PUBLIC OPINION AND THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



173 



of the commissions. It is from these commissions 

 that I think we will receive our first tangible re- 

 sults of the Denver congress, which will undoubtedly 

 leave an influence upon the whole country, the extent 

 of which time only can tell. 



Of Montana. 



THE Denver congress marks a long stride in ad- 

 vance by the irrigation sentiment of this coun- 

 try. Eleven months ago, when the congress 

 met at Los Angeles, only some half dozen States, 

 outside of California, had representatives in that dis- 

 tinguished gathering of the friends of irrigation. 

 Every State and Territory in Arid America appeared 

 through full and able delegates at the Denver meet- 

 ing. In addition to this, Missouri, Illinois, Wiscon- 

 sin, Minnesota, Georgia and Rhode Island sent good 

 representative delegations, thereby showing a grow- 

 ing interest in other States than Arid America in the 

 matter of reclaiming the western half of our domain. 

 Mexico on the south and the Dominion of Canada 

 on the north also appeared and greatly added, 

 by their counsels, to the net results achieved by 

 this gathering of the people. The discussions, 

 the papers read and the general trend of thought 

 clearly showed that the old idea of ceding the 

 arid lands to the several States was distasteful and 

 would never be consummated. Whether the Carey 

 law would ever be carried out, seemed indeed to 

 be in very great doubt as applied to Arid America 

 in general. 



The people want places to make small homes with- 

 out buying such homes from syndicates and aggre- 

 gated capital. This the American people will have. 

 Small holdings for the million of young men yearly 

 arriving at their majority is, from this time onward, to 

 be the rallying cry, and this cry will be heeded and 

 will, at last, get itself embodied into law. Another 

 thing clearly may be gathered from our study of the 

 doings of this congress, which is, that irrigation con- 

 cerns not Arid America only but all the States. We 

 do not now fully utilize all the waters we have. The 

 humid States need, and they will have, a better dis- 

 tribution of their present water supply. As our pop- 

 ulation goes on doubling up every thirty years, we 

 will make a wiser use of our flowing and underground 

 waters. The problem of the imminent future is, how 

 and by what methods shall all America economize 

 all the waters the good Lord sends to us ? 



Of Kansas. 



I WAS very much impressed, not only with the work 

 which was accomplished by the Third National 

 Irrigation Congress, which met in Denver from 

 September 3d to 10th, but with the strong character 

 of the personnel of the convention itself. I believe it 

 to be one of the most representative bodies of men 

 that I ever saw together, representing so many differ- 

 ent States, nearly all of which had conditions which 

 were different from the others, and nearly all of 

 which had private interests which conflicted with the 



others ; yet, upon the whole, the convention itself was 

 able to agree upon a policy, which, it seems to me, 

 was the only one to be adopted at the present time. 



The question of irrigation has passed beyond an 

 experiment. It is admitted by all that in a very large 

 portion of the United States it is an absolute neces- 

 sity, in fact, would be a good thing anywhere. It is 

 further admitted that intensified farming, small hold- 

 ings and the owning of homes by the masses, are the 

 things to be desired. To accomplish this it is nec- 

 essary in the first place to have the very best kind 

 of a survey that it is possible to make, and such 

 experiments as will develop all of the water that it 

 is possible to get in the arid regions, and to have 

 these surveys and experiments of such a character 

 as will show how the water can best be used to advan- 

 tage.and placed so that it will do the greatest amount 

 of service. I think this was aptly stated in the reso- 

 lutions which were adopted by the convention, and 

 the work of the executive committee, and in fact 

 every one connected therewith, will be to the end 

 that the necessary appropriations to carry on this 

 work be obtained and the necessary steps be taken 

 to accomplish it. 



If such steps can be taken so that the work can be 

 commenced before the next congress meets, the 

 next congress will, I think, still have plenty of ques- 

 tions to grapple with, and they can take hold of them 

 more intelligently than this convention could, be- 

 cause they will have a basis upon which to work. 



No greater compliment could have been paid any 

 one than the fact of the re-election of the editor of 

 the IRRIGATION AGE as chairman of the National 

 Committee* for the next year. It recognizes the heroic 

 work which has been done in the past as giving great 

 promise of the results which will be accomplished in 

 the future. 



CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The Third National Irriga- 

 tion Congress is the legitimate outgrowth of the first 

 and second. In 'September, 1891, the first was con- 

 vened at Salt Lake City, Utah. It was called to con- 

 sider whether the arid lands should be ceded to the 

 States or controlled by the national government. 

 After a warm discussion, continued through several 

 days, the Salt Lake Congress agreed by a large major- 

 ity to recommend the cession to the State. The second 

 congress was held at Los Angeles, Cal., last October. 

 The question came to the front again, and as there 

 seemed to be no possibility of adopting a policy upon 

 which congress could unite, it was decided to appoint 

 a commission from each of the seventeen States rep- 

 resented which should respectively investigate dur- 

 ing the ensuing year the conditions in the States 

 they represented, and formulate a national irriga- 

 tion policy and a code of common State laws. 



Since the movement began, it has gathered force 

 and broadened until it seems destined to become 

 national in scope. This public awakening is indi- 

 cated by the warm interest that is taken in the matter 

 of reclaiming the arid lands by many leading men 

 of the East and of the whole country. The rescue 

 of these lands for the people means more than crops 



