44 2 Presidential Addresses 



One word as to the greatest question with which 

 our people as a whole have to deal in the mat- 

 ter of internal development to-day the question 

 of irrigation. Not of recent years has any more 

 important law been put upon the statute books of 

 the Federal Government than the law a year ago 

 providing for the first time that the National Gov- 

 ernment should interest itself in aiding and building 

 up a system of irrigated agriculture in the Rocky 

 Mountains and plains States. Here the govern- 

 ment had to a large degree to sit at the feet of 

 Gamaliel in the person of Utah; for what you had 

 done and learned was of literally incalculable bene- 

 fit to those engaged in framing and getting through 

 the national irrigation law. Irrigation was first 

 practiced on a large scale in this State. The neces- 

 sity of the pioneers here led to the development of 

 irrigation to a degree absolutely unknown before 

 on this continent. In no respect is the wisdom of 

 the early pioneers made more evident than in the 

 sedulous care they took to provide for small farms, 

 carefully tilled by those who lived on and benefited 

 from them ; and hence it comes about that the aver- 

 age amount of land required to support a family 

 in Utah is smaller than in any other part of the 

 United States. We all know that when you once 

 get irrigation applied rain is a very poor substitute 

 for it. The Federal Government must co-operate 

 with Utah and Utah people for a further extension 

 of the irrigated area. Many of the simpler prob- 

 lems of obtaining and applying water have already 



