Unfortunately for the project, there were filed protests with the State Department against the building up of a community by a bunch of Japanese Army reservists in Lower California, adjoining our unprotected boundary; and some cold water was thrown upon that project.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. In view of the development proposed, and also in view of the laws of California as they exist and as they have been constructed by the United States Supreme Court, are you not bound to develop a peon empire there contiguous to the Imperial Valley?

Mr. SWING. No, sir. I am one of those who are trying most earnestly to avoid that situation, by providing that this water. while it falls on American soil, while it remains on American soil, shall be put to beneficial use on American soil by American citizens to the fullest extent to which there is acreage to take care of it. And this law should so declare. The period of years over which the ultimate development will take place can be any length of time which is desirous.

Mr. RAKER. What number of people are you planning bringing over from Mexico and using as peon laborers in the Imperial Valley? Mr. SWING. I do not know.

Mr. RAKER. Is there anybody here who will know?

Mr. SWING. I do not know.

I want to file another newspaper, of more recent date, December 24, 1923, which contains a write-up of a proposal to develop a project in the neighborhood of Laguna Salada. The heading of this article says, "Laguna Salada district near here may be reclaimed." And it goes on to say that they have research workers and soil experts making investigations for the purpose of preparing for the colonizing of that part of Lower California around the mouth of Laguna Salada. That is this great area here [indicating on map], of which the largest single tract is 800,000 acres. But there is more land than that down there; and some of those companies-one of them known as the English Syndicate-threatens to take all the water, or as much as they need, in developing their lands in Mexico, depriving the Imperial Valley of water. In three different years there has been taken from the Colorado River every drop of water in the river. October, 1921, was the last time in which the river bed was absolutely dry.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Is it your contention, Mr. Swing, that if you had the facilities and the acres upon which to put the water within the boundaries of Continental United States, you could go ahead and divert the entire flow of the Colorado River within the United States and leave Mexico without water?

Mr. SWING. Up to 8,500,000 acre-feet, which the compact between all the States gives to the Lower Basin, I would favor doing that. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Well, is that your contention?

Mr. SWING. Legally we could do that. There is no such thing as an international water right.

Mr. HAYDEN. What do you mean by the 8,500,000 acre-feet under the compact. Do you agree with what certain gentlemen in Arizona have said, that the Colorado River compact is to allocate 7,500,000 acre-feet to the Upper Basin States, 8,500,000 acre-feet to the Lower Basin States, and the remainder to Mexico?

Mr. SWING. No, sir. There is no foundation for that. And I think you know it better than I do, Mr. Hayden, because you have been a student of this subject.

Mr. HAYDEN. Well, your remark indicated that you had that view. Mr. SWING. No. That much clearly belongs to the lower States, Arizona and California, as against the upper-stream States. In my opinion, all of it can legally be put to use in the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the difference between the wages paid to the Mexican laborers on those farms there and the wages paid in the Imperial Valley?

Mr. SWING. Well, at one time the contracts called for the payment to these Chinese of 90 cents a day. I think subsequently there was some sort of a break-up down there and they demanded more money; I think they now get $1.50 per day.

Mr. ROSE. I can answer that question, Mr. Chairman. We paid Mexican employees and the Chinese and Japs all the way from $1 to $1.50 a day; more were paid $1.25 than any other sum. That was on the Mexican side. We paid 30 cents an hour on this side.

Mr. LANKFORD. How many hours are they employed on the Mexican side?

Mr. ROSE. Ten; sometimes from 12 to 14; but we would pay them then at the same rate.

Mr. LANKFORD. It is just about as much again on the American side?

Mr. ROSE. Yes, sir; just about twice as much.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you have to pay for American labor? Mr. ROSE. From $2.50 to $3.50 for ranch laborers. Of course, we have skilled men-mechanics, truck drivers, dredge men, and so onwho run as high as $4, $5, and $6 a day, and even higher. The mechanics begin as apprentices, and go up to $6.50 a day, and our dredge men run to about the same amount.

Mr. HAYDEN. Do you pay the dredge men on the Mexican side $3.50 a day?

