IERIGATION. 419 



larger utilization of the resources of the West would interfere to a 

 certain extent with other projects, and the cattlemen in particular, who 

 at that time were not friendly to the development of irrigation, pro- 

 tested against what they termed national "interference" with their 

 exclusive use of the lands belonging to all. 



A select committee of the United States Senate was appointed to 

 investigate the whole subject, and made a trip through the arid lands, 

 accompanied by Major Powell. The report of this committee, in four 

 volumes, embodies the observations and testimony, together with a 

 majority and minority report, the latter outlining the line of action 

 which Major Powell, from his thorough study of the region, deemed 

 most feasible. 



The results of the diversity of opinion developed at that time were 

 disastrous to immediate progress, but, public interest being aroused, 

 resulted in the gradual crystallization of ideas along the lines which 

 Major Powell had suggested, so that by the end of the decade, state- 

 ments of facts which had aroused violent opposition at the outset were 

 no longer disputed, but belonged to common knowledge. 



It is not too much to say that the people of the United Slates, par- 

 ticularly those of the West, owe to Major Powell a debt of gratitude 

 for the manner in which he brought forward the whole question of 

 reclamation of the public lands and placed it far in advance of what it 

 would otherwise have been. 



The investigation of the arid regions was never actually dropped 

 after it was once begun, although it languished for a number of years. 

 New life and energy were infused by Major Powell's successor, the 

 present Director of the United States Geological Survey. Hon. Charles 

 D. Walcott, and a great popular movement has been started by an 

 organization known as the "'National Irrigation Association," com- 

 posed largely of prominent citizens concerned in public affairs, phil- 

 anthropists, eastern manufacturers, the representatives of transpor- 

 tation interests, labor leaders, and others who see in the arid West a 

 great potential market for goods and for labor, as well as an outlet 

 for the growing population. 



A culmination has finally been reached in the report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior recommending the immediate construction of 

 certain large works; and most notably in the direct and incisive 

 message of President Roosevelt, bringing the attention of Congress 

 and the people to the fact that the utilization of the water resources 

 of the West is one of the greatest internal questions of the day. 



All intelligent legislation is best promoted when based upon full 

 knowledge, and an enterprise so vast in its ultimate magnitude should 

 be undertaken only after thorough study of present conditions and 

 future needs. The actual work of construction of reclamation proj- 

 ects should be entered upon only after a full knowledge has been had 



