Mr. TAYLOR. Why the legion is bound by the resolutions as they are passed by the convention.

Mr. RAKER. How was that action? Was it fairly unanimous? Mr. TAYLOR. It was unanimous.

I do not know that it is of much interest for the record, but each post in the Legion elects delegates to the department convention, and then each one of those department conventions elects delegates, according to their number, to the national convention. At the national convention there is a man selected from each State to sit on each convention committee; for instance, the committee on resolutions; there were 48 men on that committee.

Mr. RAKER. They adopted this and then presented it to the convention?

Mr. TAYLOR. They adopted this and then presented it to the convention as a whole, where the resolutions are explained, and where somebody speaks for them, and if there is anybody that wants to speak against them, somebody speaks against them, as happens at all conventions.

Mr. RAKER. And you had some 1,400 delegates at that convention?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir.

Mr. RAKER. And you say it was adopted unanimously?
Mr. TAYLOR. It was adopted unanimously.

Mr. HAYDEN. There were two resolutions adopted by the American Legion. One is in favor of the soldier-settlement plan, as applied to this particular Colorado River project. The Legion also recognized the necessity for the adoption of the Colorado River compact in order that Colorado River development may be brought about.

Mr. RAKER. And, third, they are in favor of this land settlement going in as part of the adjusted compensation?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir. Well, Mr. Heald and Doctor Hartman will speak on that.

(Thereupon, at 11.50 o'clock a. m., the committee adjourned until Friday, February 29, 1924, at 10 o'clock a. m.)

COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Friday, February 29, 1924.

The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Elmer O. Leatherwood (acting chairman) presiding.

I

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. I desire to make a preliminary statement. am requested by the chairman, Hon. Addison T. Smith, to announce that he is unfortunately unable to be here, and he has asked me to preside in his absence.

Now we are ready to proceed, Mr. Swing.

Mr. SWING. Mr. Chairman, I want to present to the committee Mr. Elmer W. Heald, a member of the State executive committee of the American Legion, Department of California.

STATEMENT OF MR. ELMER W. HEALD, CALIPATRIA, CALIF., REPRESENTING DEPARTMENT OF CALIFORNIA OF THE AMERICAN LEGION

(The witness was duly sworn by the acting chairman.)

Mr. HEALD. My name is Elmer W. Heald, and I reside in the city of Calipatria, Calif., in Imperial County. I am representing the Department of California of the American Legion. I am a member of the State executive committee of the Department of California and also commander of the interpost council of the American Legion of Imperial County, Calif.

Mr. SWING. You had better tell who pays your expenses, so as to get that all in the record.

Mr. HEALD. Yes; I will give that. I am here also at the sanction and under the authority of the national headquarters of the American Legion.

My expenses are being paid entirely by popular subscription amongst the ex-service men of Imperial County, who raised the necessary funds to have me come on to Washington and appear before this committee for the purpose of presenting the case of the ex-service men and women.

Now, I desire to briefly state to the committee the reason why the ex-service men and the American Legion, National, State, and local, are in favor of this bill.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. May I interrupt you for just a moment?

Gentlemen, I understand that Mr. Swing has several witnesses that he desires to present this morning, each one of whom will make a brief statement. I am going to ask the members of the committee to forego asking any questions until the witness has made his statement, at which time opportunity will be given to any member of the committee who desires to ask questions.

Mr. HEALD. The desire of the ex-service men for land became apparent very early after the signing of the armistice.

I recall that just about five years ago to-day I myself was station at Wiesbaden, Germany, in the army of occupation. Two questions confronted the ex-service men at that time. They were asking themselves these two questions: The first was, When are we going home? And the second was, What are we going to do when we get home? And in the last question was largely evolved the idea of land settlement. How that idea got started that early in the game I do not know; but I remember very distinctly that there was considerable propaganda circulated amongst the soldiers in the army of occupation that when they returned home there would be public lands for them to settle upon.

Upon the return of the men to the United States and their discharge from the Army there was a great deal of interest exhibited by the ex-service men in land settlement.

Up until 1924-these figures I obtained from Doctor Brown, of the Reclamation Service-there have been about 204,541 applications made by ex-service men for farms.

Secretary Fall, while Secretary of the Interior, gave some very interesting facts on the applications made by ex-service men for farm lands; and in a statement which he gave to the Associated Press, while he was Secretary of the Interior, he stated that there

were about 100,000 applications made for farm lands; that there were only about 490 farms at that time--490 farm units in the reclamation projects which were available for soldier settlement, and that there were 100,000 applications for those 490 farm units. These farm units average about 80 acres to the unit. In other words, there were 100,000 applicants and about 1,000 of them have received land.

In 1920, the Reclamation Service opened up what is commonly known as the Platte Project in Nebraska and Wyoming. In that project, they had 80 farm units, comprising 5,078 acres. There were 3,298 applications by ex-service men for those 80 farm units comprising 5.078 acres. These men were required to make a deposit of the initial construction cost of the irrigation system for those farm units, and the 3.298 ex-service men deposited with the Reclamation Service at that time $1,192,000.

Since that time the United States Government has opened several different projects, all of which are smaller than this one: and in every instance there were about five times as many applicants-that is, ex-service men-for farm units as there were farm units to be given out to those men. The following is a list of the projects opened and the number of farm units in each project, all of which were taken up by ex-service men.

