anaheim-gazette 1914-02-19

CONSERVATION OF WATER IN GRAVEL JUDGE GEO. H. HUTTON GIVES SOME VALUABLE INFORMATION ON SUBJECT PAPER READ BY HIM AT TRI-COUNTIES REFORESTATION MEETING AT RIVERSIDE For nearly a score of years, either as a lawyer at the bar or as a judge on the bench, it has fallen to my lot to participate in much water litigation in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties, so much indeed has my mind dwelt upon the Santa Ana watershed that my interest in the scientific development of that wonderful stream amounts to a fascination. You and I have both heard the casual visitor from the Mississippi valley facetiously remark that it is called Riverside because it has no river. But we know that the eye sees what the eye is trained to see, and we have seen the Santa Ana harnessed in the mountains and utilized to turn every wheel and light every bulb in the entire San Bernardino valley; we have seen that same water used a second time by diversion in a surface stream to irrigate Redlands, Crafton, and environs—we have seen that portion of it not consumed in plant life sink again and replenish the underground supply, and come to the surface and be used a third time at San Bernardino and then a fourth time at Colton, a fifth time at Riverside, a sixth time at Rincon and a seventh time at Santa Ana. Seven different times this water is used, each time producing millions of dollars worth of golden fruit, which means peace, plenty and prosperity to a quarter of a million of people. I venture the assertion that in the course of its left to run in its own natural channels, would quickly reach the sea, and which, when stored in these underground interstices, while still moving toward the sea, move at the rate of from one to 10 miles per year, instead of about that rate per hour. “This magnificent conservation work has been carried on by private enterprise. The Tri-Counties Reforestation Committee and the Water Conservation Association, of which Francis Cuttle, a member of this congress, is chairman, made up of irrigators, of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, have combined together to do this thing with other work, and they have received large encouragement and financial assistance from the state and federal government, and the work just begun is going on from year to year. Water litigation is waning and water increasing; springs are bubbling out that have been dry for years or where no spring heretofore existed, and the theory of conservation is given a practical application by practical men who have gone to the very root of the trouble and applied a remedy of very substantial value.” This account of your work was recently reported before the national irrigation congress. Some few weeks ago, in conversation with your president, I suggested that your work had ceased to be an experiment, but had become a demonstration, and that it was time to put it on a permanent basis by creating for the Tri-Counties Reforestation Committee governmental powers, including the power to levy taxes, thereby insuring the permanence of their splendid work. Your president invited me to present my views on that subject to this meeting, and that is why I am here. My views are simple and easily stated. I think that this committee should prepare an act and get it passed by the next legislature, authorizing the creation of “conservation districts” upon much the same lines as irrigation districts are now created; then form a conservation district including all the lands benefited by your conservation work and tax those lands to support it. This act should define the term “conservation” to mean “the storing of flood waters in natural underground storage basins or gravel beds by anti- same water used a second time by diversion in a surface stream to irrigate Redlands, Crafton, and environs—we have seen that portion of it not consumed in plant life sink again and replenish the underground supply, and come to the surface and be used a third time at San Bernardino and then a fourth time at Colton, a fifth time at Riverside, a sixth time at Rincon and a seventh time at Santa Ana. Seven different times this water is used, each time producing millions of dollars worth of golden fruit, which means peace, plenty and prosperity to a quarter of a million of people. I venture the assertion that in the course of its short journey, of less than 100 miles, during nine months of the year scarcely visible to the eye over most of this distance, that if we credit the Mississippi with all its valuable shipping and charge it with annual damage by floods the net results from the Santa Ana river, which the visitor from the Mississippi valley regards as being unworthy of the name of river, is directly responsible for the employment of more labor, for the establishment of more homes, for the production of more net actual wealth than the mighty and majestic Mississippi in its 1,000 miles of navigable and destructive flow. This assertion may be too broad, but it at least serves to illustrate and call attention to the certain fact that measured by the good old rule: "By their fruits ye shall know them," the Santa Ana river is one of the greatest