WHAT THE NEXT CONGRESS SHOULD DO. 



PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS FROM LEADING WESTERN MEN. 



1AM pleased to note the very apparent 

 interest that is being taken by THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE in the coming session at Phoenix 

 of the National Irrigation Congress, and 

 will give you my opinion of the work 

 that should especially come before the 

 body. 



At the risk of being c )nsidered decidedly 

 rude, the first proposition I would ad- 

 vance is that the Congress should be made 

 very unlike that excellent and valuable 

 convocation usually known as a " farmers' 

 institute." Of course the proper irriga- 

 tion and cultivation of "goober peas" is 

 an interesting topic (in its place), but its 

 place is not in a national congress called 

 for the advancement of the interests of 

 the arid west. An able authority at Albu- 

 querque put in an hour or two telling how 

 to irrigate apricot and peach trees on un- 

 even ground, but I doubt if his argument 

 would have had much force before the 

 senate committee on irrigation of arid 

 lands. Another learned gentleman last 

 year spent two hours in reading a paper 

 on the influence of climatic changes on 

 crops, but few there were who stayed to 

 hear him. 



From these I make the assertions: The 

 corning congress to be a success must first 

 be made interesting to its participants, 

 and the work, considering agriculture and 

 irrigation broadly and abstractly, must be 

 confined to such matters as will advance 

 through capital, through co-operation and 

 through legislation the reclamation of arid 

 and semi-arid America. 



The Irrigation Congress should be 

 rather a legislative body, an advisory com- 

 mittee we may say, to Congress and to the 

 state legislatures. Its resolutions should 

 be few and should be well digested 

 and in them, if possible, should be em- 

 bodied schemes for improvement rather 

 than complaints against existing evils. Its 

 work should be political in the broadest 

 sense of the word "politics," and edu- 

 cational to the extent at least of showing 

 the massed millions of eastern dwellers 

 that upon the extension of agriculture in 

 the west rests much of the nation's future 



prosperity. Reclamation of the arid plains 

 should, it is generally admitted, be under 

 the auspices of the general government, 

 for the greater portion of the lands to be 

 reclaimed yet lie with title in Uncle Sam. 

 The dollars needed can well be spared 

 from the national treasury, yet the West 

 will ask no more than to pay all costs as 

 soon as water has been taken to the thirsty 

 lands. 



Matters of immigration are germane to 

 the discussions, as are also the land laws 

 affecting desert entries. Well to be 

 touched upon also would be the hydro - 

 graphic plats showing the points at which 

 the storm waters of the West might best 

 be impounded. 



But no discussions on subsoil plowing, 

 if you please; no sectional booming, no 

 personal boosting, no personal animosities 

 exhibited. 



Add to all this, short, snappy addresses. 

 Let the speeches be limited to fifteen min- 

 utes each, the balance to be printed if 

 deemed worthy of printing. Then turn 

 the wrangling over to special committees 

 appointed from the floor, hold short ses- 

 sions, and more will be done at the Phoenix 

 Congress than at the other congresses 

 combined. 



I believe the Phoenix session is going to 

 be a grand success. All signs, and there 

 have been many signs of late, point that 

 way. Phoenix has something of a reputa- 

 tion out West for enteitainment, and all 

 are to be assured that next December the 

 reputation will at least be sustained. 

 There will be plenty of room for all 

 comers. About that time several thousand 

 strangers are usually due to arrive, and 

 quarters will be found with ease for 

 double that number. We have a hun 

 dred-room hotel and a dozen or more of 

 smaller hostelries, and by fall the Adams 

 Hotel, to cost $150,000, will be complete. 

 It alone will have accommodations for 

 600. Further, Phoenix is considered by 

 the drummers, and they are the best 

 judges anywhere, to have the best eating 

 at the lowest price of any town on the 

 coast. There will not be a raise of a 



