XXIII

RECONSTRUCTION IN GOVERNOR BOYLE'S SECOND TERM 1919-1922

The contest for governor was again between Emmet D. Boyle and Tasker L. Oddie. The vote was : Boyle, 12,875; Oddie, 11,845. Edward A. Ducker was elected to the Supreme Court over Patrick A. McCarran. The other state officials chosen were : Lieutenant governor, Maurice J. Sullivan ; secretary of state, George Brodigan; state treasurer, Ed Malley, state controller, George A. Cole; surveyor general, Charles L. Deady ; attorney general, Leonard B. Fowler; superintendent of state printing, Joe Farnsworth; superintendent of public instruction, W. J. Hunting; clerk of Supreme Court, William Kennett; inspector of mines, Andy J. Stinson. The three university regents elected for terms of ten, eight and six

510

NEVADA        511

years respectively, were : Miles E. North, Eunice B. Hood and Walter E. Pratt.

Election of 1920

In the Republican landslide of November 2, 1920, when the nation went back to "normalcy," electing Harding and Coolidge and giving the Republicans control of both branches of Congress, Nevada also swung into the Republican column. The Republican presidential electors had a plurality of approximately 5,600 over the Democrats. The Socialist vote that year was about 1,860. Former Governor Oddie won the seat in the United States Senate, defeating Senator Henderson. The total vote in the state for

[picture]

PERSHING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LOVELOCK

Prohibition by Initiative and Referendum

The 1918 election afforded the first important test of the "initiative and referendum" amendment adopted in 1912. For the first time a law was put on the statute books without the intervention

512      NEVADA

of the Legislature and with the phrase of the enacting clause reading : "The people of the State of Nevada do enact as follows." In his message to the Legislature in January, 1917, Governor Boyle referred to the "initiative petition," which during the previous year had been signed and submitted to the secretary of state and had by him been transmitted to the Legislature, in the following words :

The "initiative" provision in our Constitution and supplementary laws have been employed to bring before you a measure designed to prohibit the manufacture, consumption, and sale of intoxicating liquors.

This measure under the law must have preferential consideration at your hands and must be adopted or rejected without change. Committed as we all must be to the theory that the public has a right to define its own policy in regard to the ethical questions upon which it naturally divides, and since favorable action by the Legislature on this important measure, while not necessarily depriving the people of a direct voice in its adoption or rejection later, will at least operate to adjudicate a matter in advance of the final and definite settlement of this question by the people themselves which will be brought about automatically by your unfavorable action on this bill, therefore, however inevitable and desirable prohibition may appear, it is suggested that you expeditiously take the steps necessary to place the question of its adoption or rejection on the ballot, both for the reasons given in the foregoing and because of the probable impairment of legislative efficiency which may be expected to result from an extended consideration by your body of so controversial a subject.

514      NEVADA

vada "went dry" about six months before statutory prohibition became effective in the nation. A brief summary of the successive steps in the enactment of national prohibition is in order. After America's intervention in the World war, the program of participation at first emphasized "provisioning the allies" rather than furnishing them man power. The first emphasis, as will be recalled, was on increased crop production and food conservation. In the debate in Congress over food conservation during the summer of 1917 an attempt was made to prohibit the use of grains altogether for the manufacture of alcoholic liquors. As the Lever Conservation Bill finally passed August 10, 1917, it was not a thoroughgoing war-time prohibition act, but it did forbid the use of grain for the distillation of beverages, and the President was also given wide discretionary powers in the control of both wines and beer.

Eighteenth Amendment

The dry forces in Congress, having failed to get a complete prohibition measure for the duration of the war, put through the resolution to submit a constitutional amendment to the states. This resolution was passed by the Senate in August, and by the House in December, and on December 18, 1917, was submitted to the various states. In the meantime, on November 21, 1918, Congress had passed the war-time prohibition law, prohibiting the manufacture of intoxicating liquors after May 1, 1919, and their sale after June 30th of the same year. This law was to continue in force until the army was demobilized. On December 15, 1919, the United States Supreme Court upheld the validity of this act. On January 16, 1919, the thirty-sixth state ratified the eighteenth amendment, and when the amendment was proclaimed it was to take effect one year from that date, on January 16, 1920. For six months before that date the nation had been "dry" under the war-time prohibition law. Nevada was the forty-first state to ratify the eighteenth amendment, doing so by legislative resolution approved January 27, 1919.

