THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. VIII. 



CHICAGO, JUNE, 1895. 



No. 6. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



Silver The writer devoted the month of May 

 Dominant. to a some what extended tour of the arid 

 States. Hence these notes of western progress were 

 obtained from personal observation rather than from 

 correspondence and newspapers. For the last sev- 

 eral years silver has been the rising question through- 

 out Western America. To-day it is the dominant and 

 all-absorbing topic of discussion. Newspapers and 

 conventions teem with it. On the trains and in the 

 hotels almost nothing is talked except the chances of 

 a silver victory in 1896. Every late comer from the 

 East is besieged with anxious inquiries about the po- 

 litical outlook. In these days there are two things 

 that can be seen on every hand, wherever one goes, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific bicycles and Coin's 

 Financial School. But neither of these subjects im- 

 mediately concern the readers of THE AGE. 



Irrigation interest is not conspicuous in 

 Golden _ 



Speech at Denver. Strangely enough, neither is 



Denver. s ji ver- j n Denver the atmosphere is 

 laden with gold. Everybody has just taken 1,000,- 

 000 out of a gold mine, or is just upon the point of 

 doing so. It may be that there are people in Colora- 

 do who have tried to find a gold mine and failed. If 

 so, they are never heard of. One only hears talk 

 about those who have succeeded. He looks in one di- 

 rection and sees a woman who drew $1,000 in a lot- 

 tery, improved a gold claim, sold it for $2,000,000, and 

 now lives in luxury in the gay capital of Colorado. 

 Looking in another direction, one sees an opulent in- 

 dividual starting for California in a private car, and 

 is told that only the day before yesterday this man 

 was a poor carpenter, doing odd jobs at Colorado 

 Springs. In such an atmosphere as this, irrigation 

 would be a very prosaic subject for discussion. The 

 writer was not surprised to find very little interest in 

 Denver concerning the recent State legislation ac- 

 cepting the benefits of the Carey law. As a matter 

 of fact, no effort is being made to utilize the law and 

 inquirers are discouraged by State officials with the 



statement that there are no chances to reclaim land 

 under this law. But if there is no interest in such 

 matters at Denver the case is different on the glori- 



A. H. FORD, 

 Of the Homeseeker's Journal, Chicago, 111. 



ous Western slope, down in the broad valley of the 

 Grand. 



The Grand If one were called upon to name the 

 Valley. very b est va ii e y in the West, and threat- 

 ened with a heavy penalty if he erred in his judg- 

 ment, he would find it very difficult indeed to fix his 

 choice. There are many beautiful valleys, each with 

 its peculiar advantages, always o.'f,et by certain dis- 

 advantages. The person who should attempt to de- 

 cide this delicate question would be in the position of 

 the lover who exclaimed, 4> Hovv happy I could be 



'65 