and certainly the most unique river on this continent. A few years ago at a national irrigation congress in Colorado, and again at a similar gathering in Chicago, it fell to my lot to report on the methods adopted and results achieved by the Tri-Counties Reforestation Committee. My report was in substance as follows: "The so-called rivers of Southern California are not surface rivers at all where they traverse the valleys, except at brief periods following the winter rains, when vast floods of surface water rush through the river channels to the ocean. At all other times the river beds of Southern California, especially the Los Angeles, the San Gabriel and the Santa Ana rivers may be likened to a long row of tin wash basins soldered together and tilted to an angle corresponding to a grade of from three-tenths to five per cent, nearly filled with coarse gravel and surfaced with soil. It will be seen at once that water poured into the upper part of the upper basin, when once it finds its way below the close surface soil, will occupy the voids in the coarse sub-soil gravels and percolate through the basin and to the region of its lower rim, where it gathers and furnishes artesian conditions or brings water to or near the surface; entering the next basin on the surface and repeating the performance on down through the entire series of basins, furnishing available water at the lower rim of each basin to be taken out and used on the upper part of the next lower basin. Nature has provided Southern California with just such a series of bedrock basins, partially filled with coarse rock and gravel and topped over with a rich vegetable humus, and nature does in a large way just what my imaginary tin basins illustrate in a small way. This is a geological theory so well established." Your president invited me to present my views on that subject to this meeting, and that is why I am here. My views are simple and easily stated. I think that this committee should prepare an act and get it passed by the next legislature, authorizing the creation of "conservation districts" upon much the same lines as irrigation districts are now created; then form a conservation district including all the lands benefited by your conservation work and tax those lands to support it. This act should define the term "conservation" to mean "the storing of flood waters in natural underground storage basins or gravel beds by artificial methods" or such more complete definition as your law committee might determine, for instance it might be deemed best to include reforestation as a method of conservation. It should then go on to provide that a majority in number of holders of title or evidence of title to lands susceptible of benefit by the conservation of flood waters within a common watershed, such holders of title or evidence of title representing a majority in value of said lands may propose the organization of a conservation district by a petition to the board of supervisors of the county in which the lands, or if in two counties, the greater portion thereof, or if in more than two counties, then to the board of supervisors of the county containing the greatest number of acres of any county whose lands are in the proposed district. This petition should set forth the boundaries of the proposed district and state generally the method of conservation proposed to be adopted and the approximate locality of the proposed diversion of storm water. The act should provide that the petition be accompanied by a good and sufficient undertaking to be approved by the board of supervisors in double the amount of the probable cost of organizing the district. Petitions should be circulated, published and heard by the board of supervisors in the same manner as provided in the irrigation district act, and if upon such hearing the supervisors find the petition to be sufficient, then they shall forward the same to the state engineer, whose duty it shall be to make or cause to be made such investigation as may be practicable as to the practicability and feasibility of the project, and report the result of such investigation to the board of supervisors; if his report be favorable they shall proceed to organize the district; if unfavorable, then they shall let the matter lie over for 60 days and then deny it unless within such 60 days three-fourths of the residents of such proposed district shall again petition to have it allowed, in which case, such district shall be organized and proceed to elect officers, levy assessments and carry on the business of conserving waste water and generally performing the duties for which it was created. This seems to be the only way in which you gentlemen can create a permanent institution that will give perpetual existence to the splendid work which you have so well pioneered, my best information is that you gentlemen work forever—or creep into your individual scientific ability and your vision, has access things; for yourselves erosion you have done. My call to you is to work of conservation ment footing that will names and insure that untiring genius, yours and your wonderful vistas. AIRSHIP This habit of thinking things begets big things