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Show THE WESTERN WEB 45 Constitution, but it would hardly have been recognized in the provisions of the new reclamation program of 1947. No more than a few of the original bones re- mained. Carrying out the initial plan, the Congress of 1902 had established a Reclamation Fund. Into this fund would go money received from the sale of public lands and the income from various other natural resources. Out of this fund would go the money to pay for the building of irrigation projects. The farmers who benefitted from the projects would pay for them, but no interest would be charged by the government on the loans made on the irrigation works. That would be the government's contribution to a pro- gram considered to be of benefit to the entire nation. In 1942, the Bureau of Reclamation published a handbook. 5 It said: The Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, provided for the examination, survey and construction of irrigation works to reclaim the public lands, appropriating for this purpose receipts from the sale and disposal of the public lands in the 16 states and territories of the arid region, this money constituting the "Reclamation Fund." The act provided for the entry of the reclaimed lands in accordance with the provisions of the homestead law, which was modified in certain important particulars, among them the following: That the settler must repay to the Reclamation Fund the cost of constructing the works necessary to reclaim the land he had taken; that the entry could not be commuted; and that the area of the entry must be limited to an amount not less than 40 nor more than 160 acres. One year after publication of the handbook, officials of the Interior Department and the Reclamation Bureau began their campaign to wipe off the statute books the |