Mr. BACON. Yes, sir.

Mr. RAKER. It is the view of your people that you are ready and willing to reimburse the Government if intrusted construction-to reimburse the Government for the money expended in building this all-American canal?

Mr. BACON. That is my understanding.

Mr. RAKER. With a reasonable rate of interest?

Mr. BACON. I have not been actively enough connected with affairs down in the valley to be sure about that.

Mr. RAKER. Who is ready to present those facts to the committee?

Mr. BACON. Mr. Nickerson can give you all those facts. I do not want to duplicate what he will say. He is president of the Imperial irrigation district and is thoroughly conversant with the valley. He is one of the pioneers of the valley and understands absolutely the entire problem from start to finish.

Mr. BARBOUR. Mr. Bacon, would the city of San Diego be directly interested in this power development as a prospective purchaser of a portion of the power? Mr. BACON. I think not only the city of San Diego but every city in California that could possibly come in under this project would be glad to get all the power it can.

Mr. BARBOUR. Can you, as mayor, now give us any definite assurance that the city of San Diego will purchase part of the power and pay a reasonable price for it?

Mr. BACON. No; not absolute assurance, outside of a guess as to what would be done, because, as you understand, it would mean a bond issue, and until the bond issue was carried you are not sure of anything. But I will say we are as sure of that as we are of anything that is to take place in the future in connection with the municipality.

Mr. BARBOUR. But it is your opinion that they will take a certain amount of that power and will be willing to pay a reasonable price for it?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARBOUR. That is a question, of course, that we will have to meet, as to what will become of this power and whether there will be really a market for it sufficient to enable the Government to reimburse itself for this cost of construction.

Mr. SMITH of Idaho. Does the city of San Diego own its own power plant now, or does it purchase from private concerns?

Mr. BACON. We own our water plant. We have our own water system, but we do not own a power plant. But I think when it came to the question of the distribution of power the difficulty would not be to dispose of the power; the difficulty would be in allocating the power among the people who will want it.

There is just one other thing I would like to submit in connection with this. Just as I was leaving my office to come East, the May 1 issue of the Journal of Electricity and Western Industry was dropped on my desk, and in it I find an article by Mr. C. E. Grunsky, who was one of the engineers that had to do with the building of the Panama Canal, containing an airplane photograph of this district, which probably will show more graphically than anything else just what those conditions are. This photograph carries this caption: "The major argument for immediate action on the Colorado." This shows the section immediately south and east of the Volcano Lake Levee and will fit on the map just about like that [indicating], with the upper left-hand corner of the picture fitting against the Volcano Lake Levee. That shows how the river comes down there and breaks out when it hits this heavily underbrushed section, down here [indicating], and then after spreading out and dropping its silt, it comes back and gathers into more or less of a stream and goes down into the ocean. This whole section here is just building up [indicating]. It is interesting as showing about how that river looks; it looks like a great big devilfish reaching out for something, and I think that just about describes the condition of the river, it is a great big devilfish reaching out over into the valley and trying every way to get there.

Mr. SMITH of Idaho. Could that be reproduced for the record, I wonder? Mr. BACON. If you see fit.

Mr. BARBOUR. Those resolutions that you said you had, do you want to introduce those in the record?

'Mr. BACON. I should like to; yes. I have the original copies here.

Mr. RAKER. For 40 or 50 years before there was any development of the Imperial Valley, and when the railroad was built down through the Imperial Valley on the west side, where the Salton Sea is now, there was no water run

ning in there and no one was making any pretense of keeping the water out. What brought about the change?

Mr. BACON. Simply this: There was a pretty well defined delta built up there with the river running along this eastern edge. Now the silt kept coming down. There is a high line of hills here, a mesa [indicating]. That silt gradually filled up this marshy land at the mouth of the river, and the river gradually came back here. Each year that added quantity of silt filled that up until the delta was raised to such a point that the river started breaking off in this direction toward the valley. Now this was down in Mexico. If you have ever been over in that country you know you know it dosn't look as though there ever could have been a drop of water in it. Naturally there was no apprehension felt at all by the railroad people when they built that railroad, but within the last few years there has been great apprehension. The change has been taking place so gradually that nobody noticed it. but now it is getting up to the danger point. Probably in prehistoric times it was 100 feet deep there, but the silt gradually filled up this whole delta. You have exactly the same situation on the Delta of the Nile and the Delta of the Mississippi. It forms a cone pretty well defined by these little branches of the river [indicating], and then it breaks on one side or the other of the cone and keeps breaking, and each year the silt adds that much more mud to the river bed and it breaks again, and now it is attempting to break each time over toward the valley, because all this land here has been filled up [indicating].

