it would amount to nothing. The Legislature is dying and we cannot get these measures out of the committee; so why express any opinion about them at all? Wait for another session of the Legislature and take them up fresh. (Applause.)

Remarks by J. H. Zemansky

MR. ZEMANSKY: The County Clerks' Association met in Sacramento on the 3d of this month. They approved the bill for a central count of votes, and we appeared before a legislative committee meeting. The committee appeared to be favorable to it, but there was no one there particularly to urge it on. I suggested that they report it favorably, but they did not seem to care to act. There was nobody urging it. If we want to get it through, somebody ought to be there.

That bill was drawn to cover for state elections the same plan that is in our charter on municipal elections. We now count the votes in San Francisco for local elections at a centrally located place. This year, November 4, we will count the votes of San Francisco at the Auditorium. All ballot boxes will be returned to the Auditorium Polk-street entrance and there be turned over to tally clerks, who will count them three clerks to each ballot box-and they will all be counted by two or three o'clock in the morning, all at one time, all under one management, all in one room. This law as proposed in Sacramento is a permissive law; it permits any county or any part of a county to follow the same system. The County Clerks' Association adopted it and approved it and so recommended to the Legislature. If there were somebody there that could stay there, we think that the law could be put through. Los Angeles is very anxious to have it; Alameda is very anxious; San José is very anxious to have it-all those large cities.

In Santa Clara county we would only count San José; in Los Angeles we would only count the city of Los Angeles, or any part of it. In Sacramento county they would count Sacramento City; or they could count the whole county if they wanted to.

Action by Club Meeting

THE PRESIDENT: Those who favor the measure providing for a central count of ballots will signify by saying aye. Contrary no. Carried.

no.

All who favor the purity of elections bill will say aye. Contrary Carried.

The next is the Committee on Irrigation. Mr. Grunsky will read the report.

Report of the Committee on Irrigation

STATEMENT BY C. E. GRUNSKY, CHAIRMAN

MR. GRUNSKY: While the number of bills pending in the Legislature which deal with the matter of irrigation is large, it may be broadly stated that the general trend and purpose of these measures is to encourage the organization of irrigation districts and to so safeguard and to a greater or less degree control their operations that the financial standing of those which have not yet passed the crucial test of a development period will be improved. It may be noted with much satisfaction, in this connection, that the irrigation district bond has now established itself in the local market. This is in large measure due to the wise administration of the law, which requires that bonds of districts, to be accepted as security and for investment by savings banks, must have the approval of the Irrigation Bond Commission. This commission consists of the State Superintendent of Banks, the Attorney General and the State Engineer. The operation of this law has been so satisfactory that certification of bonds by the bond commission is now wanted in practically every district as a matter of course. Such gratifying result is in no small measure due to those who have administered the law and who have known how to make it of real use. Some of the requirements relating to the expenditure of funds received from the sale of validated bonds are, under the present law, onerous because the law practically makes the bond commission an auditing board. That this is not necessary is recognized not only by those who are charged with the administration of the law but also by those who are inconvenienced by having to submit details of projects and minor changes of plans and proposed contracts and the like for approval to a commission which would only then provide itself with an organization adequate to investigate each detail thoroughly, if it were placed in full responsible charge of construction. It is expected that this Legislature will so modify the law that the main features of the irrigation project and essential proposed modifications only will require approval by the bond commission.

As the area of irrigated lands grows from year to year the need of reducing the amount of water which runs to waste during the flood flow periods is becoming more and more apparent. Storage on a large scale to conserve flood waters is wanted on the Kings River at Pine Flat, on the Tuolumne River at Dom Pedro Bar, on the Stanislaus River and on other streams, and the question is asked, Why should not the state provide the storage reservoirs? The answer is almost universally in favor of this proposition. Upon consideration of this

question and the need of more effective assistance by the state to district enterprises, your committee resolved:

1. "That this committee favors the adoption of a policy of state aid to community enterprises dealing with the improvement of land for agricultural purposes, such as the reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands, the drainage of alkali and water-logged lands, the prevention of floods and the utilization of water for irrigation.

2. "That such a policy should include, (a) aid to be rendered by the state through the Department of Engineering or other appropriate agency in a proper determination of their physical and economical feasibility, the state Department of Engineering to be provided with adequate funds and facilities for carrying this policy into effect; and (b) the acquisition and construction by the state and by the state in co-operation with the United States of storage reservoirs wherever such reservoirs will aid in conserving and making more useful the water of any stream within the state, together with works necessary for the delivery of water from storage to the irrigation, power or other enterprises which may have or may acquire rights therein or may otherwise be in position to make use thereof, subject, however, to recovery of operating expenses, including interest on the investment and ultimate amortization of capital, from those who make beneficial use of such stored waters or who are benefited by such storage through the protection of their lands from floods.

