THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XII. CHICAGO, DECEMBER, 1897. 



NO 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN fiMERICl 



B J the time this number of 

 gfelT* 1 C n " THE AGE Beaches its readers 

 the United States Congress will have con- 

 vened at Washington. The coming session 

 of congress promises to be an eventful one 

 in many ways. That it will be a busy ses- 

 sion is undoubted ; that it will be fruitful 

 of good is uncertain. Allowing a large 

 percentage of time for bombastic speeches 

 on Cuban freedom and similar topics there 

 will still remain, however, a sufficiency of 

 time, if properly utilized, to place upon 

 the statute books much helpful and some 

 very needful legislation. The inequalities 

 of the tariff schedule enacted at the spec- 

 ial session require attention and the insipid 

 reciprocity clause in the Dingley bill should 

 be eradicated immediately and replaced 

 by one of some value to American farmers 

 and manufacturers. Our producers have 

 too long been accustomed to patiently 

 knock at the door of Germany, France, 

 England and other countries and uncom- 

 plainingly turn away when denied admis- 

 sion, except upon humiliating conditions. 

 A reciprocity treaty that means reciprocity 

 (not a jug handled affair all on one side) 

 is the need of the hour. The Nicaragua 

 canal question is still unsettled and is fast 

 slipping beyond American control. Its 

 importance to the future of the West can 

 not be measured in dollars and cents. The 

 canal should and must be built and owned 

 by the United States. The annexation 

 of Hawaii should be made an accomplished 



fact. There will be other important bills 

 such as the postal savings bank bill and 

 the bill to legalize railroad pools, which 

 comes from the railroad associations. A 

 revision of the patent laws, a bankruptcy 

 system, additional restrictions upon immi- 

 gration, national arbitration for labor diffi- 

 culties and other measures that have been 

 before congress from time to time will be 

 again revived. The question of currency 

 reform will occupy a very important posi- 

 tion and will be discussed in all its phases. 

 But no decisive action on this question can 

 be anticipated as either side has the power 

 to prevent action in the senate. 

 A Public Land But aside from these impor- 



Commission . . . ,, 



Suggested tant matters which aflect the 



welfare of all sections of the country 

 altho none more so than the West there 

 are questions of peculiar importance to the 

 territory west of the Missouri river. Irri- 

 gation has been described as a combination 

 of "Sunshine, soil and water" and of these 

 the sunshine is not subject to the dictates 

 of human law. But there remain the two 

 the land and the water. "That's the 

 question" and sometimes it seems far re- 

 moved from an answer of any kind. The 

 Federal government owns the land while 

 the states control the water supply and the 

 resultant suffering falls upon the head of 

 the innocent settler. The recent Irriga- 

 tion Congress passed a resolution favoring 

 the creation of a public land commission 

 to investigate and study this particular 



