WHAT THE NEXT CONGRESS SHOULD DO. 



67 



likely to have personal interests connected 

 with the district under consideration, and 

 whose public position would be much of a 

 safeguard against their connivance with 

 fraud. ARTHUR GUNN, 



Wenatchee, July, 1896. Washington. 



WITH respect to the topics for consid- 

 eration at the next congress, I would 

 suggest: 



1. A resume of tne work accomplished 

 by the irrigation movement in the arid 

 regions during the last four years. This 

 could, I think, be best shown by the selec- 

 tion of representative localities and a con- 

 trast of their past with their present condi- 

 tion. 



2. A thorough consideration and demo- 

 lition of the fallacy that the irrigation 

 movement tends to create an overproduc- 

 tion of the necessaries of life. This sub- 

 ject should be so handled as to show not 

 only the unreasonableness of the opposi- 

 tion in the east, but also its utter futility. 



3. Careful organization to carry the 

 irrigation movement into the humid and 

 semi-humid states. Effort should be made 

 to strengthen the hands of those working 

 in those states. This I believe to be of 

 the highest importance, as by this means 

 we can favorably influence legislation for 

 the arid region also. 



4. Some fair and candid statement of 

 the position of the irrigationists with re- 



spect to the general commonweal. This 

 higher plane should be insisted upon. 

 Hitherto appeals have been largely made 

 to individual selfishness, and but little at- 

 tention (generally) given to the broader 

 side of the movement. 



5. Attention to the connection between 

 the railroad system of this country and the 

 irrigation movement (what the railroads 

 have done, are doing and can do). This 

 subject should be made a prominent one, 

 and ought to be exhaustively and fairly 

 considered. 



6. Persistent assertion of the fact that 

 all irrigation legislation must follow and 

 not precede public sentiment. No initia- 

 tory step can be looked for from the gov- 

 ernment. 



Without suggesting for a moment that 

 the above paragraphs exhaust the list, 

 I have outlined some of the points 

 which, in my opinion, deserve considera- 

 tion. We are now at the outset of our 

 career, and this meeting will determine 

 our status as an economic factor in the 

 progress of this country. 



Personally, I feel that this is where we 

 now stand, and in order that the move- 

 ment should enter upon the second stage 

 of its existence fully equipped, I think 

 that no pains should be spared to make 

 the Phoenix meeting a success from the 

 start. THOMAS KNIGHT, 



National Committeeman, Missouri. 



Kansas City, July, 1896. 



THE INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION ON CLI- 

 MATE AND HEALTH. 



BY W. LAWRENCE WOODRUFF M.D., PHOENIX, ARIZONA. 



THE conclusive discussion of this sub- 

 ject implies a study of the physical 

 conditions of the given locality a com- 

 parison of meteorological data for a con- 

 siderable period while arid conditions pre- 

 vailed, with similar data after the same 

 territory has been brought under irriga- 

 tion consideration of the percentage of 

 humidity most conducive to health, with 

 the prevailing temperatures, altitude and 

 wind movements, and the determination 

 of actual and ascertained general effects, 



as shown by freedom from disease in the 

 community and by vital statistics. Each 

 of these elements of the problem must be 

 studied in its relation to all the others. 

 The inquiry is inherently difficult and 

 complex under the most favorable condi- 

 tions. 



Captain William A. Glassford, Signal 

 Corps, U. S. A., of Denver, Colorado, a 

 high authority in such matters, says in a 

 recent article: ' ' In the hottest parts of this 

 arid region the midsummer weather is not 