Mr. ROSE. At one time we paid them $2.50.

Mr. HAYDEN. How much do the Mexican laborers get?

Mr. ROSE. At the time of high wages, 30 cents an hour, and the highest was $2.50 a day.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do you pay in Mexican money?

Mr. ROSE. No; we figure on gold. It is not based on American gold, but it runs $7 to $10 in value.

Mr. RAKER. Do many of those Mexicans come back and want work in California?

Mr. ROSE. Yes: I judge that at times you would find a couple of thousand of them on the American side of the line; at other times there are not so many.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Is it your view, Mr. Swing, that the capitalists who are citizens of the United States and who own these Mexican lands would submit to an entire diversion of the flow of the river to Mexican soil?

Mr. SWING. They are exerting themselves and doing everything they can to prevent the building of the All-American Canal, and to prevent the people of Imperial Valley throwing off the Mexican yoke which is now on their neck. At present our land is bound

to pay for every bit of irrigation and flood-control work in Mexico and there is not a single acre in Mexico that is burdened for a dollar of indebtedness, from the cost of the permanent works of this irrigation system and, the flood-control works, which protect and supply their land the same as they do ours. We want to do business under the American flag, and under the American flag alone. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do these landowners of Mexican acres have any representatives here?

Mr. SWING. I do not know whether they have or not. They are doing all they can in California to break up the unity of the people and the cooperation which the people are giving wholeheartedly to this project by creating dissension and dividing them up into factions.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Well, you are acquainted with all the gentlemen who are here in this room in the interests of this bill?

Mr. SWING. I do not know that I am. Mr. Hoxie, is anybody now here representing the Chandler interests?

Mr. HOXIE. I do not know.

Mr. SWING. Mr. Hoxie represents the Southern California Edison Co.

Mr. ALLGOOD. Did those owners of Mexican lands undertake to defeat any proposition before the California Legislature?

Mr. SWING. I do not know. These people are not fighting in the open. They do not, of course, come before this committee and argue that the American Congress should not appropriate American money for American lands or the protection of American citizens. They will not do that.

Mr. RAKER. Who are the leading Americans to whom you refer, so that we may know?

Mr. SWING. I saw in the report in the Calexico Chronicle of an important delegation of people who went down there and were received as the guests of Mr. H. H. Clark, who is the local agent of Mr. Chandler and the Mexican syndicate, and among them was former Governor Gillette, an honorable man; General Sherman, Mr. Chandler, and others, and they had a joint meeting with the Mexican officials there, for the purpose of promoting harmony between the Mexican officials and the American capitalists and landowners.

Mr. HAYDEN. There is one fact I would like to have you bring out in this hearing. You have engineering talent at your command. I would like to know the maximum numbers of acres that it is feasible to irrigate in the Republic of Mexico with the waters of the Colorado River. I have seen estimates as high as 2,000,000 acres. I do not believe there is any such area in Mexico that water from the Colorado River can be placed upon.

Mr. SWING. We will furnish you that information.

Mr. HAYDEN. The engineers should be able to show the lands that can be reclaimed and describe the physical features, so that we will have the facts.

Mr. SWING. Yes. Let me say this to show the condition which exists between American citizens of equal standing: As I said before, on three different occasions, it has been necessary to take out of the Colorado River at our heading all of the water in the Colorado River

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at that point in order to supply the urgent demands of the settlers. But every year, after the flood waters have come down and passed into the Gulf, and after the high water has scoured out the bed of the stream, when it drops back, as it does, in a sudden freeze in the upper regions and the river falls, we find it in the bottom of the bed of the river and we have to go down in the hole, so to speak, after it, and it becomes necessary to build a weir or diversion dam across the river at our heading in order to get our water out.

And for years-I think I will go back as far as 10 years-we have been having to do this very thing. We have been having to come to Washington_and apply to the War Department, which controls the river. To the construction of this weir, the people of Yuma Valley, Ariz., have always strenuously objected. Their valley contains 55,000 acres in cultivation, and they are all good, honest American citizens, and this river is about as much of a menace to their side of the river as it is to ours. They think that the diversion dam is an additional menace. The people of Yuma district know that the water frequently comes down with a rush on short notice, and they fear that before that wier can be taken out a freshet may come down, hit the weir, break through their levee, and overflow large parts of Yuma Valley.

