THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. IX. 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY, 1896. 



NO. 2. 



THE BROADER SIDE OF THE IRRIGATION 



MOVEMENT. 



BY THOMAS KNIGHT. 



WHETHER it be or be not possible to 

 reclaim by irrigation some certain 

 portion of the arid and semi-arid regions 

 of this country is undoubtedly a question 

 of importance per se ; regarded simply as 

 a local issue there has as yet been no ade- 

 quate comprehension of the problem by 

 those whose very existence would appear 

 to depend upon its satisfactory solution. 



This being the case, it is not surprising 

 that attention to detail and consequent 

 narrowness of the field of observation have, 

 to a great extent, prevented any general 

 recognition of the great principles which, 

 underlying the Irrigation Movement, have 

 given to it most of its influence and all of 

 its vitality. And since the irrigationist 

 insists that not only are these principles 

 true, but will in their application be found 

 to present a means for meeting at least 

 some of the social difficulties of the hour, it 

 is at least reasonable that examination be 

 made of them and the correctness of such 

 a position be discussed. 



There are in the world two great eco- 

 nomic forces, Labor and Capital. To- 

 gether they form a prime mover; separ- 

 ately they are impotent. Labor, however, 

 lias one advantage in that it is the capital 

 of every man who is able to work, and 

 should at all times be readily convertible 

 into the necessaries of life for its pos- 

 sessor. 



But it is a lamentable fact that in all 

 civilized nations there is at the present 

 time an inability on the part of labor to 

 effect this conversion, and the tendency 



is undoubtedly towards a still greater 

 stringency in the conditipn. It is mani- 

 festly impossible to compel capital to em- 

 ploy labor where the natural demand for 

 such labor is non-existent; what then can 

 be done to enable the laborer to exist, sup- 

 posing him willing to dispose of his labor 

 but unable to find a purchaser? The ir- 

 rigationist contends that the necessities 

 of the laborer do in themselves constitute 

 a natural demand which will tax all of 

 his energies to meet, and proposes that he 

 be given the opportunity to satisfy this 

 demand directly, without the competition 

 attendant upon a congested labor market 

 or the evils arising from the fluctuation in 

 values induced by empirical and unstable 

 national legislation. 



But labor to be thus utilized must cer- 

 tainly have within its reach such raw ma- 

 terial as will absorb it profitably. And 

 it is clear that the ultimate worth of such 

 lies in its capacity to increase in value 

 according to the amount of labor em- 

 ployed upon it. If, in addition, such raw 

 material is capable of not only a cumula- 

 tive but a recurrent increment, its ultimate 

 worth is incalculable, inasmuch as such 

 cumulative and recurrent properties are 

 practically infinite. 



It is in this light that the irrigationist 

 regards the land. As raw material he 

 maintains that, under irrigation, it is cap- 

 able of making a remunerative return in 

 direct proportion to the amount of labor 

 bestowed upon it. For since the extent 

 of any man's actual necessities depends 