Nineteenth Amendment

Just a week later, on February 4, 1919, a resolution was approved asking the United States Senate to approve the amendment proposal then before it to grant the right of suffrage to women. In this as in the case of the prohibition amendment Nevada was in advance of the national movement, women here having had all their political rights for five years. The national suffrage amendment resolution had been adopted by the lower house of Congress May 21, 1919, after the failure of the Senate to adopt the resolution in the closing days of the Sixty-fifth Congress. The Senate finally gave its approval on June 4, 1919, and before the

NEVADA        515

end of 1919 twenty-two states had ratified the amendment. The Nevada Legislature was called into special session February 7, 1920, and promptly ratified the amendment, being the twenty-eighth state so to do. It was not until August 18 that Tennessee, after an intense parliamentary struggle, ratified. The amendment was proclaimed in time to permit women in all the states of the Union to participate in the national election of 1920.

Post-War Economic Conditions

While the war had been over barely two months when he penned his message to the Legislature in 1919, Governor Boyle made a clear and penetrating analysis of the conditions which had produced prosperity and of the probabilities to be faced in the immediate future. Mining and agriculture had been enormously stimulated by the war demands for copper, silver, tungsten, manganese,

[picture]

COUNTY HOSPITAL, LOVELOCK, PERSHING COUNTY

wool and meat. "More men were employed than ever before in our industries, and at higher wages. We had no direct war industries, so called, similar to those established in industrial centers. We enjoyed the direct benefits of no training camps, no ship building operations, nor of any of the new emergency industries which sprang up over the land to meet the nation's need. The benefits which came to us commercially were in the form of better prices for products and in augmented production at these prices. The extraordinary profits gained from our major mining operations, as heretofore, went elsewhere." But much of this business and industrial stimulation was artificial and temporary. "Prices rose, partly as a result of the inordinate increase in demand, and partly because of the unparalleled increase in the volume of money, so called, in the belligerent countries. Where the government found it necessary to requisition the major part of the production of any commodity, as it was compelled to do in the cases of wheat, copper, silver, mercury, and many other commodities produced here, it set prices that the public might be protected from competitive over-bidding for the residue, and in most cases these prices

516      NEVADA

were liberal. With the high prices on commodities came increases in living costs, which in turn had to be met by wage increases." But signs of deflation had already appeared. "Affecting us most directly are the conditions existing in the market for gold, copper, tungsten, lead, manganese and zinc, among our metal products, and wool and wool-producing animals in our agricultural industry. With the sudden suspension of the manufacture of armaments and munitions came almost completely a suspension of the governmental demand for the metals referred to, together with the disclosure that the government had in fact, as a part of its program of great production in 1919, enormous supplies of raw material, especially of copper and wool, which will have to be diverted ultimately to other uses than those contemplated. . . . The demand for lead has been cut practically to a third of the demand in 1918.

[picture]

RANCHING IN THE FERTILE MOAPA VALLEY NORTH OF LAS VEGAS

Labor

While there was at the time the largest cash balance in the state treasury ever reported, the governor counseled economy and efficiency in the administration of the revenues. With rising costs for the administration of the state's penal and charitable institutions, he again recommended the economies that might be expected to follow a centralized administration under a single board. The governor apprehended that the chief problem of the coming months would be that of unemployment. "With it will come the danger to harmonious relations between employer and employee; danger of

NEVADA        517

the absorption by idle and discouraged groups of false philosophies and increasing danger to the state of the recurrence of the intense and bitter industrial disputes which at one time served to write disgraceful pages in the history of the intermountain country. I. W. W.'ism with its faults and brutal philosophy has not been and will not be successfully combatted by mob rule or by methods which do not lie wholly within the law, and it lives and thrives on the petty autocracy manifested in the inconsiderate acts of capital."

518      NEVADA

The year 1919 throughout the nation was one of strikes or threatened strikes in the transportation, coal, steel and other basic industries. During April practically the entire force of the Nevada state police was detailed on duty at Tonopah, and again in August another strike broke out in the same district, requiring the presence of the state police. Nevada was not behind other states in enacting laws to punish desecration of the flag, "criminal syndicalism," and other acts and influences associated with the "Red Menace."

Honors to War Veterans

Equally prompt was the action of the state in showing appreciation of its war heroes. The Legislature of 1919 authorized an

[picture]

ROCHESTER HILL, ABOVE ROCHESTER, PERSHING COUNTY

NEVADA        519

also appropriated $5,000 and authorized the Nevada Historical Society to collect and compile the history of the state's participation in the war.

