JOHN WESLEY POWELL II7 



guided. It was discredited at the time, because it announced 

 that only a small percent of the far West can ever be reclaimed 

 for agriculture. It raised a storm of indignation because it char- 

 acterized as semi-arid the middle belt of the plains, toward 

 which settlement was then tending. But today it is recognized 

 as the classic treatise on the subject, the great initial discussion 

 which marked out the lines for future investigation and indi- 

 cated the evils to be remedied by future legislation. It began a 

 great agitation, in which Powell took a leading part for many 

 years. At his suggestion Congress appointed a commission to 

 study the physical and economic conditions of the arid region, 

 with a view to the modification or reconstruction of its land 

 laws ; and he gave two years to the work of this commission. 

 Afterward, as Director of the Geological Survey, he was 

 charged with the measurement of the streams, the survey of 

 reservoir sites, and other researches looking to the conservation 

 of the water supply for the broadest development of irrigation 

 in the region of meagre rainfall. And his interest continued 

 unabated after his retirement from the directorship had relieved 

 him of responsibility. The economic problems were compli- 

 cated by conflicting interests ; the effort for reform was a dis- 

 heartening struggle, with many failures and reverses ; and the 

 end is not yet ; but it is a matter of congratulation, as well as of 

 poetic justice, that during his last sickness Powell was able to 

 know of the passage of the Reclamation Act, the most important 

 triumph of the arid lands agitation. 



As a successful student of the structure of the Uinta Moun- 

 tains and Colorado Plateaus, Powell holds an honorable posi- 

 tion in the large and honorable company of geologic surveyors. 

 As a frontiersman in a new territory of geologic thought, he 

 takes hiorh rank among the leaders of the science — albeit of a 

 science in which he labored for but half his active life. As an 

 oganizer, as a promoter of research by others, as an educator of 

 men already highly trained, he has made all who profit by good 

 geologic work his debtors. As an original, far seeing, and 

 patriotic advocate of an enlightened policy for the reclamation 

 and highest utilization of our arid domain, he is entitled to the 

 gratitude of the Nation. 



