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7 HE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



L. M. HOLT, OF CALIFORNIA, 

 Member of State Irrigation Commission. 



National Committee could name the controlling 

 delegates. The fact is that the call was prepared 

 exactly in accord with the instructions unanimously 

 adopted by the last Congress. The instructions were 

 drafted by Judge Gregory, of Kansas, a most deter- 

 mined opponent of land cession. The chairman of 

 the committee which reported them was the Hon. 

 Lionel A. Sheldon, of California, another pronounced 

 opponent of land cession. The Congress which 

 adopted this basis of representation as the arbitrary 

 rule for the next Congress was claimed to be over- 

 whelmingly opposed to land cession. Never was there 

 a charge more absolutely groundless and unreason- 

 able than this charge that the chairman manufactured 

 a call for his own ends, in order that the lands might 

 be ceded to the States. The truth is that the last 

 Congress intended that the body which was designed 

 " to suggest a satisfactory irrigation policy to the 

 nation and to the States and Territories," should con- 

 tain at least seventy-seven men who had devoted a 

 year's time to the careful study of the subject. With 

 the selection of these men the chairman of the com- 

 mittee had just as much, and no more, to do as his 

 twenty-two colleagues of the national organization. 

 The parties who inspired this virulent newspaper 

 attack must be very anxious to have a row. They 

 will be accommodated if they will make application at 

 the proper time and place. 



Powell The reassembling of the Irrigation Con- 



Speecb gress recalls the sensational incident of 

 Recalled. . 



Major rowell s speech at Los Angeles. 



We think there is now no desire to recall it with a 



view to its discussion in a spirit of bitter antagonism 

 to its author. When the speech was delivered he was 

 the Director of the Geological Survey, and by far the 

 most distinguished man in the government service 

 interested in the subject of irrigation. His speech 

 carried the weight not only of his reputation, but of 

 his official position. It was felt, and justly so, that 

 his words would do infinite harm to the irrigation 

 industry by discrediting every project which proposes 

 to water government land, and by undermining the 

 basis of economic facts which the Los Angeles de- 

 claration had set up as the ground for its faith in a 

 future civilization to be created on the arid public 

 domain. Those who followed Major Powell in violent 

 and denunciatory speeches may have been unduly 

 bitter, but they were at least sincere. They arose to 

 defend a cause very dear to them, and naturally they 

 spoke with great feeling. Major Powell is not now 

 the Director of the Geological Survey. His official 

 connection with irrigation is a thing of the past. 

 What he has done for Western America is a matter 

 of history. During the past year THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE has sought to combat Major Powell's startling 

 statements in a way that seemed to us to promise the 

 best results. We were early satisfied that mere de- 

 nunciation would avail nothing. The statements 

 were true or false, well-grounded or mistaken. The 

 public was immensely interested in knowing the facts. 



WM. H. ROWE, OF UTAH. 



Member of National Executive Committee and Pres. Salt Lake 

 Chamber of Commerce. 