latest announcement directors—a race around the globe for one quarter of a mile. It seems but yesters heads and first-page thrilling news that are had crossed from Frisco high above the water channel. The distance fifty-odd miles, and its breath before it cheers. Fifty miles—and his hortensors of our great fairies of twenty thousand miles planning the trip but calmly certain that complished! Could also bring home to us a clear realization of the ambience which invention moves to triumph in these dams are so happily lucky. The assembly of these ships will be a sight continents and oceans like that aerial naval assembled on earth. There will be, in many aeroplanes—the patience and genius of brothers, of whom he famous has but recently company of the deeds. There will be no Zeppelin type, only by hearsay in this which have done work in the inventor's native city. There will be no France—intrepid air added so much to this darling and enthusiastic over the starting field co in every form of from the graceful moon-like a great gull, to tels sels of the Parsifal carrying troops and hundreds of miles of sea. On that starting flail aviators, inferior and patient endurance hardship, and ranging ers in lofty evolutions in Mikado, of whose there is no shadow of life. And there will be no rim, where it gathers and furnishes artesian conditions or brings water to or near the surface; entering the next basin on the surface and repeating the performance on down through the entire series of basins, furnishing available water at the lower rim of each basin to be taken out and used on the upper part of the next lower basin. Nature has provided Southern California with just such a series of bedrock basins, partially filled with coarse rock and gravel and topped over with a rich vegetable humus, and nature does in a large way just what my imaginary tin basins illustrate in a small way. This is a geological theory so well established in fact that California orange growers convert it into millions of dollars of gold coin annually. "The original source of all this water is, of course, the rainfall, and the amount that reaches the coarse subsurface gravels, or water table, as Homer Hamlin calls it, depends upon many things, but mainly upon the surface conditions, sometimes natural and in some few instances, artificial. "Artificial conditions have been produced in the upper basins of the Santa Ana river. Here, in a state of nature, the winter floods run swiftly over the debris cones and down across the surface channels to the sea; but by artificial methods much of this water is conducted into the debris cones and percolates slowly beneath the surface. In order to conduct the waste water into its natural underground reservoir, a number of interested men acquired three square miles of land on the debris cone of the Santa Ana river; built a substantial concrete headgate and diverting system, and whenever the river was at flood, turned a portion of the flood water out of the channel upon the three square miles. The land, consisting of sand, gravel and boulders, absorbed the water greedily, especially when dikes were thrown up and wells dug down and hundreds of ponds created. Seeping through the porous mass of sand and gravel the water eventually found its way into the artesian basin instead of flowing into the ocean, thus conserving in the natural storage basins, with which nature has bountifully supplied California, large amounts of storm water, which, if then deny it unless within such 60 days three-fourths of the residents of such proposed district shall again petition to have it allowed, in which case, such district shall be organized and proceed to elect officers, levy assessments and carry on the business of conserving waste water and generally performing the duties for which it was created. This seems to be the only way in which you gentlemen can create a permanent institution that will give perpetual existence to the splendid work which you have so well pioneered, my best information is that you gentlemen of the Tri-Counties Reforestation Committee have accomplished the hitherto unheard of fete. You have artificially increased the underground flow of a river, a thing never before attempted on this continent, and never before accomplished in the history of the world except in ancient Hindostan long before the British invasion. Your marvelous work of conservation has been accomplished and as a result thereof, lawsuits have been dismissed and adverse rights have been allowed to become vested because under the artificial conditions you established there was plenty of water for all. Many arid tracts have been reclaimed and set to orchards and dotted with homes, tracts that could not have been reclaimed, orchards that could not have been set, homes that could not have been established but for your skill and scientifically applied energy that caused a very large increase in the natural underground flow of the Santa Ana river. Gentlemen, you have accomplished a great scientific and economic work and in doing so, you have assumed a great moral responsibility to those persons who have allowed adverse claims to become vested rights through laches—lulled