THE THIRD NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



COLORADO PREPARES A ROYAL WELCOME FOR HER SEPTEMBER 



GUESTS. 



BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 



THE Third National Irrigation Congress has been 

 called to meet in the city of Denver, September 

 3d. It is certain to be the most interesting and im- 

 portant convention of its kind ever held in this 

 country. It will mark the culmination of years of 

 effort in organizing public sentiment in favor of com- 

 prehensive plans for the reclamation and settlement 

 of the arid lands. 



The people of Denver and of Colorado are doing 

 everything in their power to attract a large and repre- 

 sentative attendance, and they will go further in their 

 effort to make the event profitable in results, and 

 pleasing to those who participate in it, than any com- 

 munity has attempted to go before. The rivalry for 

 the honor of entertaining the convention was sharp 

 and earnest. Denver was chosen because of its favor- 

 able location, railroad facilities and hotel accommo- 

 dations, but the people of Colorado as a whole see in 

 the event an extraordinary opportunity which may be 

 turned to their advantage in a legitimate way. They 

 can we'll afford to spend money and time to make the 

 most of it as a means of putting their advantages 

 before homeseekers and investors. 



The importance of the Congress to the people of 

 the United States, the character of its deliberations, 

 and the nature and extent of the excursions proposed 

 are sketched in the following article. 



i. ARID AMERICA FACES ITS OPPOR- 

 TUNITY. 



Every citizen of the arid States and Territories 

 should feel a deep and active interest in the coming 

 Congress. Irrigation is not a distinct industry by 

 itself in the West, but the foundation of the entire in- 

 dustrial fabric in half a continent. The reclamation 

 of land and the settlement of population thereon is 

 equally important to the railroad, the merchant, the 

 manufacturer and the professional man. In a very 

 large sense the future of all the West is bound up in 

 the future of irrigation. A Congress which proposes 

 to declare the deliberate and studied conclusions of 

 the western public concerning the national policy of 

 the future may properly claim the widest public at- 

 tention for a few days at least. 



THE OPPORTUNE MOMENT FOR THE WEST. 



There are other important reasons why the Third 

 National Irrigation Congress should be the object of 



liveliest interest to all western men. It will assemble 

 at what is likely to prove the most opportune moment 

 in the history of the country for effective work in the 

 interest of irrigation progress. We are in the midst 

 of an extraordinary period of depression. We 

 have recently beheld the strange spectacle of 

 thousands of idle men marching upon the national 

 capital to demand some sort of relief. In politics and 

 in industry there is accumulating evidence of popular, 

 discontent and unrest. There is now no citizen of the 

 United States, however conservative he may be by 

 nature, who does not recognize the need of some new 

 impulse in our industrial life and the need of a new 

 outlet for idle energies and surplus population. We 

 have had periods of depression before, but a vast un- 

 occupied public domain has always served as a safety 

 valve. To-day, when the pressure seems more severe 

 than ever before and when our institutions seem fairly 

 brought to the test, as foretold in Macaulay's remark- 

 able prediction, there is no outlet unless the arid 

 lands are to be speedily reclaimed by some form of 

 enterprise, either public or- private. Last year irriga- 

 tion may have been a western fad ; to-day it is a great 

 national necessity. Last year it was the price of 

 western prosperity; to-day it is perhaps the price of 

 peace and safety for national institutions. 



WE MUST MAKE HOMES FOR MILLIONS. 



The most conservative authority on record con- 

 cedes that the deserts of Western America, under a 

 proper system of irrigation, will sustain as many 

 more people as now live in the United States. To 

 render this possible will, in the first place, furnish 

 employment for vast capital and great numbers of 

 men. In the second place, there will have been cre- 

 ated homes for millions of families. Under a system 

 ot diversified farming these millions of families can 

 .sustain themselves, if they can do no more. Is there 

 anything more important in this hour of darkness 

 and strife and evil foreboding than the making of an 

 irrigation policy under which these great ends can be 

 achieved? 



EVERV INFLUENCE SHOULD UNITE. 



It is in this aspect that the coming congress should 

 attract the attention and command the support of all 

 western men, for it is in this aspect that it will ob- 

 tain and hold the respectful consideration of the 

 country at large. We shall look in vain for any en- 



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