Lands entered by ex-service men since February 14, 1920, date of the passage of the preference-right legislation

The United States Government has up until the present date taken only two definite steps toward providing lands for ex-service men. In the first place, in 1919, Congress set aside $110,000 to the Reclamation Service, which was to be used by the Reclamation Service for the purpose of making a complete survey of all available lands in the United States. I do not have the report here; but I can get it from the Secretary of the Interior, and will do so and file it with the com

mittee.

This report was made, and the result of it was this: That in most of the New England States and the Central States there was practically no land available for soldier settlement. In the South there were large areas of swamp lands which would have to be drained

before they would be suitable for settlement purposes. In the West there were large areas of desert lands that would have to be irrigated before they would be suitable for settlement purposes.

Aside from that, the Government has done practically nothing, with the exception of opening certain reclamation projects which I have heretofore mentioned, for settlement by ex-service men; and that was just simply a drop in the bucket, and was immediately taken up in every instance by ex-service men, and the applicants were greatly in excess of the land that was available for settlement.

In the State of California the State legislature has passed soldier legislation, and at the present moment there are 24,000 applications on file with the veterans' welfare bureau in the State of California for farm lands.

I merely quote these figures in order that you may know that there is a bona fide desire on the part of ex-service men for farm lands; the fact that the 3,198 men who made application in the Platte project paid down $1,000,000 in cold cash to pay the initial installment required by law to be paid, would show that the applicants were bona fide, and that they desired to get land for the purpose of making a home and developing a farm.

That is the reason why the American Legion and the ex-service men are interested in the Swing-Johnson bill. The Swing-Johnson bill, if enacted as it now stands, will make available upwards of 500,000 acres below the dam for settlement. I take these figures from Mr. Arthur P. Davis's report, "The Problems of the Imperial Valley and Vicinity."

In going through the report I find that Mr. Davis has listed the land under different headings. There is some of this land that is privately owned; there is some of it that has been settled; and there is some of it that is unreclaimed Government land. The unreclaimed Government land below the proposed Boulder Canyon Dam, Susceptible of irrigation from the dam, would be about 500,000 acres. The acreage above the Boulder Dam susceptible of settlement and reclamation, roughly estimated, is about 1,800,000 acres-unreclaimed Government land that has never been opened to entry.

The legion is in favor of the Swing-Johnson bill because it will provide for the construction of an all-American canal. And at this point I desire to call the committee's attention to this map [indicating map on wall]. The construction of the all-American canal will make it possible to irrigate this land [indicating] shown in this darker color on the map. It is impossible to irrigate that land from the present canal system, because it is 25 to 50 feet higher than the present canal system. It will be necessary to construct a canal along the line indicated on this map by the heavy black dotted line, starting at Laguna Dam on the Colorado and thence following down the river to the international boundary line, thence in a westerly direction along the international boundary line to the west side main canal in the Imperial Irrigation District. It is also provided by the Swing-Johnson bill that a branch canal be constructed tapping the canal above, indicated at a point about 30 or 40 miles west of Pilot Knob, from this point this branch canal would follow the line of the sand hills northwesterly to Coachella Valley, taking in all the lands colored a light blue on the map. The Swing-Johnson bill will pro

vide a canal system from which all the land indicated can be irrigated, and will provide storage water so that all of the lands I have indicated can be put under irrigation. That will reclaim about 500,000 acres of desert land and will give homes for about 15,000 ex-service men.

This will all be done under the United States Government; and I might say that the American Legion, at its national convention, at San Francisco went on record, without any voice of protest whatsoever from any State in the Union being raised against it: every State in the Union having a delegation there; and every State in the Union having a delegate and a representative on the committee that passed these resolutions and put them out on the floor. And without one dissenting voice the American Legion went on record as favoring the construction of this project by the United States Government, and by nobody else.

We desire also to see the United States Government, through the Reclamation Service, develop this land, because the Reclamation Act, as you probably know, provides an easy and very beneficial method for taking up these lands by ex-soldiers; the soldier pays 5 per cent of the initial construction cost at the time he goes on the land, and then he has 5 years that he pays nothing whatsoever; and then there are 15 years that his payments are divided into 5 per ceent of the balance and 7 per cent of the balance, as the Secretary of the Interior may determine, making it very easy for the ex-service men to go on this land and take it up without any very great amount of capital.

I also call the committee's attention to the fact that the present bonus bill provides that, in cases where the veteran so desires, he may choose between various things which will serve the purpose of a bonus for him and amongst other things it provides for land settlement, and farm aid, consequently this legislation will be a distinct aid and benefit to the bonus bill.

As I pointed out, the survey made by the Reclamation Service and the statement of Secretary Fall show that there are no more farms. unless something is done to reclaim some of this desert land which the Swing-Johnson bill provides, and we are therefore in favor of it for that reason.

The Swing-Johnson bill as it now stands also provides for the preferential employment of ex-service men on the construction of all the works of the proposed project.

In the local aspect of this bill, the ex-service men are in favor of it because of the fact that, down in the Imperial Valley, the United States Veterans' Welfare Bureau, about four years ago, opened up a trainee project; those men who had been trained by the Veterans Welfare Bureau in agricultural pursuits and for the purpose of taking up agriculture as a life work were brought down into the Imperial Valley. A project was opened for them. At first, it was run by private individuals, and it did not work out successfully. And so the ex-service men of Imperial Valley went to several of the land owners-large land owners in and around the vicinity of Brawley and Holtville, two towns in the Imperial Valley, and drew up a contract between the land owner and the trainee along these lines: The trainee was to go on the land under an agreement