io8 



THE IRRIGATION AGL. 



East, will lend to the coming Congress an importance 

 and a power of attraction which no previous event 

 has enjoyed. It may be predicted that New Mexico, 

 Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma will send large dele- 

 gations; that Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and 

 Utah will send very fair delegations ; that California, 

 Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and 

 the Dakotas will send representative delegations; 

 that there will be scattering delegations from all over 

 the Union, as well as a good many spectators, news- 

 paper correspondents and homeseekers. 



The article, in this number, on the work 

 The Lesson . . 



of the Crow being done by the Crow Indians in Mon- 

 Indians. tana> ; n building canals and irrigating 

 land, is rather timely from the standpoint of the move- 

 ment now being organized in the East in the interest 

 of the unemployed. We presume nobody will con- 

 tend that the idle labor of the great cities is inferior 

 to the Indian character in point of intelligence, phys- 

 ical stamina or desire to be self-supporting. If the 

 Indian can be induced to build canals and create 

 farms upon the arid public lands, it would seem as if 

 white men could be utilized to the same purpose and 

 in a much higher degree. It is only fair to say that 

 the chief interest in our movement which has been 

 aroused in the East is in connection with finding la- 

 bor and homes for the unemployed, and that upon 

 this question there is very great skepticism, strangely 

 blended with a very great degree of interest and a 

 general disposition to give the idea a chance. Our 

 prediction is, that very much the larger per cent, of 

 colonists who shall be attracted to Arid America in 

 the next ten years will come from the ranks of the 

 middle classes, and possess sufficient capital of their 

 own to start homes. But the problem of the unem- 

 ployed is just now very pressing, and this fact has 

 been utilized to bring irrigation before the public in 

 the East. We do not believe it is possible to suc- 

 cessfully contradict the proposition that what the 

 Crow Indian is doing the homeless Bedouins of the 

 city streets can do, under wise and vigorous superin- 

 tendence. 



A Confer- The campaign in the East, to which the 

 Western chairman of the National Committee 

 Men. has devoted his time almost continuously 

 since December last, has now reached a point where 

 a conference of Western men is imperatively de- 

 manded. It is proposed to call such a confer- 

 ence at Denver during April or early in May, 

 and to invite members of the National Commit- 

 tee and State Commissions, together with other 

 prominent public men. The matters to be con- 

 sidered include the following: First. Plans for 

 perfecting a means of co-operation between States 

 that have accepted the Carey law and prominent 

 Eastern men who are ready to assist in making colo- 



nies for the unemployed. Second. Organization of a 

 Western editorial league to supply literature for the 

 colonial clubs. Third. Project for a combined ex- 

 hibit of irrigation resources, methods and products 

 in New York and other Eastern cities. Fourth. Pro- 

 gram for the Fourth National Irrigation Congress at 

 Albuquerque, in September. Fifth. Program for 

 the First Southern Irrigation Congress at Atlanta, 

 in October. Sixth. Project for a tour of inspection 

 of the valleys of Arid America by eminent Eastern 

 men, as a means of converting them to the champi- 

 onship of reclamation and settlement as a National 

 policy. The Denver conference will have a most 



THE LONE SENTINEL. 



important bearing on the future of the movement in 



all its broadest aspects, and it should attract a large 



and representative attendance from several States. 



Will Irri- ^ e direct especial attention to the brief 



gators Lend article published elsewhere in these 

 a Hand? V. . 



pages entitled Demonstration Farms 



for Arid America." It is within the power of intel- 

 ligent irrigators to furnish every State and Territory 

 of the arid region, within the next six months, a living 

 and unanswerable argument of the eternal truths of 

 the irrigation philosophy. The battle now is for the 

 small farm unit and individual independence by the 

 production of what every family consumes. In these 

 two principles reside the hope of a new civilization 

 composed of free men who shall be beyond the reach 



