We also note with satisfaction that a bill donating to each Western State, under con- 

 ditions, 1,000,000 acres of arid lands for purposes of reclamation, recently passed the United 

 States Senate unanimously, passed the House with only nine dissenting votes and received 

 the prompt approval of the President of the United States. We interpret this remarkable 

 unanimity of action as an evidence of confidence in Western men, of real concern for 

 Western institutions. And it is our purpose to avail ourselves of the opportunity thus 

 given, and to make the Carey law the first step in the development of a great internal 

 policy. 



We thank Congress for such appropriations as have been provided for the work of 

 gauging streams and in investigation of water supply, but urge that larger appropriations 

 are needed. 



But while we ask such national assistance, in the way of legislation and appropriations, 

 as the dignity and importance of the interests involved clearly demand, we assure the 

 people of the United States that we propose to help ourselves. Our unpaid State com- 

 missions will again be organized for the purpose of securing helpful State legislation and 

 providing liberal State appropriations for the work of scientific study of our problems, and 

 for carrying on good administrative systems. 



We especially urge our countrymen to remember that in the true sense the problems 

 of the Irrigation Congress are of national dimensions and national import. The best solu- 

 tion of the difficulties that vex our statesmen and economists is that solution which would 

 provide idle, discontented or unprosperous people first with labor and then with homes. 

 Our panacea for existing unrest is the small, irrigated farm, producing what the family 

 consumes as well as a surplus for market and giving to its occupants, by reason of its 

 smallness, the benefits of neighborhood association. We ask only the opportunity and 

 facilities to provide such homes for millions and so erect great States on what is now the 

 voiceless desert. And this we seek to do in the name of our nationality, not in the name of 

 individual States or sections. We know no flag except the flag of the Union. We kn.ow 

 no destiny except the destiny of the American people. And whatever we shall accom- 

 plish under the policies we annunciate will add directly to the glory and greatness of our 

 common country. 



MEHORIAL TO CONGRESS. 



" Your memorialist, the Third National Irrigation Congress, in session at Denver, 

 Colo., begs to call your attention again to arid and sub-humid America, and to represent 

 in relation thereto, as follows: 



" That the subject of irrigation comprehends a most fruitful field of national legisla- 

 tion in behalf of home-seekers. 



"That about two-fifths of the total area of our whole country is without a sufficient 

 rainfall to make it habitable, and therefore, if it is to constitute the homes of a happy peo- 

 ple of the present generation or of generations to come, it must be irrigated. 



" That the great work of discovery and distribution of our waters, which must precede 

 the intelligent location by the home-seeker and the actual work of reclamation, is too great 

 and expensive to be most comprehensively undertaken by individuals, and this Congress, 

 therefore, most respectfully but urgently petitions you to make adequate appropriations 

 for, and to have conducted in the most comprehensive* and practical manner, an irrigation 

 survey in charge of experienced and competent irrigation engineers. We also urge that as 

 such work progresses you enact such laws and repeal such old ones, if any, as may be nec- 

 essary to meet the conditions found to exist as the result of such survey.'/ 



a& 



163 



