The Secretary of the Interior to Mr. A. W. Ellington. The Secretary of the Interior to Mr. A. W. Ellington. Mr. ALLEN WOOD ELLINGTON, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 223-224 Douglas Block, Los Angeles, Calif. SIR: I am in receipt of yours of March 22, with accompanying papers and sealed package regarding the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., and asking whether the Government wishes to make purchase of the company's interests and apparently offering to sell to the Government for $125,000. In pursuance of your request telegram was sent you on the 30th that the papers are being returned, because there is no basis for payment by the Government of any considerable amount. There has been considerable correspondence upon this subject and the department has taken the position that it was willing to pay a reasonable price for any tangible property of the company that could be utilized by the Government. The result of the correspondence indicates that there is little if any property of this kind that could be transferred. The department is accordingly unable to make any offer approximating to the figures which you have named. The letter from Doctor Boyd addressed to you and the sealed package, which has not been opened, are herewith returned. Very respectfully, R. A. BALLINGER, Secretary. The Private Secretary to the Secretary of the Interior to Mr. A. W. Mr. ALLEN WOOD ELLINGTON, Ellington. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 223-224 Douglas Block, Los Angeles, Calif. SIR: Supplemental to the letter addressed to you April 1, by the Secretary, I am directed to say that in view of the litigation pend ing in the Supreme Court of the United States, in which the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co. is an interested party, the department will not be in a position to consider any proposition looking to the purchase of any rights or property alleged to be owned by said company, pending the termination of the litigation in question. Very truly yours, DONALD CARR, Private Secretary. Mr. E. V. Berrien to the Secretary of the Interior. Hon. R. A. BALLINGER, EL PASO TEX., May 11, 1909. Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We have had considerable correspondence with your department. It is our desire in the present letter to notify you as to certain information lately received by us. The claim of our company has been presented by us as a separate claim from that of the English company-Rio Grande Irrigation & Land Co. who have been interested with us in forwarding the Engle Elephant Butte Dam project. We presented our claim (of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co.) through your department, and so far without the success we believe due us. The English claim has, we understand, been forwarded to the Secretary of State through the British Foreign Office. Lately we further understand that the English company has been placed in the hands of a receiver-Nathan E. Boyd claiming to be such receiver. We are still further informed by Nathan Ellington Boyd that he, for a loan of $4,000 made over to his relative, Mr. Ellington, one stock certificate, No. 287, for 49,650 shares of Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation stock. We understand that Mr. Ellington is offering this stock certificate to your department for sale. We desire to say that this stock certificate was held not to be legal by the board of directors of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., and as soon as it was known by them that it was issued the board repudiated it. We hasten to inform you of these conditions, not only to protect ourselves, but also the English company, many of whom might be injured. We understand that Mr. Ellington is offering this stock for $125,000 and that it is his intention to keep $25,000 for himself and give $100,000 to Mrs. N. E. Boyd. Should Mr. Ellington do this and it should be certified to by the receiver (Nathan E. Boyd) of the English company, we fear you might be imposed upon, and to avoid injury to you, the English company, and ourselves we have written. Of course you will understand that, in view of such rights as we have transferred to the English company, and other considerations, we are stockholders in said English company. With assurances of our most distinguished consideration, we are, Very respectfully, RIO GRANDE DAM & IRRIGATION, Per E. V. BERRIEN, Secretary. The Secretary of the Interior to Mr. J. L. Campbell. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, J. L. CAMPBELL, Esq., El Paso, Tex. SIR: In reply to yours of December 22, 1909, which refers to the matter of the alleged claim of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co. against the United States, it appears from former correspondence of this office that said company has not been damaged in its property rights by anything done by the officers of this department. If I am mistaken in this matter and if any property or property rights of your company have been taken or damaged by any officer or officers of this department, it would seem that the Court of Claims is the proper tribunal to determine the question. If the Court of Claims has not jurisdiction to hear and determine the alleged claims of your company, you may present the same to Congress. Very respectfully, R. A. BALLINGER, Secretary. The Solicitor for the Department of State to the Secretary of State. OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR, February, 8, 1910. The SECRETARY: I return herewith Mr. Lawshe's letter of November 19, 1909, and enclosures,1 addressed to the secretary to the President. in which Mr. Lawshe suggests the appointment of a successor to Gen. Anson Mills, the United States Commissioner on the International (Water) Boundary Commission, which were transmitted to you by Mr. Carpenter on November 24 last. You have referred these papers to this office for report and I accordingly have the honor to report as follows: As indicated in Mr. Lawshe's letter and enclosures, the so-called charges against General Mills are old ones. They have been repeatedly, persistently, and vigorously presented to the President and to this department during the last 10 years by one Nathan Boyd, [Not printed.