Rising Cost of Education

            During the war wages of industrial workers kept only a step or two behind the rising cost of living. The same was not so true of salaried workers, particularly those employed in public positions. As a result thousands of salaried workers went into the better paid lines of commercial service. Education was one of the essential services that suffered when teachers were drawn into the war activities or gravitated toward the more profitable occupations.

[picture]

HOMES IN MINDEN AND GARDNERVILLE

520      NEVADA

to broaden the work of teacher training at the university and authorized the construction of the Education Building, which was completed in 1920.

One of the features of post war education which will be recalled was the emphasis upon adult education and particularly Americanization training. By the spring of 1920 there were eleven evening schools in the state with a total enrollment of 796 students, attending the Americanization classes, the general educational courses and vocational work. Many of these who attended were foreign born, while others were boys and girls who accepted the opportunity as a sort of "continuation school." Still another extension of educational service was the result of the industrial rehabilitation act passed by Congress in 1920, providing for the educational rehabilitation of persons disabled in industry or otherwise. The Legislature in 1919 had acted in anticipation of the passage of this then pending law.

The University

Deflation Period

As Governor Boyle pointed out, Nevada, like the rest of the country, in 1919 prepared itself as best it could "against a chaos of unemployment and general commercial disorder which never came." In the post war deflation it could have been said with a large measure of truth that "prosperity was just around the corner." The worst effects were felt by the land and live stock industry, which suffered not only a decline of prices for its products, but from the very bad market conditions, and from the effect on crops and ranges of three consecutive dry years. The banks of the state were called upon throughout 1920 for exceptional extensions of credit. They were able to do their part, and do it remarkably well. "I am able to report with peculiar pride," said Governor Boyle in 1921, "that Nevada bids fair to emerge from the period of deflation as the only western state whose banking system will have been 100 per cent efficient in carrying, without a single failure, the burden imposed upon it by the times through which we are passing."

NEVADA        521

Silver and Other Metals

Most of the special mining production, resulting from extraordinary war demands, such as tungsten, lead, zinc and manganese, was terminated in 1919 through the collapse of the metal market. Only the two copper companies at Ely continued production during 1919-20.

[picture]

NORTHEAST NEVADA ROAD

tional demand for silver to pay for goods from those countries. Silver prices rose rapidly, reaching an average in New York of $1.12 an ounce during 1919, or almost double the pre-war stabilized price." One result was that the metal content of a silver coin became worth more than its face value, and a great deal of silver was hoarded. Soon after the war Holland and Great Britain reduced the metal content of their silver coinage, their example being followed by other countries, and the surplus silver bullion thus acquired was thrown on the market, a fact which contributed toward the rapid decline in silver prices, so that they reached the pre-war level by 1921.

Production figures and the general economic conditions attending the mining industry in Nevada during the four years after the war were thus summarized by Governor Scrugham in his first message to the Legislature in 1923:

During the past four years metal mining in Nevada has experienced a serious decline both in production and develop-

522      NEVADA

ment. This apparent stagnation can be ascribed principally to increased operating costs taken in conjunction with the comparatively low prices received for metals due to accumulated war stocks.

The depressed situation in which the industry now finds itself may be expressed in statistics. For some years prior to 1919 the average yearly gross production of metal mines in Nevada approximated $50,000,000. In 1917 the gross metal production was more than $54,000,000. In 1918 it was $48,528,000. In 1919 it suddenly declined more than 50 per cent; the production for that year being $23,433,000. In 1921 production again dropped 50 per cent, the figures being $12,137,000, which was less than one-fourth the former normal production. Accurate figures for 1922 are not yet available, but it is probable that production will aggregate about $15,000,000 in value.

Of all the producing mines in the State, those whose output is silver are in the most satisfactory condition. The Pittman Act, through which domestic silver is sold to the Mint at the fixed price of $1 per ounce, has served to keep that branch of the industry on its feet. At the present time more silver is being produced in Nevada than since 1918. A very serious problem confronts the silver producers, however, for within the next year the Pittman Silver Act will expire by limitation. Silver then must be disposed of at the prevailing market which at this time is about 63 cents per ounce. This is below the cost of production in most of the mines in the State. Practical cessation of silver mining may result unless relief is obtained through national legislation or through the ability of the silver producers to dispose of their product in a more profitable manner than has been done in the past. Recent discoveries of new ore-bodies have not entirely balanced the depletion of former productive reserves.