into security by the presence of plenty of water. You have assumed a moral responsibility to those persons who have reclaimed arid lands, set out orchards and established homes thereon, relying on the continued presence of plenty of water in the underground gravels of the Santa Ana river watershed. Your moral responsibility is to live and carry on your great and good added so much to their daring and enthusiastic over the starting field co in every form of life from the graceful moor like a great gull, to the sels of the Parsifal carrying troops and hundreds of miles of soil. On that starting fieldlish aviators, inferior and patient endurance hardship, and ranging ers in lofty evolution the Mikado, of whose there is no shadow of them. And there will be one need to tell of their superb daring, coupled ment and quickest wives seen Lincoln Brew like a darting eagle, need no assurance that compeers will keep Stripes to the fore front of the great world rail skill and bulldog griff flag there. We can reasonably too, many new experi­ likely, some unlocked new forms of aircraft. Im­ ing now new planes size and power, intend­the Atlantic. Seeing done in the past two ye­ foolish not to suppose starters in the great ra­of such sustained speed none now possesses. The great exposition continual and ever-increasing on the grand scale. But vivid and striking and images which will amaze world, none will exceedness the spectacle of an assembled to circumna­for the first time in hun­by land or by sea, but little of the upper air. Magnus Roy has sold off his ranch on South Dayton, a new comer from Roy left Tuesday morning where he will visit and until March or April. ROYAL Baking Powder Saves Health and Saves Money and Makes Better Food work forever—or create a public corporation that will do it for you. Your individual philanthropy, your scientific ability and more than all your vision, has accomplished these things; for yourselves and your generation you have done well. My call to you is to put this great work of conservation upon a perma- MORE SUITS FROM YORBA LINDA The third action brought by the Yorba Lindans in this county was commenced Saturday, naming as defendants Jacob Stern, M. N. Newmark, H. W. Frank, Peter Janss, Janss Investment Company and the Yorba Linda Water Company. With an action begun in Los Angeles with the purpose work forever—or create a public corporation that will do it for you. Your individual philanthropy, your scientific ability and more than all your vision, has accomplished these things; for yourselves and your generation you have done well. My call to you is to put this great work of conservation upon a permanent footing that will immortalize your names and insure the benefits of your untiring genius, your scientific ability and your wonderful vision, to posterity. AIRSHIP NAVY This habit of thinking and doing big things begets big things. Witness the latest announcement of the exposition directors—a race through the air around the globe for the princely prize of a quarter of a million dollars. It seems but yesterday that scareheads and first-page columns told the thrilling news that an intrepid airman had crossed from France to England, high above the waters of the historic channel. The distance traversed was fifty-odd miles, and all the world held its breath before it broke forth in cheers. Fifty miles—and here are the directors of our great fair planning a flight of twenty thousand miles! And not only planning the tremendous flight, but calmly certain that it will be accomplished! Could anything possibly bring home to us a clearer and sharper realization of the amazing speed with which invention moves from triumph to triumph in these days in which we are so happily lucky to live? The assembly of the contesting airships will be a sight worth crossing continents and oceans to see. Nothing like that aerial navy has ever been assembled on earth. There will be, in multiform designs, the aeroplanes—those fruits of the patience and genius of two American brothers, of whom the elder and most famous has but recently gone to join the company of the dead. There will be the monster ships of the Zeppelin type, of which we know only by hearsay in this country, but which have done wonderful things in the inventor's native Germany. There will be the representatives of France—intrepid airmen who have added so much to the fame of their daring and enthusiastic race—flying over the starting field in San Francisco in every form of aircraft known, from the graceful monoplane, soaring like a great gull, to the monster vessels of the Parsifal type, capable of carrying troops and cannon across hundreds of miles of space. On that starting field will be English aviators, inferior to none in pluck and patient endurance of mishap and hardship, and ranging besides the others in lofty evolutions the birdmen of the Mikado, of whose courage and skill there is no shadow of doubt. And there will be our own men. No MORE SUITS FROM YORBA LINDA The third action brought by the Yorba Lindans in this county was commenced Saturday, naming as defendants Jacob Stern, M. N. Newmark, H. W. Frank, Peter Janss, Janss Investment Company and the