THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



141 



The convention of the Inter-State Irriga- 

 TThe 

 Omaha tion Association, which is in session at 



Convention. Omaha as we write, is one of the signifi- 

 cant events of the year. This association is a part 

 of the complete and effective machinery of a great 

 and widespread movement. The movement, strange 

 as it may seem, is in a sense the offspring of an im- 

 pulse which found its first vigorous expression at 

 Omaha. We do not refer to irrigation as an industry 

 the legacy of the Mission fathers of California and 

 the Mormon pioneers of Utah but to irrigation as a 

 living public question, having leaders and followers, 

 a literature and an organized propaganda. And in 

 this phase the movement was born of that sinister 

 parent, the drought, and sprang from the blighted 

 fields of western Nebraska in the memorable sum- 

 mer of 1890. During that trying period, when nearly 

 everybody prescribed charity as an antidote for dis- 

 aster, a newspaper in Omaha prescribed irrigation. 

 The result of its vigorous agitation was the holding 

 of four county conventions. These led to a State 

 convention, that in turn to the National Congress at 

 Salt Lake, and the latter to the International Con- 

 gress at Los Angeles. And hence the present organ- 

 ization, with National Committee, State Commissions 

 and auxiliary associations, comes in direct descent 

 from Omaha. There were agitators and agitations 

 before, but the hot winds which devastated the crops 

 of 1890 bore the inspiration which led to the solid 

 and enduring movement of to-day. The meeting at 

 Omaha, marking the rising tide of irrigation interest 

 in the semi-arid region, was therefore peculiarly 

 appropriate. It was a successful and inspiring meet- 

 ing, the results of which seem to promise a great 

 good for the country between the Missouri river and 

 the mountains. 



The T n e movement of population to irrigated 



ttf Irrigated lands is the most strikin g feature of 

 Lands, progress in Western America during the 

 early months of 1894. Looking back to a year ago, 

 it is observed that there was then no indication of so 

 strong a current in this direction as has now set in. 

 And yet many circumstances have suddenly con- 

 spired to make the movement quite irresistible and 

 to extend it over a wide area. First of all, this 

 development is due to the prevailing hard times 

 and uncertainty. Thousands of people have suddenly 

 awakened to the truth that no family which depends 

 upon others for employment, and hence for its living, 

 is in the best sense independent. When the panic 

 comes the factory closes. The well-to-do lock up 

 their capital in the bank and wait for business to be 

 restored to normal conditions. To them the closed 

 factory means loss of interest. But the man whose 

 capital is in his brains and hands cannot lock it up 

 in the bank. He continues to eat, to pay rent, and to 



buy clothes. He cannot wait with patience for the slow 

 processes of the business world to bring prosperity 

 back to him, because while he waits he is carried 

 nearer and nearer, day after day, to the point where 

 his family must finally come to want. We are not 

 thinking now of the very poor, to whom the loss of a 

 day's work means privation, but of the great, sub- 

 stantial middle stratum of our citizenship, which lives 

 well and lays up money on the earnings of skilled 

 labor when times are normally good. This class has not 

 yet gone hungry or naked, but it has taken time to 

 think, and has clearly read the lesson which only 

 such a period as the present can reveal. This lesson 

 is that the farmer who produces what his family 

 consumes, independent of tariffs, financial policies, 

 and even of the uncertainties of weather, is after all 

 the only really free man who lives upon the earth. 



What sort of material for citizenship 

 Good Mate- , . _ . . , .. , . , 



rial for shall we find in skilled mechanics from 

 Citizenship. the f actory) c i er ks from the banks and 

 stores, and people drawn from various walks of life 

 in the myriad of country towns V Many expert colo- 

 nizers look with distrust on these elements, believing 

 that they will not take kindly to the labor of rural life, 

 but will expect to sit in the shade of their vines and 

 fig trees while the salubrious climate of the new 

 West lays in their laps a living as a voluntary offer- 

 ing. Those who hold this view maintain that suc- 

 cessful colonists can be drawn only from the farms of 

 the East and middle West. With this notion THE 

 IRRIGATION AGE has nothing in common. It is true 

 that it has sometimes happened that persons un- 

 skilled in farming have become easily discouraged, 

 while those with an agricultural training have suc- 

 ceeded all about them, but we lay it down as a 

 prophesy that the most successful settlers upon irri- 

 gated lands, as a class, will be men from the cities 

 and towns. This has not always been the case be- 

 cause promoters have too often been content to turn 

 their settlers upon irrigated lands without any at- 

 tempt at advising or instructing them in a phase of 

 the agricultural industry new even to skilled farmers. 

 But that day is rapidly passing. Irrigation as a 

 science is coming to be understood and appreciated, 

 and the more progressive companies are going to 

 great lengths to assist their settlers in planning their 

 operations wisely and executing them skillfully. 

 Competition will soon render it impossible for a nar- 

 row-minded company to make head way against those 

 who invest money and brains in mapping out attrac- 

 tive colonies and showing their settlers the path to 

 enduring prosperity. Now, there are those who will 

 and those who will not be taught. It is the men from 

 the cities and towns who will be found plastic mate- 

 rial, ready for moulding at the hands of experienced 

 and educated farm superintendents. They will real- 