Gold mining in Nevada is in the same condition which exists in every other gold-producing State. Except in the case of high-grade ores, the mining of gold, other than by-product production, has virtually ceased. This is illustrated by figures on national production which are less than that of pre-war years. The price of gold has remained fixed while the cost of all commodities entering into its production has risen to a marked degree. Consequently gold mining cannot be made profitable except under the most favorable conditions.

Low market prices and high operating costs have greatly retarded the production of the baser metals. This is particularly true of zinc and copper. Nevada, once one of the most important of zinc-producing States, has recently mined but a negligible amount of that metal. Lead production is about one-fourth that of pre-war normal years. Copper production is less than one-twelfth that of 1917. Since 1919 but one producing copper mine has been operating in this State. The strong financial condition of the owning company has enabled it to continue operations on a reduced scale during which a stock of copper has been accumulated and stored. This one remaining operator, however, suffered a serious setback during the past year in the destruction by fire of its concentrator. Fortunately, reconstruction was begun immediately, and at this time several units of the new plant are in operation.

NEVADA        523

The production of rare commercial metals such as tungsten, manganese, and quicksilver has ceased entirely. Nevada

[picture]

CARLIN SHALE OIL PLANT, ELKO COUNTY

has enough tungsten ore already blocked out to supply the domestic demand for that metal during the next decade. Unfortunately, the selling price of the competing foreign product has been below the cost of production in this State, so that all local operations were abandoned. The new tariff places a substantial duty on tungsten ores, and plans are now under way to resume operations in some of the proven lines. A substantial production of tungsten may reasonably be expected during the next two years.

Late in the year two large ore-production plants were completed and brought into operation. In Gold Hill a plant of 3,000 tons daily capacity is now operating on the ores of the old Comstock district. The success of this venture will doubtless stimulate further developments. New exploratory operations are under way and the Comstock promises a substantial and healthy revival. In Candelaria a new mill of 300 tons daily capacity is now steadily operating, and that once rich

524      NEVADA

district has again been brought to a state of profitable production. Construction was commenced on three smaller mills in different portions of the State, one of which, on the Betty O'Neal property in Lander County, has recently been completed and is operating successfully. The other two will start operations during the coming year. The prospect for increased mineral production from the old camps of Eureka and Pioche appear to be exceptionally favorable.

Developments during the past year in Tonopah have been far-reaching and extensive. Important discoveries of new ore-bodies have been made in both ends of the district. The productive area has been proven to extend much beyond previous expectations. Tonopah should continue to be a prosperous mining district for many years to come.

[picture]

THE PALACE HOTEL, ONE OF LAS VEGAS' EARLY LANDMARKS

A large and very favorable deposit of colemanite, a borax mineral, was discovered over a year ago in Clark County, near Las Vegas. The deposit is being developed and marketed by adequately financed interests who are experienced in the business.

Industrial Disturbances

Employment statistics naturally followed closely the rising and falling scale of industrial activity. The commissioner of labor in his report for 1921-22 indicated that the low tide of employment in the state was reached in the early part of 1921 and that during this two-year period there was a 25 per cent decrease in employment in all industries of the state, over the survey conducted two years earlier, showing "the smallest number employed since the Goldfield discoveries of the last decade." The labor commissioner, the governor and other state officials were frequently called upon for duty in conciliation and meditation in wage disputes and in strikes and threatened strikes. Such controversies occurred during

NEVADA        525

1919 among one or two groups of railroad employees, in the copper mines and mills at Ely and also at Tonopah. In the strikes in the mines usually the sinister influence of the I. W. W. was discovered. The effort of the mine operators of Tonopah to put into effect a reduced wage scale precipitated a general strike there during the spring and summer of 1921. A large part of the force of the Nevada state police had to be called in to maintain law and order at Tonopah and Las Vegas. Las Vegas was also the chief trouble center during the railroad strike which was called July 1, 1922, and which affected the entire country. The state police was on duty at Las Vegas for four months during this strike.

Financing Road-building

A great many phrases have been current to describe, both to praise and to blame, the ten year period after the war, but one term with which the future historian could find little fault, would describe it as the "road building decade." The building of high-ways was one outlet for the tremendous energies temporarily estopped by the armistice. The original plan of Nevada's highway system was outlined in 1917, and many miles of permanent roads were in actual use before Governor Boyle left office. The governor's message of 1921 presents an account of Nevada's method of financing the construction.

