It was developed by the testimony that the farmers, in a great many instances, were compelled to mortgage their crops, livestock, and machinery to secure moneys to produce the crop in 1930 and then to borrow additional moneys to produce the crop of 1931, and owing to the unusually low prices, they were unable to repay those loans. At the present time many of the farmers have no money and are unable to borrow further through local agencies for the purpose of meeting their payments to the Government, and unless relief is granted many will be forced to abandon their farms and join the great army of unemployed. On account of bank failures on some projects, many settlers have no credit facilities.

This relief legislation is in line with laws heretofore enacted to aid the farmers on other than reclamation and drainage projects and will permit the water users in the arid regions to carry on their activities with the hope that prices next year will be sufficiently high to enable them to retrieve their losses. By reason of the fact that there is an excessive snowfall in the mountains of the West, there is every reason to believe that all of the projects will have an ample water supply for producing next year's crops.

In this connection it is well to refer briefly to what has been accomplished under the reclamation law. According to the Commissioner of Reclamation, Dr. Elwood Mead, in his testimony before the subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations December 15, 1931, there are 40,354 irrigated farms on the 26 Federal reclamation projects, with a population of 165,956. There are located on these projects 213 cities and towns with a population of 472,723. There are 688 schools, 724 churches, and 120 banks with deposits of $134,261,170, and 226,014 depositors.

Commissioner Mead, in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation, stated that they "recognized that due to the low price of crops last year it had left agriculture depressed and discouraged, and that it was desirable that this be recognized and that some form of relief be extended.'

The bill under consideration provides for the temporary relief of water users on reclamation projects which are constructed or are being constructed under the reclamation law.

Section 1 provides that the construction charges for 1931 which were due the 1st of last December shall be deferred until the end of the contract period and that 50 per cent of the construction charges for the current year shall be similarly deferred.

Section 2 provides that this deferment shall apply to individual water users who are not on projects where districts or water users' associations have assumed the joint obligation for payment.

Section 3 provides for an extension of time of one year for the beginning of construction of drainage on the Uncompahgre reclamation project, Colorado (Private No. 300, 71st Cong.), and also provides for the completion of the construction authorized by the act of Congress approved February 21, 1931 (Public No. 708), relating to the Grand Valley reclamation project, for one year.

Section 4 provides that the water users' organization and the individual water users shall resume payment of charges in accordance with existing contracts at the end of the period for which deferment has been granted.

Section 5 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, to permit the adjustment of construction and operation and maintenance charges heretofore deferred, on the basis authorized in sections 1 and 2 of this bill.

Section 6 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to supply water for irrigation purposes to districts or individuals who are delinquent in their payment for the calendar year 1930 or years prior thereto.

Section 7 provides that any irrigation district or water users' association which has contracted to pay construction charges and is not in arrears for more than one calendar year may authorize the delivery of water to any individual water user who may be delinquent in bis payments to the district or association.

Section 8 provides that any profits accruing to the water users or district from the sale of power shall be deducted from the amount of any payment extended under the provisions of this bill, and that any such credits in excess of the construction charge shall be applied as now provided by law and contract.

Section 9 provides that any payments of construction charges for the year 1931 which have been made heretofore, shall be credited upon succeeding payments as they become due, including maintenance and operation charges.

Section 10 provides for the deferment of the repayment of the moneys advanced to the reclamation fund under the act of June 25, 1910, and the act of March 3, 1931, until July 1, 1935.

Under the provisions of rule 13, 2-A, the following is submitted:

Act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 835)

SEC. 3. That beginning five years after the date of the first advance to the reclamation fund under this act, fifty per centum of the annual receipts of the reclamation fund shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States until payment so made shall equal the aggregate amount of advances made by the Treasury to said reclamation fund, together with interest paid on the certificates of indebtedness, issued under this act, and any expense incident to preparing, advertising, and issuing the same.

Act of June 12, 1917 (40 Stat. 149)

The act of June twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and ten (36 Stat. 835), is amended to provide that reimbursement of the moneys advanced under the provisions of that act shall be made by transferring annually the sum of $1,000,000 from the reclamation fund to the general funds in the Treasury, beginning July 1, nineteen hundred and twenty, and continuing until full reimbursement has been made.

HR-72-1-VOL 1-74

Proposed amendment

First. All construction and operation and maintenance charges (exclusive of any operation and maintenance charges required to be paid by the association for the operation and maintenance of the project for the calendar year 1930) that were or shall be due and unpaid under said contract of 1927 on December 31, 1930, including the then unpaid deferred charges under articles 17 (b) and (d) of said contract (without interest and penalties on such deferred accounts) and the construction charge that becomes due on December 1, 1931, under said contract, may be included in and made payable as part of the project supplemental construction charge hereinafter mentioned. Interest and penalties heretofore paid on deferred charges under articles 17 (b) and (d) shall be remitted and credited against the association's obligation for supplemental construction.

Second. During each of the years 1932 to 1937, both inclusive, the association shall have the right to expend for the construction of a drainage system such portion of the construction charge payable to the United States under said contract of 1927, as said association may consider necessary and as may be provided for by plans prepared by the association and approved by or on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior, the moneys so expended to be secured from construction charge assessments to be made to meet the regular construction charge installments that become due and payable under the said contract of 1927 on December 1 of the years 1931 to 1936, inclusive. The

Act of January 31, 1931 (36 Stat. 1974) amounts so expended by the association for drainage each calendar year from December 1 to November 30, for six years beginning with December 1, 1931, shall be credited to the annual construction charge that becomes due annually on December 1, of each year during the period of 1932 to 1937, both inclusive, the payment of the construction charges for which it is so substituted being in each case postponed to be paid later as a part of the supplemental construction charges authorized in item 3 hereof. Should the amounts so expended and credited annually be less than the annual construction charge for the years 1932 to 1937, both inclusive, the balance of each year's charge shall be payable to the United States in accordance with the contract of 1927.

Proposed amendment

Third. The amounts so expended and credited, the amounts postponed under the provisions of item 1 hereof, and any amounts of primary construction charges applicable to productive lands that shall not have become due and payable by the association under the contract of 1927, on or before December 1, 1961, shall be considered and defined as the project supplemental construction charge and shall be made payable by the association in annual installments of $85,000, the first installment of such supplemental construction charges to be payable on December 1, 1962, and a like installment on December 1 of each subsequent year until the total of the supplemental construction charge indebtedness is reduced to $85,000 or less, which remaining amount shall then be made payable as the last installment on December 1 of the calendar year next following the year in which the indebtedness is so reduced; and

Fourth. No stock assessment levied by the association to raise payments due the Government on construction need be increased more than 15 per centum of the normal yearly per irrigable acre construction installment as provided in section 17 of the contract of April 8, 1927, to meet deficits or estimated deficits due to the failure of some of the association's stockholders to pay their assessments when due, any resulting delinquencies as established after foreclosure of maximum assessment liens in meeting installments of charges due the United States from the association to be paid as a part of the supplemental construction charge authorized in item (3) hereof.

Act of January 31, 1931 (46 Stat. 1974)

SEC. 2. It shall be provided as a condition subsequent that said contract shall terminate and be annulled unless (1) the General Assembly of the State of Colorado at its twenty-eighth session enacts legislation, which becomes effective (a) authorizing a water users' association to be incorporated for a term of at least seventy-five years, and (b) amending chapter 76 of Colorado Session Laws, 1929, so as to permit the decree in proceedings to confirm a contract between such association and the United States to constitute as against parties defendant, including owners, lienors, and mortgagees of land in the district, an amendment of existing water-right contracts with

Proposed amendment