114 TBANSACTIONS OF THE 



sion of individuals and corporations — controlled in a way to seriously 

 retard, if not paralyze, the agricultural development of the State. 



In order that our lakes and rivers and crystal streams may be fully 

 utilized for the purposes of irrigation, the Legislature should provide 

 for an exhaustive chorographical survey, and, when completed, then 

 with much care and consideration establish and confirm a general 

 system of irrigation for the whole State, to which all subsequent 

 canals, dams, and ditches should be made to conform, so that it shall 

 be placed beyond the power of individual or corporate greed to waste 

 or misappropriate the element which is so essential to the life and 

 development of the valleys and great plains of the State. 



A system similar to the one above outlined in successful operation 

 would utilize our winter and spring floods, rich with the gleanings of 

 the mountains, which if judiciously applied by the labor of man to 

 'the parched and thirsty lands of our inheritance, greater wonders in 

 agriculture will be developed than were by irrigation in ancient 

 Egypt, Syria, or Babylon. Like the Valley of the Nile, which for 

 forty centuries has never ceased to yield her abundance, our great 

 arid plains, their thirst ever quenched by the mountain floods, 

 enriched by the debris held in solution, will go on forever resusci- 

 tating and reproducing. AVith this encouraging prospect before 

 us, stimulated by a laudable desire to make ours the richest 

 and most renowned in the constellation of States, to that end 

 our energies should be directed. In order to secure the greatest 

 development of our resources and general prosperity of our people, 

 every legitimate industry and enterprise should be fostered and pro- 

 tected. And let us remember that the experience of all civilized 

 countries fully demonstrates that the basis of a nation's prosperity is 

 its agriculture; that the glory and security of a State may be correctly 

 measured by the number, intelligence, and thrift of its producers. 

 Conscious of the necessity for peace and protection in his calling, the 

 farmer is, by nature and interest, conservative; consequently, the 

 proper balance-wheel in our political and commercial machinery. 



Owing to the disposition of the ambitious, idle, and vicious to drift 

 to the towns and cities, our commercial centers are, in consequence, 

 growing out of all proportion to the country; hence their ratio of 

 crime and pauperism is continually on the increase. The struggle for 

 existence is growing more desperate every year. The contest is 

 becoming closer and more bitter between those who bear the burdens 

 of taxation and those who desire to live and profit by its expenditure. 

 Without a change for the better the time is not far distant when the 

 rate of taxation will exceed the net profits of legitimate enterprise. 

 Disorders will then arise which will likely end in a stronger govern- 

 ment, for the security of life and property is of the first consequence 

 to every one, while the maintenance of " civil and religious liberty " 

 is considered of secondary importance. In order to check or prevent 

 the disorder foreshadowed, the balance of political power must be 

 held in the country, where it should be used to secure the greatest 

 good to the greatest number. This can be done only by increasing 

 its population, and educating them up to the highest conception of 

 citizenship. May we learn and realize that the life of the nation and 

 glory of the State must rest upon a conservative foundation. That 

 they may, we must have an intelligent, industrious, thrifty people. 

 Every child in the State should receive a sufficiency of education to 

 enable it intelligently to perform all the practical duties of life; not 