"In 1919, Congress, anticipating a critical period of unemployment to follow demobilization and the break-up of the war industries, appropriated a very large sum of money for road work, and the states were urged to make appropriations at least equal to the amounts of their respective allotments. Nevada provided then for a continuance of the ten-cent state highway tax and the ten-cent county-state highway tax levied first in 1918; and authorized a million dollar state bond issue and county bond issues aggregating $1,470,000. The total allotment to Nevada under the Federal Aid Road Act and supplementary acts and amendments aggregated $3,527,276.18. Thus far the state has contracted with the government for $1,340,966.27 of this amount. An additional allotment of $909,965.48 must be contracted for, in whole or in part, on or before July 1, 1921, and thereafter an allotment of $1,276,344.43, or such part thereof as may be decided upon as matchable by the state, on or before July 1, 1922."

At the outset, it will be recalled, the governor believed that road construction ought to be paid out of current revenues. His explanation as to the change of opinion was : "It is my desire to reiterate that nothing short of the opportunity which presented itself in 1919 for the securing of a very large sum of Federal money in all road-building operations would have justified the issuance of road bonds by the state and its various counties in such amounts as have been authorized." The governor cautioned the Legislature against transferring too heavy burdens of road construction and road maintenance to future years, and expressed the view that Nevada's highways could never be improved as they had been improved in richer and more prosperous states. "We can, in my judgment, complete and maintain a system in Nevada by the improvement of the bad stretches in our main-traveled arteries which will permit travel in comfort over all these roads, and we should be able to complete these improvements during the life of the Federal Aid Road Act."

526      NEVADA

The department has suffered under all of the handicaps which impeded private enterprise in the past two years and which gained for such enterprise a widespread and genuine sympathetic appreciation of its problems, yet beginning without equipment to provide needed road construction material; in a State which has developed no road contractors; handicapped by the clamor, on the one hand, of those who insisted upon the conversion of the Highway Department into a political machine, and, on the other, the equally immoral and unjustified contentions of those who viciously assailed it because it was a part of a particular political administration, the department has largely in the last two years, completed a reconnaissance of more than 60 per cent of the entire highway system; has completed surveys of 40 per cent of the said sys-

SNOW SCENE ON THE RAILROAD NEAR WELLS

tem, and has let contracts covering the construction of 174 miles of improved highway and seven bridges.

The highway system in its entirety includes 1,750 miles of roads. Of this amount 60 per cent is made up of excellent natural roads which we should not attempt to improve; 15 per cent of fair roads, and 25 per cent of poor roads sorely needing reconstruction. Approximately 33 1/3 per cent of the bad stretches are now under improvement.

The State Highways

The report of the Department of Highways for 1919-20 showed that during that period approximately fourteen miles of concrete road had been completed, sixty-four miles of gravel construction; and eighty-nine miles of grading, and a total length of about seven miles in bridges. Thus at the close of 1920 only about eighty miles of completed construction was shown on a map of the four original state roads. Most of this completed work had been done from Reno south to Carson City, east and south of Tonopah, east of Lovelock, small portions between Ely and Wadsworth.

NEVADA        527

During the mining boom in Southern Nevada, it will be recalled, a railroad was built from Las Vegas toward Tonopah. This railroad, like several other early lines that have been mentioned, does not appear on modern maps of the state. Cases handled by the Nevada Public Service Commission in 1919 and 1920 show how auto truck competition was making inroads on the railroads. The report of the Highway Department just quoted tells an interesting story of how a route blazed across the desert for steel rails was completely usurped for a modern motor highway:

In the fall of 1918 the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad Company decided to abandon the operation of its road between Las Vegas in Clark County and Beatty in Nye County, and to dismantle its track. It was observed by some of the far-seeing citizens of Las Vegas that this roadbed, if reconstructed, would make an excellent highway between the extreme southern part of the State and Beatty, and particularly was this desirable, for the reason that the existing highway between those points was in a deplorable condition and was almost impassable at certain seasons of the year.

The territory between Las Vegas and Beatty consists, for almost the entire distance between these points, of an uninhabited desert region, and, to one unacquainted with its peculiar conditions, very dangerous, so the obtaining of a good highway was not only desirable to afford the comforts of travel, but to act as a protection to those unfamiliar with the region and yet forced to travel it.

