THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the East, almost as much as in the West, its great 

 importance is recognized. It is expected that some 

 plan of compromise will be reached between the fac- 

 tions, one of which has insisted that the national 

 government should appropriate all the public money 

 required in the work of reclaiming the public land 

 and administering canal systems when built, and the 

 other that the arid lands should be ceded to the 

 States, in order that each commonwealth might deal 

 with its own problems. An effort will be made to 

 find some middle groundbetween these extreme views, 

 a plan which will give most of the benefits of both 

 policies and few of the evils of either. 



The reclamation of the arid regions will be a work 

 of mighty proportions. Its accomplishment will 

 occupy the time of a generation or longer, and will 

 require the expenditure of an enormous amount of 

 money. But it means, when accomplished, an addi- 

 tion to the wealth of the country which will many 

 times repay the cost. Hostility to the great scheme 

 of adding hundreds of millions of acres to the pro- 

 ductive area of the country, with all the grand possi- 

 bilities of such a consummation, has been largely 

 silenced, and there are few who do not concede the 

 vast importance of this question and its claim to the 

 earnest attention of statesmen 



CHICAGO INTER OCEAN. It is sincerely to be 

 hoped that the National Irrigation Convention at 

 Denver will succeed in doing something to impress 

 Congress convincingly of the importance of reclaim- 

 ing the vast areas of arid land in the West. There is 

 grave reason to deplore the evasive action, or rather 

 inaction, of our government in relation to questions 

 that so vitally concern the welfare of the nation as 

 the care and extension of our industrial interests. 

 Splendidly successful in converting desolate and 

 waste regions into fertile lands as the system of irri- 

 gation has proved in sections of the West, the ex- 

 pense attached to this artificial process of rehabilitat- 

 ing nature is so great that most States and Territories 

 are debarred from operating on any profitably exten- 

 sive scale. The fact of the matter is, that the conver- 

 sion of arid lands into fruitful farms is as beneficial 

 indirectly to the country at large as it is directly to 

 the State so enriched. 



Every acre of land added to the agricultural ser- 

 vice of the country is a national gain, and the mil- 

 lions of now useless acres in the West might be re- 

 claimed, to the part solution of our problem of how 

 to dispose of the unemployed. The irrigation of 

 these lands means increased opportunity, increased 

 labor, increased production, and increased wealth to 

 the people of the United States. 



We might reclaim these arid lands and attempt to 

 introduce there a system of land cultivation some- 

 what similar to that of France, where are the small- 

 est farms and the thriftiest peasantry in the world. 

 There the limitation of land holdings makes it nec- 

 essary to cultivate every inch of ground, and the re- 

 sult is that there are no waste lands in France and 

 scarcely such a thing as a poor farmer. Here is an 

 extract from the speech of chairman Smythe at the 

 opening of the convention, that should be carefully 

 considered, as it sets forth just what are the possi- 

 bilities in the West. 



" Estimates differ concerning the precise capabili- 

 ties of Western America, but the most critical econ- 

 omist among all our students of water and land con- 

 cedes that we can sustain, under a proper system of 



irrigation, as many people as now live within the 

 boundaries of the United States. Founding our faith 

 on this conservative authority, we send to the people 

 of this troubled nation the message : ' We are com- 

 ing, Father Abraham, with homes for 70,000,000 more 

 homes where irrigation shall guarantee industrial 

 independence and the small farm unit the equality of 

 men.' '' 



MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE. The Third National 

 Irrigation Congress convenes in Denver to-day. At 

 the previous meetings of the Irrigation Congress, the 

 principal question discussed was whether the arid 

 lands should be ceded to the States or controlled by 

 the national government. The First Congress recom- 

 mended cession; the Second appointed a commission 

 of two from each of the seventeen States represented 

 to investigate and report. The report of this com- 

 mission formed an interesting feature of the present 

 congress, and the discussion upon it will help to form 

 a national irrigation policy and code of common 

 State laws. The irrigation problem is attracting 

 attention outside of what is popularly known as the 

 arid region, because the irrigation of that region 

 will add vastly to the aggregate of the products 

 and the wealth of the country. Minnesota has no 

 arid lands, strictly speaking, although in some sec- 

 tions of the State irrigation from artesian wells or 

 streams could unquestionably be used with advan- 

 tage as protection against periods of drouth. But 

 North and South Dakota and Montana, States with 

 which our merchants have intimate business relations, 

 are deeply interested in the irrigation problem. 



ST. PAUL DISPATCH. The progress of irrigation 

 in arid regions is such that millions of acres are under 

 cultivation, and the Irrigation Congress to be held at 

 Denver will undoubtedly do much to determine the 

 future development of this immense region. Many 

 persons are urging that the government should en- 

 gage in irrigation enterprises, but it is believed 

 that this work can be better carried on by the States 

 and Territories, under wise restrictions. 



THE CROOKSTON (MINN.) TIMES. All of the north- 

 west States should be interested in the National Irri- 

 gation Congress, which convenes in Denver shortly. 

 Kansas and a few other States that have suffered 

 from the drouth this year are of course more directly 

 interested. The solution of the irrigation problem 

 will result in small farms and diversified crops. 



PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Should the Congress- 

 men from the East and South vote in favor of 

 extending national aid to the West, when there are 

 so many millions of acres of land along the Alantic 

 coast open to settlement, and to be had for such low 

 prices? The irrigation of western lands, now unproduc- 

 tive, by the government will mean more competition 

 for eastern farmers. The hope of the eastern farmer 

 has been that the home market would catch up with 

 the country's products, and that the supply of west- 

 ern land to be had for little or nothing would become 

 exhausted. This hope will be deferred if vast areas 

 of land are made productive by national irrigation. 



DENVER REPUBLICAN. The future welfare of 

 the United States depends in no slight degree 

 upon the answer to be given to the question of what 