Mr. RAKER. Then, none of the works that have been put in the river in an attempt to divert the water have had any effect relative to this water breaking over west and north? It just comes naturally?

Mr. BACON. It just comes naturally. The works tend to keep it east-try to force it east-but the constant tendency of the river is to break over west. Every time it has broken, it pushes its way farther toward the valley, until-if that river had been left alone in 1908 it would to-day be flowing right down through here, down through the valley here [indicating]. There would be the course of the river and it would continue to flow there until this entire area was scoured out.

Mr. RAKER. Let me ask you this question. In the protection of the Imperial Valley, would we be doing this for American citizens?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir. I think it would be the greatest calamity of modern times for that river to break into that valley.

Mr. RAKER. I hope you got my question. I am asking you now if this development would be entirely for the benefit of American citizens?

Mr. BACON. Entirely?

Mr. RAKER. Yes.

Mr. BACON. No; Mexico is bound to reap a little benefit from it.

Mr. RAKER. Well, then, in California and in Imperial Valley, we would be doing this improvement and protecting the homes and farms of the American citizens?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir; absolutely.

Mr. SMITH of Idaho. Has any estimate been made of the length of time that it would take the Salton Sea basin to fill up if the entire river were deflected into it?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir; I have had an estimate made of that kind and checked it myself before I came out here. It would require approximately 15 years to fill up completely, and it would require- approximately, if it filled up, probably five or six years more to silt up here so that you would commence to get an evaporation process again. It would probably take 75 or 100 years to evaporate.

It will continue to run into here until this is silted up again. You will have duplicated the process you had several hundred years ago and then it will break over on this side again, and it will just keep alternating back and forth through periods of 300 or 400 years.

Mr. RAKER. I am always in favor of protecting any of our people. Is there anything in the statement that has been going around that Imperial Valley is practically being colonized by Japanese and Mexicans?

Mr. BACON. I do not think there is a thing in it. Now, here is probably what that statement is founded on: This section in here

Mr. LITTLE (interposing). In Mexico?

Mr. BACON. In Mexico. This section in here in Mexico [indicating] is being worked by foreign labor entirely and there is where the danger to the American farmer comes from.

Mr. LITTLE. Where is most of that land owned? Who owns it?

Mr. BACON. I understand that a good share of that land is owned by a Los Angeles man, Mr. Harry Chandler.

Mr. LITTLE. Owned by capitalists?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LITTLE. And they have the work done by Japanese largely?

Mr. BACON. That is what I understand, by Japanese and Mexicans.

Mr. RAKER. Is it or is it not a fact that in the last two or three years the Imperial Valley people have rented out their lands and have practically Japanesed that entire valley?

Mr. BACON. No, sir.

Mr. SWING. There has been a law against it, Judge Raker. You know that. Mr. RAKER. I was asking about the facts, irrespective of the law.

Mr. SWING. We are law-abiding citizens down there.

Mr. BACON. There is a colonization scheme starting in here [indicating] for ex-service men, and I believe the only successful one in this country. Some of those men went in there and started from nothing and paid for the land in the last two or three years.

Mr. LITTLE. Went in where?

Mr. BACON. Right here, up near Brawley.

Mr. LITTLE. That is the northern end of the Imperial Valley?

Mr. BACON. That is about the center. There were some 150 men in there at one time. I believe that there are 50 there now. That is a pretty good average,

I think, to make.

