork Barrel
THE reason for the mysterious delay in the passage of the bill which extends the time of repaying the cost of Reclamation Service works from ten to twenty years became apparent late in July when Rep. Underwood, leader of the House majority, caused the passage of the measure after it had been amended so as to transform the entire Government reclamation work into another pork barrel. This was accomplished by the addition of a section which provides that in future no money shall be spent on new projects unless Congress has made the appropriation.
Hitherto the Reclamation Service, a non-partisan, non-political organization of technical men, has investigated new projects, reported on their feasibility, and, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, begun and carried out the work. Technical, financial and administrative factors only entered into the selection of sites for new work.
Under the plan of Rep. Underwood, a plan apparently hatched many months ago and sprung only when the crying needs of thousands of settlers called for Congressional action, the reclamation work would be under the absolute control of the politicians in Congress. Appropriations would be made or withheld for log-rolling purposes, new projects would be selected for political rather than technical reasons, the reclamation work would take its place alongside of the rivers and harbors improvement bill, the public building bill, the navy-yard graft and the mileage grab as a pork barrel from which to reward the faithful.
Under the pork-barrel system many a creek has been "improved" against the protest of the Army Engineers who declared that the money would be absolutely wasted; many a public building has been erected in hamlets whose receipts in a hundred years would not equal half the cost of the structure; every year appropriations of several millions are made for the support of navy yards the abandonment of which has been recommended by a generation of successive Naval Secretaries; fifty millions a year are Squandered on unearned or excessive pensions; the cheap mileage graft has brazenly withstood the scorn of two decades, all for the greater political glory of a few hundred politicians. And now these politicians, hungry for more perquisites, are preparing to degrade and prostitute for their own benefit the organization upon which the arid West must largely depend for an important part of its future growth.
If the West does not rise and block the passage of the amendment in the Senate it will be because the West has not grasped the import of Underwood's scheme. Porkbarrel methods and politics will surely bring about the death of Government reclamation work in the arid West.