The Highway Department was unable to negotiate with the railroad company for the acquisition of this roadbed until it had been designated as a part of our State Highway System. This was done in the early part of the legislative session of 1919. The Highway Department immediately thereafter instructed the Highway Engineer to negotiate with the railroad company for the acquisition of this railroad grade and such of the roadbed structures as might be of advantage to it in reconstructing the grade into a highway. After some negotiation an agreement was entered into with the railroad company whereby, for the consideration of $3,889.44, the State acquired a quit-claim deed to all of the right of way, a title to all the bridges which had not theretofore been dismantled, and various other structures, including two wells which might be considered of value to the department. The length of the line involved is 120 miles, so that the value of the grade obtained is, on account of the grade work already done and the bridges installed, many times the price paid for it.

The grade, as left by the railroad company, presented a discouraging appearance in that practically all of the ties were left in place and but little maintenance work had, been done upon it during the last few years by the railroad company.

On account of climate conditions existing in this territory, it is not feasible to do work at any other period of the year than during the winter months.

Following the legislative Act making the acquisition of this grade possible, a very short working period remained in the spring of 1919. Nevertheless, an attempt of a preliminary nature was made for the purpose of determining the best method and equipment needed for performing the work.

528      NEVADA

During the winter of 1919-1920 considerable work was done on the entire grade from Las Vegas to Beatty, which accomplished the removal of all the ties, the construction of all the bridges which had been left by the railroad company, and the building of other bridges where they had been torn out. The work also consisted of the dragging of the road from one end to the other by a heavy drag so as to remove practically all of the "tie marks." This was all that was possible to do in that season and under the conditions existing at that time. This at once made available for traffic practically the whole of the grade and permitted the department,

[picture]

CHURCHILL COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL, FALLON

during the season of 1920, to observe what was necessary to be done in order to make this a first-class highway.

Roads in 1922

The status of the road building program at the close of Governor Boyle's administration in 1922 was thus summarized by his successor:

Three hundred miles of highway have been completed, consisting of 35 miles of concrete pavement, 160 miles of gravel, and 105 miles of graded roadway, together with 12 permanent bridges. Uncompleted contracts under way aggregate 16 miles of asphalt macadam, 113 miles of gravel and 37 miles of graded highway. The year 1922 was the first full year's operation by the Department under the new graduated scale of federal aid, and it may be confidently predicted that future years will see a continually increasing ratio of federal aid and a consequent reduction of state expenditures. Total allotments of federal aid to the Department to date aggregate $7,461,000, of which sum $1,833,000 has been paid to the State.

NEVADA        529

At the present time the activities just mentioned have resulted in the partial construction of two east and west high-ways and two north and south highways.

Of these routes the northern highway has in a state of completion and under contract 126 miles, leaving 318 miles yet to be constructed. The center highway from the Utah line to Carson City has in the state of completion and under contract 107 miles, leaving 326 miles to be constructed. The north and south highway through the western part of the State has not progressed so rapidly, due to the financial condition of the counties through which it passes. Construction work is just beginning on the north and south highway which will make a very quick connection between Elko and Clark counties by way of Ely, Pioche, and Moapa to Las Vegas. These routes are all badly needed for intercommunication in the State.

Decline of Population

From 1910 to 1920 Nevada's population declined from 81,875 to 77,407. The loss on the area of Esmeralda County alone was greater than the loss in the entire state. Esmeralda in 1911 had been divided, the new county of Mineral being created. The total population of Esmeralda in 1910 was 9,369, and the population of Esmeralda and Mineral combined in 1920 was 4,298. Storey County lost more than half its population during that decade. Churchill, Clark and Lyon were the counties with the most note-worthy gains in population. In 1919 Pershing County had been organized from part of Humboldt. Commenting on these population statistics the state engineer in his report for 1919-20 said : "The serious loss of population in Nevada during the last decade was caused by a combination of conditions which should be thoughtfully considered by every citizen of the state. An analysis of the census returns shows that the greatest increases in wealth and production came in those communities which made the best economic utilization of their water supply. When the complex problems of adjudication, regulation, distribution, and storage of water, are solved in an intelligent and clear-sighted manner, all parts of the state can profitably support a larger population than at the present time."