Yorba Linda Water Company. With an action begun in Los Angeles with the purpose of rescinding $175,000 bonds issued by the Yorba Linda Water Company there are now four suits before the courts in which the same vital issues are concerned. The Yorba Lindans assert that the promoters charged them $50 an acre extra for their water rights, contrived to make them pay for the water a second time and are now trying to make them pay for it a third time. The landowners declare that when then purchased the property they thought they were buying one-fifth of an inch of water per acre. They say that while the promoters sold the land by manipulation the promoters retained control of the water company, and are now assessing the property owners to pay interest on $175,000 bonds, which the Yorba Lindans say were issued without any consideration whatever. Charles R. Johnson and fifty-six others are plaintiffs in the latest action, brought here by Attorneys Heney & Carr. A temporary injunction has been issued by Judge Thomas restraining the defendants from selling any of the stock of the water company and from discontinuing the service of water to the land owners. The court is asked to compel the defendants to surrender all bonds of the water company that they have, to extend their water works until water is developed in quantities quoted in their agreements to sell land and that no further assessments be levied to pay assessments upon the bonds. NOTES FROM OIL FIELD Now that a good oil strike has been by the Cal-Okla Oil Company on the Basten lease, at least ten new wells will be drilled in that territory at once. The Basten well is good for about 1,000 barrels a day and drillers believe its production would have been even greater had it been drilled 500 feet deeper. As the oil is nearly 24 gravity the well should prove one of the best payers in the La Habra division. It is believed that Mrs. Basten will soon have an independent fortune from royalties as a result of the strike on her property. The Standard Oil Company is erecting a rig and will drill on the Lemke ranch, adjoining the Basten tract. The Cal-Okla Company is rushing work on a rig and will drill on the Laymer place nearby. The Union Oil Company is building rigs and will begin two more wells on the Loftus lease in the same territory at once. The Amalgamated is building a rig and will drill on the Loftus lease north of Edwardson’s place. The Cal-Okla Company has the lum- added so much to the fame of their daring and enthusiastic race—flying over the starting field in San Francisco in every form of aircraft known, from the graceful monoplane, soaring like a great gull, to the monster vessels of the Parsifal type, capable of carrying troops and cannon across hundreds of miles of space. On that starting field will be English aviators, inferior to none in pluck and patient endurance of mishap and hardship, and ranging besides the others in lofty evolutions the birdmen of the Mikado, of whose courage and skill there is no shadow of doubt. And there will be our own men. No need to tell of their skill and their superb daring, coupled with cool judgment and quickest wits. Those who have seen Lincoln Beachey hurtling, like a darting eagle, through the air, need no assurance that he and his compeers will keep the Stars and Stripes to the fore from start to finish of the great world race, if pluck and skill and bulldog grit can keep that flag there. We can reasonably expect to see, too, many new experiments and, very likely, some unlooked-for triumphs in new forms of aircraft. There are building now new planes of unexampled size and power, intended to fly across the Atlantic. Seeing what has been done in the past two years, it would be foolish not to suppose that among the starters in the great race will be craft of such sustained speed and power as none now possesses. The great exposition is a source of continual and ever-increasing pride. It has been fertile of original conception on the grand scale. But among all the vivid and striking and impressive features which will amaze and delight the world, none will exceed in impressiveness the spectacle of the aerial navy, assembled to circumnavigate the earth for the first time in human history, not by land or by sea, but by the highways of the upper air. Magnus Roy has sold the east half of his ranch on South street to W. S. Dayton, a new-comer from Iowa. Mr. Roy left Tuesday morning for Florida where he will visit and see the sights until March or April. PROTEST THE MOVIES The Sioux Indians are making plans to send a delegation to Washington with a signed protest against allowing the moving pictures of the re-enacted battle of Wounded Knee to be filed in the government archives as an authentic production. The Indians are enraged at the film people, who they claim distorted the action of the battle to belittle the prowess of the Redskins. Several instances are pointed out wherein the picture is distorted. They claim that General Nelson A. Miles, who took a prominent part in the film, was in reality 50 miles from the scene of the battle, and, so far as is known, was never on the field until he posed for the movies. They also claim that Buffalo