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if I have to pay for full page space, the essential parts of my letters to the department and the President.

I firmly believe in President Wilson's good faith in preaching the ethics of national honesty. This shameful Elephant Butte Dam affair touches our national honor-the honesty of our General Government. And the time has come when the present administration will have to make perfectly plain whether or not it intends to uphold our national honor by promptly granting justice to the claimants, to the men that, relying on the honesty of our General Government, invested in the debentures sold by the English company formed to carry out the original Elephant Butte Dam project. If there is any more "passing the buck" in this case, any more evidence of disposition to evade responsibility in the premises, then I shall know that it will be idle to expect justice so long as the present administration is in power. It is a very simple question, either the chief officials of the administration mean what they say when they preach the ethics of national honesty, or they are not honest in such preachments. If they are honest, and mean what they say about upholding our national honor, then justice respecting this admittedly valid Rio Grande claim will not needlessly be delayed. If they are not honest in their preachments as to the necessity for national good faith, then, as regards this disgraceful Elephant Butte Dam affair, the public shall promptly be advised of the facts-if widespread publicity can be made the means of such advisement.

I have again and again offered to forfeit my personal interest in the premises (and I was a heavy investor in the English company's debentures) if the Government would repay my friends and others abroad that at my solicitation joined with me in financing the original Elephant Butte Dam project; I have sacrificed a large fortune in defense of our national honor, as involved in this disgraceful case, and in defense of our New Mexican Rio Grande water rights; and, as I now have ample funds with which to fight for justice and public righteousness in the premises, I am determined to ascertain, and without further delay, just what, if anything, the present administration intends to do in the way of arriving at a just settlement of this admittedly valid claim.

I am a lifelong Democrat, and as long as the Democratic Party stands for the principles in which I believe, and that I believe to be essential to the well-being of this country, just so long shall I remain a Democrat and work for the success of that party. But if the leaders of the party do not practice what they preach in their conduct of public affairs, then I shall do my utmost to expose their duplicity.

Time is pressing. If my sacrifices in defense of New Mexico's Rio Grande water rights and of our national honor are not suitably to

be recognized, and if it is not the intention of the present administration to give justice in this case, then, I wish to know it without delay, so that I shall be able to get my said history off the press in ample time to have it available for distribution before the 14th of October next; that is to say, if I have to add a chapter or more indicting the present administration's disposition to delay justice, to" pass the buck," I wish to know it without loss of time. Hence, the necessity for an interview with Secretary Lane, which I feel constrained to ask you to arrange for me before you leave Washington. Please use your influence to get him to grant me a hearing as soon as he returns to his office, and oblige,

Yours sincerely,

[Enclosure.]

NATHAN BOYD.

AUGUST 18, 1916.

The enclosed was written yesterday afternoon. Last night I discussed the situation with two of my (wealthy progressive) friends for several hours, and I have about come to the conclusion that as the Wilson administration has been in power for more than three years without showing even the least disposition to do anything in the way of righting the wrong caused by the Government's Elephant Butte Dam suit, so called, it is anything but logical for me to assume that the departmental officials feel in the least degree even disposed to expedite a righteous settlement of the Rio Grande claim, or that they are at all concerned about that or any other blot on our national honor. Nor have they shown even the slightest appreciation of what I have done in defense of our national reputation as an honest people.

Doubtless President Wilson, if he knew the facts as you and I know them, would be disposed to agree with us that in such matters our national reputation as an honest people is the all-important thing to be considered. But, granting this, it remains none the less true that the officials that should have been the very first to support my contentions as to such view of the matter, they have done nothing to help me in my efforts to convince the officials of the British Foreign Office and my English friends that the officials of the late administrations that were responsible for the fraudulent practices that ruined the English company were not representative, honest Americans such as are now in office.

I believe in President Wilson's good faith in preaching the ethics of public honesty, and I know you to be "a good man and true "; the Democratic Party, more nearly than any other, stands for, or at any rate has declared for, the political principles in which I believe;

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but when the leaders, high public officials, of that party are shown to be entirely indifferent to the most sacred of all their public trusts, i. e., the maintenance of our national honor, then, it seems to be that right-thinking men should do their utmost to vote them out of office. And so, in respect to this matter, I am like the man from Missouri, I shall have to be shown that my confidence in the good faith of the present administration, as such, has not been misplaced; otherwise I shall at once return home, and, though working for your election to the Senate, contribute my mite in money, time, and personal effort to the support of Mr. Hughes, who I am assured will not be so indifferent to our national reputation for public honesty. The tariff and other questions at issue between the two parties are of no real importance compared with the importance of our national reputation as an honest people. In national life, as in private life, honor comes, or should come, first. And so far as I am concerned it is now up to the Democratic leaders to "show me" that my sometime confidence in them was not misplaced. If Secretary Jones grants me a proper hearing, and otherwise evidences a proper interest in this Rio Grande claim, and shows a proper appreciation of my position and efforts, and such appreciation is evidenced by the official announcement that the Elephant Butte Reservoir is to be named "Lake Boyd" in recognition of my defense of New Mexico's Rio Grande water rights, then I shall feel that in the matter of the Rio Grande claim justice may be expected from the officials now in office.

