United States v. Charles L. Donohoe Co.

This suit is to declare and foreclose a lien for construction expenses on lands within a federal reclamation adventure, the Orland project in Califfomia.

The statutes involved are amongst the first of the government’s paternal joy-riding, which, contrary to the genius of national institutions, threaten to submerge individualism in a welter of state socialism. They are the perennial joy of the tyro, amateur, and incompetent, the job hunter seeking safe refuge in the intensifying struggle for existence, the parent of extravagance and waste of public money, and of monumental failure.

The Act of June 17, 1902 ( 32 Stat. 388 ), provides for governmental reclamation of public and private lands, at cost to be assessed after estimated and contracts let by the Secretary of the Interior.

The Act of Aug. 9, 1912 ( 37 Stat. 266 [43 USCA § 542]), provides that water right certificates shall reserve a prior lien on the land for which purchased, for all sums due or to become due. In 1914, error, extravagance, waste, and failure were already so manifest that Act Aug. 13, 1914 ( 38 Stat. 686 [43 USCA § 469]), provides that construction charges so estimated and assessed shall not be increased,…