And so in 1916 they filed in their own State court an injunction suit against the Imperial irrigation district building or maintaining this weir, because they claimed two things: First, it was an extra menace from the floods, and, second, it held the water table up under their lands and thereby damaged their crop.

Now, they are absolutely sincere in their belief, and there is an element of danger in that thing. But it had to be done, and we had to enter into agreement with them, that we would use the utmost diligence to get away from our present heading and that we would go up and jointly use with them Laguna Dam, which was originally built by the United States at this point [indicating], and originally intended to supply both Yuma Valley and Imperial Valley.

As shown by the map of the Reclamation Service the all-American canal is not a new feature.

Here on your wall is a map made in 1905 by the Reclamation Service in which is shown the all-American canal, at approximately the same place where it is proposed to build it to-day.

So we have entered into a contract with the Government to purchase the right to use this diversion dam at Laguna, paying $1,600,000 for the privilege. We have been paying our instalments on it right along regularly to the Government, and we agree that we should get away from the present location of our intake with as much diligence as possible. And the War Department requires us to make reports of what we are doing and how we are progressing with legislation for the building of the all-American canal.

We have appeared before your committee and we have presented this matter. We are expecting the committee to take favorable action to enable us to get away from a menace to Yuma, which, if Yuma insists upon its own protection, will result in a menace to the Imperial Valley.

Mr. RAKER. Are you paying a part of the original construction cost of the irrigation work?

Mr. SWING. We are paying a part.

Mr. RAKER. And how much was the whole to be?
Mr. SWING. $1,600,000 is the part we are to pay.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Before you close, as a representative of one. of the upper-basin States, I should like to hear you discuss the question as to whether Congress has the power to enact legislation that will allocate the water of the Colorado River to the various States, independently of the compact?

Mr. SWING. I have this sort of an opinion, Mr. Leatherwood: That it is possible to put into this bill a paragraph-and I will leave it to the attorney for the Reclamation Service; I do not know what his opinion is. But it has been asked for-I will let him give his opinion; but it is my opinion that a paragraph could be put in the bill that will, for all purposes, give the upper States the guaranty and protection that is found in the compact.

For instance, suppose the United States Government provides in this bill that it shall remain for all time in the control of the Government of the United States. They can leave the gates open or shut them down and store as much water or as little as they want. They would be the ones that would cause the trouble, if any trouble was caused, to the upper-stream States.

Mr. RAKER. Before you get off of that point, so that there may be a little information to be obtained upon it later, I would like to ask this: What is the attitude of the power companies, that have been brought into this hearing by Colonel Little, relative to the construction of the Boulder Canyon Dam or Black Canyon Dam?

Mr. SwING. I think they would like to possess the site; would like the privilege of developing the asset that is there. Is that right, Mr. Hoxie?

Mr. HOXIE. I am not informed as to that.

Mr. SWING. They have at various times stated that-at one time the statement was made in my presence that they intended to fight the proposal which is outlined in this bill, and the participation by the municipalities of the Southwest in developing the power along the lines laid down in the Federal water power act, which gives municipalities a preference right that they, the power companies, would fight the proposal unless they were taken care of. To paraphrase the vice president of the Edison Co., this thing would be a great burden to the taxpayer, which he did not propose to let them saddle on themselves; he wanted it saddled on his stockholders. And then he would be for it if he could be included in it; if he could be a part of it, he would withdraw his objection.

Mr. RAKER. Do you understand that the power interests in southern California and Arizona are making any campaign actively— covertly or otherwise-relative to attempting to defeat proper legislation relative to the Boulder Canyon Dam?

Mr. SWING. Why, absolutely. Through their agents in every city in southern California, they are doing everything in their power to break down public opinion, to divide public opinion, and to prevent the United States Government from developing this project in the interests of the people.

Mr. ALLGOOD. Have they interposed any objection to the Arizona Legislature that you know about?