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Show RECLAMATION OF THE ARID LANDS 681 out the mandate of Congress in initiating studies for additional projects which now required congressional sanction for their adoption and at the same time was complying with the urgent demands of the arid West.137 Officials of the Bureau of Reclamation had good reason to pause and reconsider their objectives and procedures. On the existing projects slightly over a third of the units were tenant operated in 1927 and both farm abandonment and foreclosures were becoming fairly common. Mead continued to inveigh against the "evil of speculation," which had "been a vampire that has done much to destroy the desirable social and economic purposes" of the New-lands Act. He declared that this act had been "largely used as a life-saver for bankrupt private projects" but yet he was ready to rush into new ones where exactly the same problems were bound to arise-large absentee ownerships and aid to unsuccessful private enterprises.138 In the New Reclamation Era on a number of occasions Mead referred to the firm control he was about to establish on the newly adopted projects, whereby excess-land holders were to be denied water on 160 acres unless they accepted the appraised price for which they would dispose of their surplus lands, but he never got around to explain how the owners would be compelled to disgorge their holdings, though he did say the Secretary was empowered to order the excess land into market and sell it for what it would bring after 3 years of delay. He also brought out that where a holder was willing to reduce his holding to less than 160 acres, he could sell at the market price on condition that 50 percent of the excess over the Bureau valuation was turned over to the district as payment on the water charge of the tract thus sold.1"8 Mead seemed to be groping for some way to control the price of land within the projects which would avoid the violent changes in land values, prevent runaway prices in periods of rising prices, and assure the Bureau of Reclamation the right not only to determine the level at which the excess lands should be sold to settlers but also the price at which first settlers might sell to later comers. At times he seemed to come close to Henry George's view that the title should remain in the government and only occupancy rights be privately owned, but even here controls were needed to avoid the influence of speculation. Surpluses and Reclamation If the 13 far western states and the officials of Reclamation were convinced that Federal reclamation had been successful, there was a growing number of people in other sections of the country, and indeed in the Federal bureaucracy, who were questioning the wisdom of further development. Surpluses of cotton, wheat, fats, and other agricultural products, the production of which had been greatly expanded during the World War, were larger than could be easily marketed, the carry-over from one year to another was increasing, prices were depressed and so was agriculture generally in the twenties. Through their national organizations the farmers sought government aid in marketing their products and getting rid of the surplus through the export debenture plan or equalization fee. Failing that, these same organizations, their spokesmen in Washington, and many members of Congress were wondering how it was possible to justify expanding agriculture out- 137 Statistical Appendix to the Summary Report of the Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, 1966, p. 75. 138 New Reclamation Era, XVI (November 1925), 164-65. 139 New Reclamation Era, XVI (November 1925), 164; XVII (September, November, 1926), 156, 186; and XIX (October 1928), 151. |
