THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



53 



extent this was true. Early in November THE AGE 

 invited several prominent engineers to discuss the 

 water supply of certain States and Territories with 

 relation to the public lands. The articles written in 

 response to this request were submitted to Major 

 Powell for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent 

 he disagreed with their conclusions. These articles 

 will be published in due time. We believe that when 

 the matter has been discussed calmly and thoroughly, 

 men who have seemed to be wide apart will find 

 themselves in substantial agreement upon all impor- 

 tant propositions. This is the result which THE AGE 

 sincerely desires to bring about. These pages will be 

 open to the discussion of Major Powell's conclusions 

 at the proper time. The public is well aware that 

 THE AGE is emphatically with the optimistic wing of 

 the irrigation public. If we can afford to listen to 

 the voice of conservatism, so can every one of our 

 readers. We begin the publication of Major Powell's 

 very able and exhaustive papers in the complete 

 confidence that they will contribute very largely to a 

 good understanding among men whose differences 

 have been a menace to the cause, and that the result 

 must be of great and lasting benefit to the irrigation 

 industry. 



The irrigation revival in the semi-arid 

 Nebraska 

 Meeting region continues to gather strength and 



A Success. seems likely to accomplish substantial 

 results during the present year. The December con- 

 vention at North Platte, Neb., to which reference was 

 briefly made in the last number of THE AGE, was a 

 very successful event. The attendance was large, and 

 the interest intensified steadily until it became 

 genuine enthuisasm at the end. Very properly, at- 

 tention was largely devoted to the possibilities of irri- 

 gation by pumping. The surface streams of 

 Nebraska are not numerous, and are already largely 

 utilized, but there are still good possibilities of recla- 

 mation by the use of pumps and windmills. When 

 the fullest advantage is taken of these, western 

 Nebraska will exhibit a very interesting phase of the 

 irrigation industry. There will be at least ten acres 

 intensively cultivated on each farm, while the balance 

 of the quarter-section will produce good, fair or poor 

 crops, according to the caprices of the weather. 

 There will be years of plenty, but no years of utter 

 discouragement, because the ten acres will support the 

 family. President I. A. Fort deserves great credit for 

 the work he has done in arousing the people of the 

 semi-arid region. The Interstate Irrigation Associa- 

 tion will have a grand convention at Omaha in March, 

 and on that occasion the hosts will rally from Kansas, 

 Nebraska and the Dakotas, and send out an influence 

 that ought to bear splendid fruit in the course of the 

 next few months. This region is already settled, and 

 the need of irrigation is therefore the more pressing 



W. H. Holabird, whose picture appears 

 A Type . . , . 



of Western elsewhere in this department, is a type 

 Yankee. of tne Yankee Western men who have 

 grown up in the great West. Save during the Re- 

 bellion, Mr. Holabird has lived in the West since his 

 early boyhood, residing some ten years in Chicago, 

 and the remainder, about twenty-five years, in Arid 

 America. Dealing in lands, he has seen the evolu- 

 tion of Kansas, Colorado, and finally dropped into 

 California in time to be one of the chief factors in 

 promoting the great land dealings in 1886-88. Sub- 

 dividing all the railroad holdings for the Atchison 

 system, he has learned Southern California as a boy 

 knows his father's pastures. He then spent three 

 years examining the State of California and making 

 voluminous reports of all the great industries and 

 possible routes for railroads through the mountains 

 and valleys, for Allen Manvel, late president of the 

 A. T. & S. F. R. R., and it is not extravagant to say 

 that no man in California is better informed concern- 

 ing the great possibilities of California than Mr. 

 Holabird. He is sometimes called the "Encyclo- 

 pedia of the coast." Mr. Holabird has an extensive 

 acquaintance and retains his friends. 



A thorough horticulturist, he is practically ac- 

 quainted with all features of farming and the use of 

 water as the greatest factor God has given in pro- 

 moting human happiness. His home in Claremont, 

 Cal., is his own creation, and is an ideal of what we 

 call a beautiful rural home, and is truly in his case, 

 " the throne of human felicity." Mr. Holabird's illus- 

 trated lectures on irrigation in California attracted 

 much attention early in the winter. 



THE AGE receives occasional complaints 

 Wright from California concerning the workings 

 Law. tne \Vright Law. Various causes of 

 dissatisfaction are alleged, and THE AGE is criticised 

 for its friendly attitude toward a measure which these 

 critics regard as the fruitful source of discord and 

 promise of future loss. The fitting reply to such 

 criticisms may be summed up in these statements: 

 Wherever the Wright Law has failed to meet the ex- 

 pectations of its friends the disappointment was due 

 to one of two causes: (1) The officers to whom the 

 affairs of the district were committed were incom- 

 petent or dishonest, or (2) the district was located in 

 unsettled territory and applied to uses for which the 

 law was never designed by its friends. Neither of 

 these fatal errors are chargeable to the law itself. No 

 abstract provision of law can make men honest or 

 competent, and when they are otherwise any law is 

 liable to have evil effects. When a district is located 

 in advance of settlers, as has happened in some in- 

 stances, it becomes an anomaly and farce. No such 

 burlesque on the Wright Law should be again per- 

 mitted. 



