THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



it is advocated by Governor McConnell. THE] AGE 

 has not been favored with a full report of his recent 

 speeches, but apparently he favors the application of 

 the District law of California in Idaho. He wants 

 future canals built by the State and administered by 

 the people of the several localities they serve. 

 Whether he favors the condemnation of existing works 

 is not quite clear. The Caldwell Tribune has been 

 vigorously fighting the system of water rentals as 

 something which imposes a form of tenantry upon 

 settlers. The movement is developing formidable 

 proportions and will be watched with interest. Idaho 

 is a State with a grand future, and the men who are 

 molding her institutions should fully realize their 

 responsibility to posterity. 



The most interesting single movement 

 The New now on f 00 t j n t^e West is the revival of 



Hope ^n the 



Semi-Arid irrigation hopes in the semi-arid region. 

 Region. TMg ^^ be]t of fertile countr y extends 



from the northern limit of the Dakotas to the south- 

 ern border of Texas, and lies between the ninety- 

 seventh meridian and the foot-hills of the Rockies. 

 It differs historically and physically from the arid re- 

 gion proper. It was settled by men who did not 

 believe in irrigation and did not dream that it was 

 necessary to practice it in order to prosper on these 

 "agricultural lands," as the Government called them. 

 They have fought through years of hardship; in- 

 dulged the delusive hope that the climate was about 

 to change; bombarded the sky with explosives and 

 wooed the clouds through the agency of mysterious 

 chemicals and awe-inspiring machines with funnels. 

 And now they come to the consideration of scientific 

 irrigation, based on the utilization of such water sup- 

 plies as nature has provided. This is the real hope of 

 prosperity for the men of the semi-arid region, but it 

 yet remains to be seen whether this is to be a serious, 

 enduring movement, which will persist until actual 

 results are achieved, or whether it will be merely a 

 passing spasm like the irrigation enthusiasm which 

 marked the history of Kansas and Nebraska in 1890. 

 Although the water problem presents peculiar and 

 perplexing phases, there is no question whatever about 

 the future of the semi-arid region if it can have even 

 a moderate degree of irrigation. There is ample 

 ground for this hopeful note, so eloquently sounded 

 by Secretary Martin Mohler, of the Kansas State 

 Board of Agriculture, in his address before the Agri- 

 cultural Congress at the World's Fair: 



J Think of it! Here in the middle of the United States is a dis- 

 trict of country 300 miles wide and 1,200 miles long, embracing 

 an area from which may be carved six States, such as the great 

 State of Illinois, and a district of country which, in fertility of 

 soil in smoothness, and ease of cultivation, and in the invigo- 

 rating aud health-restoring character of its climate, has no supe- 

 rior in America or in the world. This great empire ought to be, 

 and, in my judgment, will be, reclaimed and in time made into 

 homes embellished with all the arts of civilized life. All that 



FRED L ALLE8. 

 Secretary National Executive Committee. 



is necessary for this great achievement is to assist nature by the 

 artificial application of water to the soil. It requires the proper 

 manipulation of the water below the surface and the water on 

 the surface, together with the water floating in the air, to per- 

 form this work, and in this way the water from all available 

 sources being brought into requisition, the thing will be done. 

 Who dare say that the skill, genius and enterprise of the Amer- 

 ican people is not equal to the task? 



Under the inspiration of such teachings 

 TIVO Notable as this, the men of Kansas have gone to 



ConvenUons. 



and they have had recourse to that nursery of ideas 

 the popular convention. The meeting of the State 

 Irrigation Association, held at Wichita, November 

 23d and 24th, was a gathering notable for its serious 

 and earnest character. Elsewhere in THE AGE there 

 is an account of the ideas presented, but in this place 

 it is proper to note the relation of the event to the 

 general movement that is rapidly taking shape in the 

 West. Irrigation in Kansas and in Wyoming for in- 

 stance, present entirely different aspects. In the 

 latter it is the hope of obtaining a population; in the 

 former it is the hope of supporting a population 

 already obtained. That is the economic difference. On 

 the physical side, the one locality has quite abun- 

 dant water supplies flowing upon the surface, while 

 on the other hand Kansas, Nebraska and Texas require 

 much patient investigation to determine the nature 

 and extent of their supplies. These differences are 

 quite vital, and yet the Kansas men keenly realize 

 that they have much in common with the great arid 

 empire to the west of them. They see that their hope 



