THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



5 



ways on mines. The revival of irrigation interest in 

 Utah is an evidence of sanity. There is no question 

 but what mining is an important industry in Utah. 

 Neither is there any question but what agriculture is a 

 far more important one. Mining makes a few people 

 rich. They generally spend their riches a long dis- 

 tance from the place where they acquired them. Agri- 

 culture makes many prosperous. These many are 

 married to the soil. It is their soil, and they love it. 

 Now, the revival in Utah means that public opinion 

 in that locality is recognizing irrigation as the basis 

 of its present, and the hope of its future, greatness. 

 The large delegation sent to the congress at Denver 

 was one evidence of the revival, and the wide circu- 

 lation of literature in the interests of getting capital 

 and settlers is another. It was a most pleasing 

 thing to behold the Utah delegation at the Trans- 

 Mississippi Congress at St. Louis proudly distributing 

 a large and beautiful pamphlet describing the glories 

 of their soil and climate, of their industrial and social 

 institutions, erected on the broad foundation of irri- 

 gation. The significance of this fact is that the peo- 

 ple of the mountain States are beginning to appreci- 

 ate what a tremendous advantage they have in being 

 able to make homes for the millions. If other States 

 will follow Utah perhaps it will turn out that the 

 transcendent gain for irrigation thought in 1894 was 

 this revival. There is some excuse for the eastern 

 man who is indifferent about irrigation, but absolutely 

 none for the western man who is equally so. 



Now to apply the thermometer which 

 The Growth . . . 



of Popular measures the rising temperature. I he 



Interest. Third National Irrigation Congress, held 

 at Denver in September, attracted wider attention 

 than any previous event of the kind. Among the 

 newspapers which discussed its proceedings were the 

 Chicago Tribune, New York Tribune, Philadelphia 

 Ledger, Boston Transcript, San Francisco Bulletin, 

 Chicago Inter-Ocean, Minneapolis Tribune, St. Paul 

 Dispatch, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Times, 

 Indianapolis Journal, and other newspapers which 

 have never paid much attention to the movement 

 in the past. Besides this, elaborate articles have 

 been published during the past year in the New 

 York IVorld, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Record, and 

 Chicago Inter-Ocean. There has also been a marked 

 degree of attention on the part of southern news- 

 papers. This has resulted in a call for a Southern Irri- 

 gation Congress, to be held at Atlanta during the first 

 week of October, 1895. Another significant and en- 

 couraging feature of the year was the attention given 

 the matter by Public Opinion, the Washington news- 

 paper which is conceded to be an accurate reflection 

 of the national mind. Among eastern magazines the 

 Review of Reviews has been most generous and con- 

 stant in its friendship for the cause of irrigation. On 



the whole, the development of newspaper interest in 

 irrigation has been remarkable during the past year, 

 but it is much to be doubted whether the newspapers 

 have kept pace with the growth of interest on the 

 part of the public. 



Irrigation thought has certainly made 



Victory in marvelous progress during the past year. 

 Legislation. Much hag been gained> both in the Ea$t 



and West, in the matter of impressing the popular 

 imagination. So far as legislation is concerned, it is 

 only when public men are converted that real progress 

 is accomplished. Has the year been effective in this 

 quarter? Unquestionably it has. Irrigation has ap- 

 pealed successfully to the mind of at least one prom- 

 inent public man, and a Presidential candidate at 

 that. Hon. Thomas B. Reed's eloquent reference to 

 the subject in his speech at Pittsburgh last April was 

 reproduced in these pages at the time. This is very 

 encouraging, when the political importance and geo- 

 graphical location of this distinguished gentleman 

 are considered, but there is also a substantial legisla- 

 tive triumph to be recorded. This is the passage of 

 the Carey law, which encountered only nine dissent- 

 ing votes in the House and none whatever in the 

 Senate. The discussion of this measure brought out 

 several good speeches in the House, and for the first 

 time irrigation was the subject of attention on the 

 floors of Congress. This is practically the first 

 recognition irrigation has had, and it is therefore a 

 very important feature in the record of a year which 

 has been triumphant in the matter of progress along 

 intellectual lines. The Carey law unmistakably fore- 

 shadows the character of the coming national policy. 

 The nation will rigidly guard the people's heritage. 

 It will not make appropriations. It will permit the 

 States large powers of administration, to be exer- 

 cised under stringent conditions. The function of 

 the States will be ministerial. The Federal Con- 

 gress will make the laws governing the disposal of 

 the public lands, but western men will be left to carry 

 out the work in all its details. 



III. THE PROGRESS OF 1895 FORESHADOWED. 



Looking forward to the events of the 

 Now for 



the Leg- new year, we confidently predict that the 

 islatures. recor( i o f 189 4 will be very far surpa ssed. 



Great movements do not pause and falter when once 

 fairly started. On the contrary, there always comes 

 a time when they burst their narrow barriers and 

 sweep all before them, like a torrential stream in 

 flood season. That moment will surely come for irri- 

 gation. It may be very near at hand. It may be 

 that a few years yet intervene, but in the meantime 

 progress must be constant and larger year by year. 

 The first important event in 1895 will be the assem- 

 bling of the legislatures of Colorado, Wyoming, 