-Agent's note.] of Las Cruces, N. Mex., the place from which Mr. Lawshe writes. The charges relate to the part taken by General Mills in the efforts of this Government to provide for the equitable distribution between Mexico and the United States of the waters of the Rio Grande, the use of which waters for irrigation purposes by citizens of the United States had been made the subject of urgent complaints by the Mexican Government and the basis of large pecuniary claims in behalf of Mexican citizens. Boyd was the promoter and moving spirit of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., and his charges were inspired solely because of the institution of a suit by the United States Government against that company to prevent it from constructing certain irrigation works, which, if completed, would not only have added to the difficulties between Mexico and the United States, growing out of the utilization of the Rio Grande for irrigation purposes, but would have made impossible the solution of those difficulties which was ultimately agreed upon. A brief review of the history of the suit is essential to an understanding of the charges against Generals Mills. As far back as 1888 Gen. (then Maj.) Anson Mills, of the United States Army, proposed to the Secretary of State1 (see H. Doc. 125, 54th Cong., 1st sess.) the erection of an international dam at El Paso to control the waters of the Rio Grande and provide for its equitable distribution between Mexico and the United States. His project appears to have been favorably received, for in 1890 various bills were introduced in Congress to provide for the construction of the international dam, and on April 29, 1890, Congress passed a concurrent resolution 2" concerning the irrigation of lands in the valley of the Rio Grande River, the construction of a dam across said river at or near El Paso, Tex., for the storage of its waste water," directing the President to enter into negotiations with the Government of Mexico with a view to the remedy of the difficulties arising by use of the Rio Grande for purposes of irrigation. It does not appear that much progress was made in the negotiations authorized by the concurrent resolution, for the Mexican Government continued to complain of the terrible situation of the Mexican citizens because of the scarcity of the water in the Rio Grande, owing to its diminution by the construction of irrigation trenches in Colorado and New Mexico, and on May 6, 1896, a protocol was signed by Secretary Olney and the Mexican Minister providing, in order to carry on the negotiations contemplated by the concurrent resolution, for the definite ascertainment of the facts relating to the irriga 3 tion of the arid lands in the valley of the Rio Grande and the construction of a dam across the river at El Paso, Tex. The protocol directed Colonel Mills (who had been appointed American Commissioner on the International Boundary Commission) and the Mexican member of the commission to investigate and report upon "the best and most feasible mode, whether through a dam to be constructed across the Rio Grande near El Paso, Tex., or otherwise, of so regulating the use of the waters of said river as to secure to each country concerned and to its inhabitants their legal and equitable rights and interests in said waters." The joint commission reported on November 25, 1896, that the only feasible mode of consummating the end of the two Governments was by the construction of a dam across the Rio Grande near Elephant Butte, and it accordingly recommended that the dam be constructed.1 In the meantime, however, while the question of the regulation of the use of the waters of the Rio Grande was under negotiation between the two Governments, and while efforts were being made to have Congress authorize the construction of a dam for that purpose at El Paso, the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., of which Boyd was the principal promoter, was incorporated in 1893 under the laws of New Mexico for the purpose of constructing a dam on the Rio Grande at Elephant Butte, 120 miles above El Paso. The prospectus of the company stated that the completion of its storage dam "will create the largest artificial lake in the world" that "in acquiring this splendid reservoir site the company will obtain control of the entire flow of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico," and that in controlling the irrigable waters, the company will, to a great extent, control the irrigable lands, the prospectus further stating that many of the owners of irrigable lands in the valley had already contracted to convey to the company one-half of their lands in return for water rights to the other half, and to pay a water rent of $1.50 per acre per annum for every acre of their land irrigated. The rights of the American company were leased in 1896 to an English company known as the Rio Grande Land & Irrigation Co., of which Boyd was a director. On August 4, 1896, the Mexican minister, on instructions from his Government, presented to Secretary Olney a petition from the inhabitants of Paso del Norte in which they requested the Mexican Government to recommend to the United States Government the suspension of all work on the Rio Grande by the company. The petition referred to the appointment of engineers by Mexico and the 1 [See ante, p. 264.-Agent's note.] 2 [See ante, p. 240.-Agent's note.] |