Reclamation Problems

The Enabling Act had given to Nevada the use of the waters of the streams within her borders. But western states, as soon as they embarked upon a comprehensive plan for the use of streams for irrigation, were confronted with the fact that their interests were tied up with the interests of adjacent states. Thus the problem was interstate rather than purely local. A large part of the waters that flowed over the lands of the Carson-Truckee project had their source in California. The important streams flowing into the Great Basin originated in other states. It was recognized that the people of such states, by the application of the rights of priority of appropriation, might have preferred claims that would take away resources of immense value to Nevada. If other states were more forward in their reclamation and irrigation projects than Nevada, their prior claims to the use of the waters would invalidate any legal and theoretical rights established at a

530      NEVADA

time when reclamation as a system was hardly thought of. As Governor Boyle stated in his message of 1921, it required a series of conferences between representatives of Nevada, the United States Reclamation Service, and the State of California, before an agreement could be reached permitting the drawing off of enough water from Lake Tahoe in 1920 "to mature the crops of the Fernley farmers, and, second, in something approaching a permanent basis of understanding between the California officials and interests and the representatives of this state and the water users directly concerned."

Colorado River

But in considering the problems of the streams along the western side of the state and in the Humboldt River system, Nevada had overlooked the possibilities of the great river forming part of its southeastern boundary. Other states and private corporations were alert to the value of the water resources flowing almost unchecked through the tremendous canyons of the Colorado River to the sea. In 1916 a cooperative investigation had been undertaken by the United, States Reclamation Service and the State of Wyoming with a view to determining the use of the waters of one of the main sources of the Colorado, the Green River in South-western Wyoming. As the state engineer of Nevada pointed out in 1920: "The project of impounding these waters (of the Colorado) has now attracted the attention of large financial and political interests who give every indication that they intend to ignore this state entirely in the apportionment of benefits to be derived. As an example it should be noted that the Federal Water Power Commission claims full jurisdiction and is reported to have recently granted the Southern California Edison Company a preliminary permit to develop 250,000 horse power, presumably on Nevada and Arizona territory." The subject received the following comment from Governor Boyle in his message of 1921:

The State Engineer calls attention to the fact that this stream is the fourth largest in the United States; that it touches our borders for a distance of more than one hundred miles ; that its average annual discharge is more than fifteen million acre-feet of water, hardly a drop of which is beneficially used in this State. Further, that one of the best undeveloped power sites in America lies at the Boulder and Black Canyons in Clark County, on this stream. These particular power sites have attracted the attention of many private interests: One of them can be developed to produce more than 200,000 horsepower at a probable cost of less than $50,000,000. The rapid crystallization of plans originating in other States for the development of the Colorado River impelled the State Engineer, during the biennium just ended, to make critical, inquiries into the whole matter. As a result, an informal committee of Nevada citizens was appointed by me to safeguard the interests of Nevada in all of the extensive negotiations under way and imminent, looking to the utilization of this stream. This committee consists of Hon. E. W. Griffith, Hon. Ed. Clark, Hon. Levi Syphus, Hon. Charles P. Squires, Hon. Harley Harmon, Hon. O. T. Johnson, and Hon. R. W. Martin (all of Clark County), and the State Engineer (J. G. Scrugham).

NEVADA        531

The informal commission appointed by the governor held two meetings in November and December, 1920. Its report, submitted to the Thirtieth Legislature, after speaking of the benefits that would accrue from the reclamation of several thousand acres of land in Nevada, emphasized the electric power development, which would permit the electrification of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, supply cheap electricity for both the public and private uses throughout Southeastern Nevada.

Colorado River Compact

Surveys were made to determine the areas of land for which this State claims water rights. In conjunction with representatives of other interested States, the Nevada Commission conducted a series of conferences looking to a satisfactory adjustment of the complex problems of river development. As the Constitution of the United States contains a clause forbidding the States of the Union to enter into an agreement without federal consent, it was necessary for the Government to give its approval to the proposed negotiations. This was done in August, 1921, by legislation authorizing the negotiations, suggested by State Engineer J. G. Scrugham, providing for the appointment of a representative who should participate to protect the interests of the United States, and specifying that the negotiations between the States should be determined by January 1, 1923.

The President in December, 1921, appointed Secretary Hoover of the Department of Commerce as Federal Representative. The first meetings of the Commission were held in Washington in late January, 1922. At these meetings, at which Secretary Hoover was elected permanent chairman of the Commission, and after serious discussion of various proposals for a compact, it was decided that before reaching a definite determination it would be best to hold a series of hearings in the seven interested States, where different view-points could be heard at first hand by the Commissioners. Meetings were then held in all of the interested States. At the final meeting a form of compact was evolved which had the full approval of the representation of all the interested States and the Federal Government.

