SEVENTEENTH NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS 593 



ing from a national viewpoint. He 

 added : 



"F'or uncounted generations they 

 dwelt in lands where there was rarely 

 a question of too little rain on each 

 freeman's own land. Yet, in their over- 

 running of the earth, they have come 

 to lands where water, instead of land, is 

 the prime factor in the equation of 

 prosperity and comfort. 



"Taken in its broadest sense, what is 

 called the 'irrigation' or 'reclamation' 

 movement is a conscious recognition of 

 two or three facts that we tended as 

 a people to forget for a time. One is 

 that the soil is the greatest source of 

 wealth and of human comfort and hap- 

 piness. We tended to forget this when, 

 in the seventies, we had really com- 

 pleted the conquest of our continent, 

 and for more than a decade youth fell, 

 as never before, into the delusion that 

 the farmer's business was one that 

 might be left to the less intelligent. 



"In the [jresent cost of living we are 



feeling the effects of that delusion. Too 

 many of the nimblest brains left the 

 soil and despised its tasks. With all 

 our mechanical and industrial prog- 

 ress, we have not correspondingly in- 

 creased the fertility of our soil and its 

 productiveness. 



"That the acre yield of our wheat 

 lands, under plow, on the average, less 

 than fifty years, should be less than 

 that of European lands under plow for 

 a thousand years, is a reflection upon 

 our intelligence. 



"We are getting out of this delusion. 

 We are seeing what must be done to 

 make our national development more 

 symmetrical and to remedy a certain 

 lopsidedness. We are seeing that the 

 farmer's occupation gives the broadest 

 scope for the keenest minds." 



Of this awakening — of this more ac- 

 curate and better-balanced perception 

 of realities — the great gathering at 

 Spokane was one of the striking visible 

 signs. 



Workers in Gunnison Tunnel 