Mr. RAKER. Now, you have been in Imperial Valley, and you think I am safe in saying that the farmers there during the last three years have not been and are not continuing there to practically leave the land and rent it to the Japanese? Mr. BACON. Oh, no. But here is where the farmers are awfully handicapped: No bank is lending money on land there on account of this flood menace. Federal farm loan bank has refused to make loans. They say that this danger is so great that they do not consider they are justified in making loans on that property.

Mr. RAKER. So that handicaps you?

Mr. BACON. Very much. They are working under an awful handicap.

The

Mr. LITTLE. Are we to understand that by reason of this menace of the inflow of the Colorado River the farm loan banks decline to loan money to these farmers in the valley?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LITTLE. How long has that been the case?

Mr. BACON. That was brought out at the hearing held before this committee about two years ago.

Mr. LITTLE. It was brought out then, but how long has it been the case?

Mr. BACON. I know it has been the case for two years; how much longer I do not know.

Mr. RAKER. That would practically apply to private individuals loaning on ranches, too, would it not?

Mr. BACON. Yes; of course, when a bank refuses to loan, the private individual with little capital does not consider he is safe in loaning.

Mr. RAKER. So you are handicapped in getting money enough to keep improvements going, and you are handicapped with this danger always before you that this might destroy all you have?

Mr. BACON. Yes, sir; they are handicapped decidedly. Here is another peculiar phase of the situation: You have down here in Mexico land colonized by Japanese

Mr. RAKER (interposing). Where?

Mr. BACON. Below the line in Mexico. You have this area in here in California [indicating] populated by the American farmer.

Mr. RAKER. That is in California?

Mr. BACON. In California. Now the California American citizens are being assessed to-day about half a million dollars a year through their irrigation project. This money is sent down into Mexico and spent on levees which protect this Mexican land that is raising produce to compete with the American farmer on the American side of the line. You are penalizing the American farmer about $500,000 a year, which helps out this man in Mexico.

Mr. RAKER. Then in addition to that, on the Mexican side just below Mexicali, you maintain a Monte Carlo to take the rest of his money.

Mr. BACON. I would not say that was maintained for the American farmer.

Mr. RAKER. I did not say the American farmer; I said there is maintained. Mr. BACON. There is, I believe. I am not advised on that.

Mr. RAKER. I did not make such an assertation as to the American farmer. Mr. BARBOUR. I understood your question to Mayor Bacon to be that "you maintained "?

Mr. RAKER. Did I say "you"? I should have said "There is maintained." Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Where is the produce that is raised in Mexican territory marketed?

Mr. BACON. In the United States largely. I would not be surprised if some of the cantaloupes that you have been eating here in the last week have come from Mexican territory.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Does the emergency tariff now in force have any effect upon that?

Mr. BACON. I do not know. It certainly is not prohibitive, because I know I have seen great quantities of Mexican produce coming into American territory, and they evidently can stand the tariff and still sell their goods in this country.

Mr. LITTLE. Are there any more questions to ask of Mr. Bacon?

Mr. BARBOUR. I was just going to ask unanimous consent, or to suggest, that the resolutions that Mayor Bacon has be incorporated in the record.

Mr. LITTLE. If there is no objection, that will be done.

(The papers referred to follow :)

COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION OF PUBLIC LANDS,

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 22, 1922.

House of Representatives.

GENTLEMEN: In submitting the accompanying resolutions of various municipal, civic, and other organizations for your information, it would seem to be appropriate for me as president of the League of Southern California Municipalities and chairman of called conventions of this and associated organizations to acquaint you with what I believe to be the unanimous sentiment of the people in southern California regarding the present bill known as H. R. 11449, together with a brief historical survey of the public movements leading up to such conclusions.

HISTORICAL.

Immediately after the publication of the Preliminary Report on the Problems of the Imperial Valley and Vicinity, the Director of the Reclamation Service, as required by act of Congress approved May 18, 1920, entitled, "An act to provide for the examination and report on conditions and possibilities of irrigation development of the Imperial Valley in California," attention of the people of southern California became riveted upon the possibilities of a practical solution of the problem of the flood peril, which threatens the complete and permanent destruction of a large section of this State.

