232 



FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. 



are in contemplation at the different cataracts, 

 at the sources of the river, and near certain 

 of the natural depressions in the desert lands ad- 

 joining. The great lakes Victoria and Albert 

 Nyanza, Lake Tana, and Lake No will all be 

 utilized. Of these lakes, Victoria and Tana are 

 held back by natural dikes of rock, which will 

 only need to be tunneled or cut to make it pos- 

 sible to draw off the enormous accumulations 

 of water as they may be needed. Lake Albert 

 will need to have its level raised by damming its 

 natural outlet; this can be done, however, with- 

 out asking any one's permission, as the whole 

 region is in British territory and so nearly barren 

 of inhabitants that possible claims for damages 

 may be ignored. These plans, if carried out, 

 would furnish about 18,000,000,000 cubic meters 

 of water per annum. The additional water-sup- 

 ply is not the only question involved, for there 

 are extensive swamps along the White Nile, 

 which in years of extremely low water pollute 

 the whole river, with serious and often fatal re- 

 sults to animal life. With the supply under 

 control at its source, these swamps could be 

 practically eliminated by preventing stagnation 

 and checking the flow of the dreaded " green- 

 water," which at times affects the stream even 

 to Cairo. 



It is remarkable that this is the first com- 

 prehensive scheme that ever has been attempted 

 for reducing a large river as far as possible to 

 the service of man. Some European rivers have 

 been in a measure harnessed and reduced to 

 service; but the Nile is unique in many of its 

 surroundings and affords opportunities for in- 

 genuity in the matter of engineering that can 

 hardly be found in any other stream. The greater 

 rivers of the world, as, for instance, the Missis- 

 sippi and the Amazon, are far beyond the reach 

 of mortal power in its present development, and 

 indeed their courses for the most part lie through 



a country that makes it impossible for any great 

 engineering operations to be undertaken, even if 

 they were desirable. Some of the smaller rivers 

 in the arid regions of our own Western States, 

 are already largely subjected to a system of man- 

 agement that has already wrought wonderful im- 

 provements in the great deserts of the West, but 

 the historic Nile affords thus far the most con- 

 spicuous instance of a great river so placed by 

 nature that its productive powers can be readily 

 controlled for the benefit of mankind. 



The construction of the dam at Assouan with 

 a view to future enlargement has a curious side 

 issue. The original plans were considered by an 

 international commission, and no sooner was it 

 known among archeologists that the first cata- 

 ract was chosen as the site for a dam than it 

 became evident to those interested that the 

 structures on the island of Philse would be sub- 

 merged. This island, with its stately temples and 

 colonnades, is among the most famous localities 

 in a land rich in the treasures of antiquity, and 

 archeologists all over the world raised such an 

 outcry against the desecration that the engineer 

 in charge, being a wise man, announced that the 

 dam should not be built so high as was at first 

 intended. This w y as something of a subterfuge, 

 for these wonderful and majestic ruins will neces- 

 sarily be to some extent submerged except when 

 the river is flowing in its natural channel that 

 is to say, when the sluice-gates are all open. 

 Unfortunately, this period of the year corre- 

 sponds in a general way with the season least 

 attractive to Egyptian tourists, so that some of 

 the finest specimens of Egyptian architecture will 

 be less accessible than heretofore to modern ob- 

 servers. The engineers have taken the precau- 

 tion to strengthen and reenforce the ancient 

 foundations of the temples, so that it is thought 

 no harm will actually result from their periodical 

 submergence. 



FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. The 



twenty-second annual meeting of the Farmers' 

 National Congress was called to order by the presi- 

 dent, the Hon. George L. Flanders, of New York, 

 in Macon, Ga., Oct. 7, 1902. 



The congress was welcomed to Georgia by Gov. 

 Allen D. Candler, who in the course of his address 

 said : " Most of the men that have shaped the 

 destinies of this republic since it was born were 

 farmers and sons of farmers. It is almost impos- 

 sible to grow a man on a brick pavement. We 

 propose that Georgia shall be the best place on 

 earth for a good negro, and the worst place for a 

 bad negro." 



The congress was welcomed to Macon by the 

 Hon. George A. Smith, president of the Macon 

 Chamber of Commerce. He called attention to 

 the fact that the largest residence in the city was 

 built with the proceeds of one year's peach-crop 

 of the owner. Another mansion was built from one 

 season's hay-cutting. Cotton is not the only crop 

 grown in Georgia. Mr. Smith called attention to 

 the Torrens system of registering the title to 

 lands, and strongly recommended it. He reminded 

 his hearers that Henry Ward Beecher had called 

 Macon " the most beautiful city in America." 



The addresses of welcome were responded to on 

 the part of the congress by its first vice-presi- 

 dent, the Hon. Harvie Jordan, of Georgia, presi- 

 dent of the Cotton Growers' Association of Amer- 

 ica. In speaking of the meeting just opened, he 



said : " It will put into motion a sentiment along 

 the lines of national cooperation by the farmers 

 of the country, which will be of untold profit and 

 benefit to the great industry of which the Farmers' 

 National Congress has become the leading repre- 

 sentative organization. The days of individual 

 action are rapidly being relegated to the past, 

 while the cultivation of a closer relationship along 

 the lines of cooperative action is being fast in- 

 culcated in the minds of our people all over this 

 country. The unprecedented prosperity of the 

 United States is due in largest measure to the re- 

 sults of the labor of our farmers. We are largely 

 feeding and clothing the nations of the civilized 

 world, and it is due to the vast exports of our 

 cotton, meats, and cereals that the United States 

 has within recent years become the creditor nation 

 of the world.'' 



In his annual address, President Flanders said: 

 " The education that has been going on in the in- 

 terest of the farmers during the past thirty years, 

 at the State agricultural colleges, etc., has pro- 

 duced wonderful results, but all or nearly all are 

 upon one side of the two-sided question, viz., upon 

 the side of production, without touching the ques- 

 tion of distribution or the question of the relation 

 of the farmer to the governments under which he 

 lives and by virtue of which he is protected. We 

 are living in an age of combination ; an age of 

 corporations and corporate interests united for 

 purposes which to them seem proper and just and 