3. "That the extent of reservoir construction to be thus undertaken should be limited by the state Legislature, which should fix the amount of state bonds to be placed at the disposal of the authorities charged with the selection and construction of reservoirs.

4. "Expenses incurred by the state Department of Engineering in rendering services to any community project should in the first instance be paid by the state out of money appropriated for the purpose. but expenses incurred in connection with any particular project later approved and organized should be included in the organization expenses of such project and be returned to the state."

The reservoir which modifies the natural stream flow by holding water back at certain times, and by releasing it at others, should be so manipulated as to do the greatest good to the greatest number. The prime purpose of the reservoir may be to store water for irrigation. The irrigator will desire to have the reservoir filled as early as possible with the first runoff in the fall and early winter. A secondary purpose may be to reduce the peak of floods, in which event those who are occasionally menaced by floods will want the reservoir emptied as soon as possible after each filling, in order that it may be available to act efficiently at the next high stage of the stream. And again the irrigator will desire to have the water delivered to him in the spring and summer months, when it will be most beneficial to the growing

crop, while the owner of the power plant who may also have rights in the water will desire to have the water so released that he will not be short of power when the irrigator no longer needs a supply. All interests can best be brought into harmony and individual rights can only be fully protected if the state not only constructs the storage reservoirs which are to be manipulated for the benefit of diverse activities but remains permanently in control of the reservoir and the outflow therefrom, including the distribution of the water released from storage to those who have acquired the right to use it. Taking this view of the matter, the committee adopted the resolution as already quoted and there has been introduced in the Legislature a bill committing the state to this policy.

In such matters as the extending of state aid or the use of state funds, even though only as a slowly revolving fund, to facilitate the development of natural resources, such as the utilization of runoff waters, we are prone to look about for a precedent in such matters and in this particular case we find one that has long been in successful operation. The reference is to the metropolitan water supply of Massachusetts. The Water Board of Massachusetts has had placed at its disposal state bond issues aggregating over $40,000,000 and with the funds thus provided has constructed water works, storage reservoirs and delivery conduits, for the supplying of water to Boston and some twenty-seven other cities and towns. The water is delivered wholesale. Each community provides for its distribution to the consumers. The revenue collected from the cities and towns covers operating expenses and cares for the interest and sinking fund of the bond issues, so that the state is really out nothing by having allowed its credit to be used for so worthy a purpose. In our own state, too, we have an example of the state's credit being used, and properly so, for a local development. The state Board of Harbor Commissioners has charge of the construction and maintenance of the seawall, wharves, piers and slips along the water front of San Francisco, and has from time to time been authorized to issue state bonds for betterments and new construction. These state bonds have been cared for out of the harbor receipts and have in no wise increased general taxes. The time has come when California should enter upon this programme of reservoir construction on a broad scale but with every project which it undertakes first thoroughly investigated as to feasibility and advisability, and to this end it needs a well-organized department of public works.

It should be added that the United States may well embark upon a similar programme of constructing storage reservoirs, particularly in those cases in which the flow of an interstate stream is to be regu

lated. Thus, for example, in the case of the Colorado river, whose drainage basin embraces parts of seven states and whose floods, in its lower reaches from beyond the confines of the United States, menace the lands in Imperial Valley, there should be no delay in undertaking storage works on a large scale. The stored water would be available for the generation of power. It would augment the supply to the irrigator in the months of the year when the river is low and its natural flow becomes inadequate to meet the greater demand of the near fu ture. The holding back of a part of the flood flow in reservoirs would in some degree cut down the peak of the flood and reduce the flood

menace.

While the committee was at work on a programme looking to an enlargement of the powers of the State Engineer in the matter of extending aid to irrigation, drainage and flood control districts, the first tentative draft of a plan of organization for a state Department of Public Works reached the committee and the resulting discussion led to the approval by the committee of a slightly modified plan of organization which in briefest outline is as follows:

At the head of the department would be the State Engineer. The work of the department would be divided to bureaux.

1. Bureau of Irrigation and Water Rights, with a chief engineer at its head and with all the duties relating to these matters now devolving upon the State Engineer and the State Water Commission.

2. Bureau of Flood Control, with a chief engineer at its head and with duties relating to flood control, river improvements, land drainage, and other closely related subjects. Any duties of the State Reclamation Board not relating specifically to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Drainage District are to be transferred to this bureau.

3. Bureau of Highways, with a chief engineer at its head and replacing the State Highway Commission.

4. Bureau of Harbors, with a chief of the bureau assisted by directors of commerce at the harbors, controlled by the state and by a suitable engineering staff.

5. Bureau of State Buildings and Grounds, with a chief of the bureau and the duties now devolving on the Bureau of Architecture of the Department of Engineering and on the various commissioners and trustees who are now in charge of various buildings and grounds.

The chiefs of these bureaux would form an advisory board to the State Engineer.