This compact, dated November 24, 1922, and signed by representatives of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, and also bearing the signature of approval of Herbert Hoover, declared as article 1:

532      NEVADA

The major purposes of this compact are to provide for the equitable division and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River System; to establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses of water ; to promote interstate comity ; to remove causes of present and future controversies; and to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Colorado River Basin, the storage of its waters and the protection of life and property from floods. To these ends the Colorado River Basin is divided into two basins, and an apportionment of the use of part of the water of the Colorado River system is made to each of them with the provision that further equitable apportionment may be made.

The point of separation for the two divisions was Lee Ferry, a mile below the mouth of the Paria River. The lower basin comprises the states of Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico and that part of Utah below Lee Ferry. By assembly joint resolution of January 27, 1923, the Nevada Legislature ratified the Colorado River compact.

Governor Boyle's Valedictory

Fully two years before the expiration of his second term Governor Boyle had announced his retirement from public life. In his message to the Thirtieth Legislature therefore, he concluded with a "valedictory," in which he states some conclusions derived from an experience of many years in public office and a close study of not only state affairs but national relations and government as well. His political philosophy can be read with particular interest in 1932, when a new orientation in governmental policies seems in prospect. As has been noted, the governor had not been unsympathetic toward the policies of the Roosevelt and Wilson eras for bringing the federal, state and local governments into working cooperation for effecting a broad and generous program for the general welfare. But Governor Boyle sensed the fact that there might be no limit to the interference of the government with private initiative and liberty of action. Amid the confusion produced by the demands of the extremists of all kinds, he was inclined to hearken to the voices of the "plain, simple and unsophisticated folk—who are like none of the extremists contributing to the chorus ; who make no impossible demands of their servants ; who content themselves with reasonable and orderly progress toward the ideal; who are tolerant of the honest blunders of government, and who, in turn, expect of governments a broad tolerance of their own human frailties." He expressed the hope that there would be no "additional measures calculated to make the state a wet nurse to a people which, under the former drift, might readily have become in a century so deprived of initiative and resourcefulness and character by governmental coddling as to be no longer capable of supporting a government." Writing in 1921, just as the "progressive era" was yielding to "normalcy," Governor Boyle anticipates not a few of the ideas which were to find currency in the utterances of prominent men and in political platforms ten years later. Speaking of the proper functions of the different departments of government and of the relation of the government as a whole to the people, he said :

NEVADA        533

I believe, nevertheless, that an experiment forced upon us by the war has left its valuable impress on the minds both of the people and its servants. Prior to 1917, educators, statesmen, and near statesmen emulated a European pattern of state reform and were advocating tremendous extensions in the functions of government. The drift was toward the monarchical socialism of Germany which was presumed to stand for efficiency and which well-intentioned people sought to graft upon the structure of our own organic system. The necessary usurpation of governmental power during the war has, I hope, exploded the theory that in the State lies a monopoly of the directory intelligence of the Nation.

After that experiment we enjoy a clearer vision of the true functions of the government, which is, after all, only an agency of the people and capable of doing well only certain things. Its long arm should not reach uninvited into every conceivable phase of civic, domestic, commercial, and industrial life. Its purse should not hang on the door of the Capitol to subsidize every conceivable form of public and private experiment and, activity. Its true function is the extension of education ; the maintenance of the courts ; the orderly adjustment of differences between its discordant elements in society ; the reduction of those disagreements to a minimum ; the elimination—by reason, if it can ; by force, if it must—of such disagreements as imperil the peace and comfort of the people; the protection of life and property; the preservation of the rights of the average citizen to "a fair field and no favor" in commerce and the suppression of those agencies which selfishly aim to exploit him; the recognition of the work of the churches by improvement in the moral laws to make them accurately reflect the improving moral conceptions of the people, but, on the other hand, the adoption of no forms of hypocrisy aimed either to do those things for the public conscience which education and the church have failed to do, or to make that conscience appear in the written law better than it is; the doing of those things which are purely in the recognized realm of public works and the kindly care of those of its defectives and unfortunates who are, under long-established standards, public wards of the State ; the laying of the burden of cost justly by tax laws designed for revenue only and not to force political and economic reforms ; and the recognition of the principle that honestly acquired property has inviolable rights.

If this be our conception of the function of government, we may well meet new demands for better service year by year in old and orthodox ways.