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Show RECLAMATION OF THE ARID LANDS 669 credit terms calling for a tenth of the cost to be paid the first year and substantially smaller payments the next 3 years when the settler needed his capital for improvements." Fisher thought the provision of the law that withheld title until the settler had completed his final (10th) payment for construction costs, which might be well over 10 years after he had first filed his declaratory statement, was unnecessarily harsh. Many needed to borrow to finance improvements and yet could not mortgage their claims, though a good deal of capital and labor had already been invested in them. He therefore recommended that reclamation homesteaders be allowed title, subject to the government lien for unpaid installments of the construction charge, after 5 years, if they had lived continuously on the land and made improvements for 3 years. Congress dealt promptly with this issue on August 9, 1912, by allowing titles to issue at the end of 3 years of residence and improvements if all sums then owing had been paid. The government's lien on a claim was properly safeguarded, while the land subject to the lien could be mortgaged. Purchasers of water rights for private land entered into the same agreement with the government's lien being placed on the land until the full construction assessment was paid.100 Fisher conceded that engineering skill of a high order was needed in the selection, planning, and construction of reclamation projects and wished to continue with the same able leaders of the past, but at the same time he believed that other skills were needed in the Reclamation Service, particularly those involved in human relations. Wise administrative leadership as well as engineering training was essential in the administration of each project. Pay- ment, previously made to officials of the General Land Office, should, he felt, be collected by the staff of the Reclamation Service who were more closely in touch with users and could make adjustments more easily than the more remote land officers.101 Though engineers were to continue to exercise great influence in Reclamation, after Fisher's period their role was never to be as predominant as it had been earlier. It was fortunate that Fisher's humane policy toward settlers on reclamation projects was followed, for the government's irrigation projects were falling into serious trouble. Settlers were in arrears, little more than half the land for which the projects could provide water was in use, privately owned land within the project areas was held at too high a price to permit buyers to pay the heavy charges also, soils were proving less fertile than anticipated, and many settlers were ill-adapted to the pioneering conditions on new projects. Perhaps the greatest error in planning had been the total disregard of drainage. In his report for 1913 Director Newell said: The rise of the water table and tendency toward waterlogging and seepage of lands, except where protected by drainage works, has continued over portions of most of the projects during the past year. In some cases this rise has been sufficient to render the land unproductive and unfit for cultivation. In others it is sufficiently high to threaten the irrigability of the land at an early date if not controlled.102 Settlers were discouraged by their failures and their accumulating debts, the need for drainage, which meant additional costs, and the high water charges which left little if any net profit to those who had bought their holdings at inflated prices from private owners. They needed some encouragement and further aid from the government. 99 Reclamation Service, Twelfth Annual Report, 1913, p. 7. 100 Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1911, pp. 5-6, and Annual Report, 1912, p. 7. 101 Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1911, pp. 6-8. 102 Reclamation Service, Twelfth Annual Report, 1913, p. 20. |