The pressing necessity for additional electric power resources for the use of the Southwest by reason of its industrial, commercial, and agricultural growth immediately suggested to the people of southern California a possibility of practical financial cooperation on its part with other public agencies, such as a Federal Government and the States of Arizona and Nevada, in arriving at a solution of a problem otherwise locally impossible and nationally difficult of accomplishment.

Somewhat spontaneously, therefore, a convention of the cities and districts of southern California was held at Pasadena, Calif., on July 22, 1921. This first meeting effected a permanent organization, known as the League of Southern California Municipalities. Members in attendance, representatives of all of the larger and most of the smaller communities, thereupon adopted resolutions urging action by Congress and the Federal Power Commission which would exclude private interests in the development of Boulder Canyon project and permit its immediate construction and control by the Federal Government. Other conventions were subsequently held, namely, at Ontario, Alhambra, and Santa Ana, and delegations presented the collective sentiment of the people of southern California to the convention of the League of the Southwest at Riverside and the official hearing called at San Diego by the honorable Secretary of the Interior, A. B. Fall, December last.

Official representatives were present at Phoenix, Ariz., in March on the occasion of the hearing of the Colorado River Commission, Secretary of Commerce, Hon. Herbert Hoover presiding.

On no occasion has there been anything but a unanimous and insistent demand for the principles expressed in H. R. 11449, bill now before the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands.

H. R. 11449 INDORSED.

After the introduction of the bill providing for the protection and development of the lower Colorado River Basin (H. R. 11449) a meeting of the League of Southern California Municipalities, in conjunction with irrigation and farm districts, was called by its president, John L. Bacon, mayor of Santa Diego, to consider the measure. At this meeting held at Santa Ana, Calif., on May 4, 1922, the aforesaid bill was carefully considered and unanimously indorsed by resolution attached hereto. A committee was appointed to take proper steps to apprise Congress of the sentiment in southern California in way of its speedy passage.

Subsequently a large number of cities, districts, and other bodies indorsed this or passed appropriate resolutions, a number of which are likewise attached.

STATEMENT OF LEAGUE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUNICIPALITIES.

Southern California, as represented by this organization, now desires to make the following statement of its position and understanding of H. R. 11449, authorizing the construction of the Boulder Canyon project.

We understand that it is proposed that the Federal Government construct a dam on the lower reaches of the Colorado River, in Boulder Canyon, and develop, regulate, and control the flow of the river and prevent disastrous flood conditions as a part of the project.

It is proposed to construct certain irrigation canals which will permit of the irrigation of large tracts of arid land as an incident to the construction of the dam. There will be created power rights. The cost of the dam project will be charged against these power rights which are to be fairly allocated to the States and districts.

The cost of irrigation canals and works is to be charged against the land to be brought under irrigation.

COLORADO RIVER LONG A PROBLEM.

The Colorado River, with its tremendous watershed, has long been a terrifying agent of destruction. The melting snow from the mountains through which it runs creates flood conditions of unmanageable proportions. At the same time its great flow of water and its rapid fall makes it a great potentiality for irrigation and power development.

Being an interstate and international stream, no State and no private interest can be in a position either to control its floods or utilize its power and irrigation.

It presents, therefore, a national problem solvable only by Federal initiative.

WHY SOLUTION IS NOW POSSIBLE.

Two circumstances have brought the matter of control and usage of the Colorado River to the front for action, and likewise permits a practical solution.

The gradual deposit of silt along the lower reaches of the river continuing through years has served to increase the flood menace. If, while in flood, the river breaks its banks, the entire Imperial Valley, which is below sea level, will be flooded and destroyed. When the waters once find their way into the valley nothing but the evaporation by the heat of the sun through centuries of time can remove the water. While the Imperial Valley and various interests: there have done everything in their power against floods, such measures are only temporary and may fail and result in disaster to Imperial Valley any year. The only thing we can do for this territory is the control of the flow of the river by storage, and this is possible only by Federal action.

While this flood peril has been thus growing more acute, the Southwest has been rapidly increasing in population and its resources-commercial, industrial, and agricultural. The demand for power exceeds the available supply. Thus there has been created a market for the power which will be produced by a dam at Boulder Canyon, so that the financing of the project can be made feasible.