37 Presidential Addresses 



passing the irrigation act. The first and biggest ex 

 periment now in view under that act is the one that 

 we are trying in Arizona. I look forward to the 

 effects of irrigation partly as applied by and through 

 the government, still more as applied by individuals, 

 and especially by associations of individuals, profit 

 ing by the example of the government, and possibly 

 by help from it I look forward to the effects of ir 

 rigation as being of greater consequence to all this 

 region of country in the next fifty years than any 

 other material movement whatsoever. 



In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural 

 wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind ab 

 solutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the 

 world. I want to ask you to do one thing in con 

 nection with it in your own interest and in the inter 

 est of the country to keep this great wonder of na 

 ture as it now is. I was delighted to learn of the 

 wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding 

 not to build their hotel on the brink of the canyon. 

 I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not 

 a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar 

 the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great 

 loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it 

 is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been 

 at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you 

 can do is to keep it for your children, your children's 

 children, and for all who come after you, as one of 

 the great sights which every American if he can 

 travel at all should see. We have gotten past the 

 stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be par- 



