THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



20 1 



VIEW OF CARSON CITY, NEVADA. 



LOCATION OF THE NEXT IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



DURING the month of May the Executive Com- 

 mittee will vote upon the important question 

 of the location of the next session of the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress. The call will be issued 

 about June 1st and the committee, acting in cooper- 

 ation with the citizens of the place chosen, will then 

 enter upon three months of energetic preparation 

 for the event. Several cities are in the field as can- 

 didates for the honor of entertaining the next con- 

 gress and as a preliminary to the action of the com- 

 mittee the claims of the various cities are submitted 

 in this number of THE AGE. Not only have the con- 

 stituents of members the right to express their wishes 

 in the choice of a convention city, but there is no 

 doubt that members will be glad to be advised in 

 this matter. 



IT WILL BE A GREAT EVENT. 



The next Irrigation Congress will be an event of 

 national importance and easily the greatest thing in 

 the history of American irrigation. Many circum- 

 stances will combine to make this the case. Every 

 day that has elapsed since the adjournment of the 

 five days' session of the International Congress at 

 Los Angeles last October has added something to pop- 

 ular interest in irrigation. Furthermore, the condi- 



tions existing throughout the United States render 

 the twin subjects of irrigation and colonization mat- 

 ters of the most urgent national concern. The peo- 

 ple of the East are sharply realizing that they have 

 a surplus population. Naturally they are turning to 

 the West, which has always been the outlet for sur- 

 plus energies and people, and to the great national 

 estate, consisting of 800,000,000 acres of arid lands, a 

 portion of which is arable and irrigable. Still furth- 

 er, seventeen States and Territorial commissions 

 are now at work formulating the views of their citi- 

 zens concerning a national irrigation policy and a 

 code of laws common to all the States. The reports 

 of these seventeen commissions will be presented and 

 discussed and two committees on resolutions one deal- 

 ing with national topics and the other with State 

 problems will endeavor to blend the various views 

 into harmonious policies on which the people of the 

 West may enthusiastically unite. It is probable that 

 the controversy precipitated by the celebrated 

 speech of Major J. W. Powell at Los Angeles will be 

 reviewed in the light of his explanations and the re- 

 plies of his critics, and that the Irrigation Congress 

 will give to the world a clear, definite and final state- 

 ment of western opinion concerning water supplies 

 and irrigable public lands. Further than that, there 



