4*8 Presidential Addresses 



underlies the prosperity of all communities in which 

 irrigated agriculture is the chief industry, namely, 

 that the water belongs to the people and can not 

 be made a monopoly. The public appreciation of 

 this fundamental truth that the water belongs to 

 the people to be taken and put to beneficial use will 

 wipe out many controversies which are at present so 

 harmful to the development of the West. And the 

 example of Nevada will be of material aid in bring- 

 ing about this fortunate result. 



As I said of the forests so it is even more true of 

 the water supply. It should be our constant policy 

 by national and by State legislation to see that the 

 water is used for the benefit of the occupants of the 

 soil, of those who till and use the soil, that it is not 

 exploited by any one man or set of men in his or 

 their interests as against the interests of those on 

 the land who are to use it. It is a fundamental truth 

 that the prosperity of any people is simply another 

 term for the prosperity of the home-makers among 

 that people. Our entire policy in irrigation, in for- 

 estry, in handling the public lands, should be in rec- 

 ognition of that truth, to favor in every way the 

 man who wishes to take up a given area of soil and 

 thereon to build a home in which he will rear his 

 children as useful citizens of the State. 