Personally, I do not care overmuch for such form of recognition of my services to the State, but I do deem it important that my sons, and other young men, should thus be shown that self-sacrifice and public service are not always without recognition in these United States. And to this end I would suggest that, if need be, you should use the full force of your personal might to have the convention adopt a resolution formally urging that the said reservoir so be named in recognition of my years of defense of our New Mexican Rio Grande water rights.

Yours in haste,

N. B.

Mr. Nathan Boyd to the Director of the Reclamation Service.

1800 EYE STREET, NW., Washington, D. C., September 4, 1916. MY DEAR MR. DAVIS: I have been turning over in my mind the "inner significance" of some of the things you said at our last interview, and find it very difficult, not to say impossible, to understand. your seeming disposition to ignore the collocation of facts, record facts, presented in my "Statement of case," in re the "Rio Grande

Claim," that so unquestionably make plain that a due regard for our national honor imperatively demands that such claim be considered and settled at the earliest possible moment. The present-day official disposition to "Pass the Buck" (see p. 245, of Blythe's illumining story, "A Western Warwick ") in such cases is, to say the least, anything but likely to make the world at large have faith in American preachments in the subject of official honesty and national good faith. So, all things considered, I am moved to ask that you do me the favor (and justice) of reading the enclosed copy of such " Statement of Case" with an open mind and a proper regard for the record. facts therein cited.

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Yours sincerely,

NATHAN BOYD.

P. S.-I enclose also a copy of the story of the Mazzolini "Cenci," as I have forgotten whether I sent you a copy when it was printed. Our patriotism is waning and drifting away on the ebb tide of indifference, and, as a nation, our manhood is on the decline; national conscience we have not. No longer can an American hold up his head abroad. Our place in the world is that of a moneybag."-Henry Reuterdahl, in the Metropolitan, Dec., 1915.

"No country is greater than the personal honor of its gentlemen."-Jefferson.

"Until we put honor and duty first, and are willing to risk something to achieve righteousness we shall accomplish nothing "-worth while. Roosevelt.

The Director of the Reclamation Service to Mr. Nathan Boyd. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Dr. NATHAN BOYD,

UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE,
Washington, D. C., September 5, 1916.

1800 Eye Street, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR DOCTOR BOYD: I have just received your favor of September 4, and also the marked copy of your "Statement of case". I had previously read this but re-read the marked portions as you requested. I have also read with care the quotations from Henry Reuterdahl, from Thomas Jefferson, and from Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Reuterdahl seems to have almost as unfavorable an opinion of our countrymen as you have, but I think that he would hardly attribute his opinion to the lack of commercial honesty, but rather to lack of belligerency in defending the rights of our people against foreign imposition, which is a radically different matter.

I note throughout your letter and also largely in conversation, you are inclined to question the honor of those who disagree with

you and have a peculiarly emphatic and forceful way of expressing things of this kind. I have no desire to place myself in your opinion in the same category with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Interior, the Secretary of State and the United States Supreme Court.

I find myself impelled to agree with you in practically all of your views regarding the Elephant Butte case for reasons similar to those which impelled the Imperial Chancellor of Germany to agree with his master, Frederick the Great. Frederick was in the habit of getting into lively arguments with the Chancellor, and when worsted in the argument, he used the royal prerogative and kicked the Chancellor out of the room. Taking the hint from this action, the Imperial Chancellor ceased to disagree with his master and when asked the reason for the change replied, "Your Majesty, it is impossible to disagree with anyone who has such emphatic opinions and wears such thick boots.”

Very truly yours,

A. P. DAVIS, Director and Chief Engineer.

The Chief Counsel for the Reclamation Service to Mr. Nathan Boyd.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE,

Dr. NATHAN BOYD,

Washington, D. C., June 24, 1918.

Washington, D. C.

DEAR DOCTOR BOYD: Referring to your informal request for a copy of my report of November 1, 1915, to the then First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Hon. A. A. Jones, relative to the Elephant Butte Dam controversy, I enclose herewith a copy of said report, together with a copy of my letter of June 20, approved by Assistant Secretary Hopkins on June 21, 1918, requesting authority to give you a copy of said report.

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DEAR MR. SECRETARY: On November 1, 1915, I made a report to the then First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Hon. A. A. Jones, at his request, covering at length the Elephant Butte controversy.

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