52 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Maj. J. W. Powell's article on " The 

 Powell's Water Supply of the Arid Region", the 

 First Article. first j nsta ii me nt of which appears in 

 this number of THE AGE, has been awaited with 

 widespread interest. It is the logical sequel of his 

 celebrated speech at Los Angeles. While there 

 appeared to be but one opinion in the Irrigation Con- 

 gress on the merits of his remarks, THE AGE has been 

 receiving evidence ever since of a very general desire 

 to have the subject thoroughly and fairly discussed. 

 Letters from all parts of the United States, and, 

 indeed, from beyond the borders of our own country, 

 have informed us that many people who are deeply 

 interested in irrigation were unwilling to let the matter 

 rest as it was left with the report of the Congress. 

 While Maj. Powell's statements were everywhere 

 conceded to have been put in a startling manner, it is 

 evident that unprejudiced people feel that there 

 should be some attempt to account for the discrep- 

 ancy between the statement of the Director of the 

 Geological Survey and the assertion of representative 

 men who took issue with him. THE AGE found that 

 Maj. Powell was perfectly willing to prepare for these 

 pages a careful and elaborate statement of his views 

 on the water supplies of the arid region and the rela- 

 tive amounts of land in private and public ownership 

 still open to irrigation. In this number he deals with 

 one department of his subject the extent, character 

 and source of the water supply. The series of papers 

 will be continued in March and concluded in April. 



The first contribution will be studied 

 A Vital . 



Point with the utmost interest and will secure 

 Conceded. & care f u i rea ding for the other two. The 

 reader will observe that the Director begins his dis- 

 cussion of the water supply at the beginning, and 



proceeds to 

 lay a scien- 

 tific founda- 

 tion for ulti- 

 mate conclu- 

 sions. He 

 puts his 

 statement of 

 the duty of 

 water in a 

 very attract- 

 ive and con- 

 vincing man- 

 ner. What 

 is said about 

 the annual 

 precipita- 

 tion, and the 

 disposition 

 J. w. GREGORY, which nature 



Chairman of the Kansas Irrigation Commission. m akes of it, 



W. A. CLARK, 



Member of Montana Irrigation Commission. 



is clearly il- 

 1 us trated, 

 both by map 

 and text, and 

 the most 

 jealous 

 friends o f 

 the arid re- 

 gion will find 

 little ground 

 to take issue 

 with him 

 here. The 

 most import- 

 ant state- 

 ment in the 

 article is to 

 the effect 

 that the arid 

 region will 

 sustain as 

 large a pop- 

 ulation as the present total of inhabitants in the 

 United States. This is a broad admission and 

 puts the Director quite on a plane with the men 

 of the West who claim that they will open a field 

 where millions of men will make their homes, and 

 where better forms of civilization than the world has 

 yet seen will be developed during the next century. 

 If this is the conclusion reached, no matter by what 

 train of logic, there can be no quarrel between the 

 conservative view represented by Maj. Powell and 

 those who are fighting for the irrigation idea in its 

 broad aspect. There is no doubt that when Maj. 

 Powell enters upon the discussion of particular locali- 

 ties he will find serious grounds for disagreement 

 with some friends of the cause in the West. This, 

 however, can not obliterate the great fact that it is 

 admitted that Arid America is a field of imperial di- 

 mensions, wherein the champions of a new civiliza- 

 tion will have ample room to apply their theories, 

 confident that if they prove practicable they will 

 lead to wonderful results. 



THE AGE asks for the papers of Major 

 iteFair. P we U the most careful and patient 



study. It is well at a time like this, when 

 the conditions of enterprise are in process of read- 

 justment, to consider our possibilities from the most 

 conservative basis. The confidence of capital can 

 best be won by a policy of frankness and toleration 

 which shall invite the closest study of our water 

 resources and irrigable area. The news went far and 

 wide last October that Major Powell had flatly con- 

 tradicted the fundamental assertions on which the 

 men of the Irrigation Congress had built their hopes 

 of a great development. Let us now learn to what 