Bill, who played the part of the hero in the film, was at the agency 18 miles away, when the real fight occurred. The Indians mournfully assert that only one Indian out of the 400 that engaged in the battle survived. The Sioux have called a meeting of the grand council of the tribe to protest against the picture going down in history as authentic. They claim they were misled into believing it was only a sham battle and did not know it was to be called Wounded Knee. The formal protest will be carried to Washington by three chiefs. There exists at the present time a vacancy in the hygienic laboratory of the state board of health, located at Berkeley, Cal., which will be filled from the eligible list obtained after this examination. Both men and women citizens of the State of California, and over 21 years of age will be admitted to this examination. Candidates will be examined in foreign languages, histological pathology, parasitology, general laboratory technique, and bacteriology. Credit will be given for training and experience which is likely to fit the candidate for the successful performance of his duties. Further information and application blanks may be obtained from the office of the commission at Sacramento. Completed application blanks must be filed by 5 P.M. February 24, 1914. LECTURE BY WM. M. BELL, D. D. Rey. Wm. M. Bell, D. D., is to give one of his famous lectures in the Fremont school, tonight, February 19th. Bishop Bell has a world-wide reputation as a lecturer, and will be a great treat for the people of Anaheim. Dr. Bell is a man of commanding personality and thoroughly at home on the platform. His subject for tonight is to be one of universal interest to all, being "The Outstanding Characteristics of Our Age," and at this time is especially appropriate on account of the general unrest of the world. This lecture is to be given under the auspices of the Senior Baraca class of the M. E. church and is to be for the benefit of the Spanish Mission. The admission is to be 35 cents for adults and 25 cents for those of school age. Don't fail to take advantage of this unusual opportunity. Tickets for sale at the Cherry Blossom. E. W. Eskridge, of Los Angeles, was in Anaheim last week looking after a ranch which his mother owns near here. Mr. Eskridge has been a newspaper man from his youth up. He is the son of ex-Governor Eskridge who was publisher of the Emporia Republican during half a lifetime. Thursday, February 19 it the Auto Show! IN ANAHEIM Saturday, Feb. 28, 1914 LAST EVER HELD IN ORANGE COUNTY FREE Musical Entertainment Afternoon and Night usical Entertainment Afternoon and Night We will have on exhibition a Ford ing model, showing every workart of the world-famous FORD. will also have other models for inspection. Compare this car and with other cars on exhibition. gram Bros. ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA Garden Making Season Is at hand and perhaps you will need tools. We carry everything in that line that you can possibly need, and the price tag is right. Is at hand and perhaps you will need tools. We carry everything in that line that you can possibly need, and the price tag is right. M. W. MARTENET South Los Angeles St. Anaheim The Board of Supervisors has opened eight bids for the construction of 2.4 miles of road in the Santa Ana canyon adjoining the Riverside county line. The bids were referred to the highway commission engineers for checking over with the engineer’s estimate of dirt to be moved. Several weeks ago bids were received for work on this same section of county good roads, but a revision of plans was found necessary in order to get the cost lower. Under the former bids, the cost would have run up to $55,000. A bloodless duel was fought at El Modena between Francisco Gauna and Miguel Vega. Gauna started the shooting without knowing that Vega was armed. He fired five shots. Two bullets went into the air, one passed through the sweater of a by-stander, another went through the side of a house and imbedded itself in a table beside a man, and the fifth went through Vega's trousers' leg. When Vega drew a revolver and began to return the fire, Gauna ran. At the installation of its newly-elected officers the Fraternal Brotherhood gave a banquet after the completion of the work. The officers installed are: Past president, Elton Goble; president, Mrs. Mary Paschall; vice-president, Mrs. Eva Boyd; secretary, Miss Hannah Horwitz; treasurer, Fred Rimpau; chaplain, Miss Hannah Horwitz; Misstress-at-arms, Mrs. Julia Clabaugh; sergeant, Frank Berth; inner doorkeeper, J. H. Clabaugh; outer doorkeeper, Ed. Marion. Mrs. Emma Neidig was the installing officer. Several visitors were entertained. F. K. Gresswell, who has charge of the products display at the Board of Trade rooms, is devoting half his time to building racks, cases and adding specimens to his collection. Mr. Gresswell's ambition is to gather together a display equal to any in the Southland outside the large cities. Anyone having extra fine specimens of fruit, vegetables, nuts or other products will confer a favor on him by bringing them to the Library building where they will be given a place and properly labeled.