THE IRRIGATION PROPAGANDA. 



The recent drouth in California has been 

 the means of quickening the interest in ir- 

 rigation matters and a new impetus has 

 been given by the organization of an asso- 

 ciation to unite the people of the state for 

 public good. The moving spirit in this 

 organization is George H. Maxwell, editor 

 of the California Advocate, whose interest 

 in irrigation matters is well known. Re- 

 cently Mr. Maxwell made a tour of South- 

 ern California, of over a month in duration, 

 holding meetings and lecturing in the in- 

 terest of the "Irrigation Popaganda," 

 which advocates the construction of fed- 

 eral reservoirs. Mr. Maxwell, accom- 

 panied by his family, began the journey, 

 with his own team, at Palmdale, Cal , 

 holding his first meeting at Myrtle in the 

 Big Rock Creek Irrigation District. 

 Thence he drove around over the desert 

 and the Cajon Pass to San Bernardino. 

 From there he drove to San Diego by one 

 route, and back to San Bernardino by an- 

 other, concluding the series of meetings at 

 San Bernardino July 23. 



During this trip, Mr. Maxwell addressed 

 public meetings almost daily, and for the 

 last two weeks held two meetings nearly 

 every day, having spoken at Escondido, 

 San Marcos, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Ocean- 

 side, Fallbrook, Temecula, Murietta, El- 

 sinore, Riverside, San Jacinto, Hemet, 

 Winchester, Perris, Moreno, Bloomington, 

 Oolton, Redlands and San Bernardino. 



The announcement of the meeting at 

 Redlands was very brief, merely a card in 

 the afternoon paper, but it drew an audi- 

 edce of about seventy people. On the 

 following day a committee of the citizens 

 of that city wired Mr. Maxwell as follows: 

 "People of Redlands would like to hear 

 you more on water question. Fix date 

 and a big audience will meet you at once. " 

 This is certainly good evidence that his 

 treatment of this important subject im- 

 pressed his hearers as a correct solution 



of the difficulties that now confront the 

 state in its efforts at further irrigation de- 

 velopment. 



The constitution of the association being 

 organized is, in part, as follows : 



"The name of this association shall be 

 'The Irrigation Propaganda 

 Section,' 



"Its purpose is to awaken an active in- 

 terest in and to promote irrigation devel- 

 opment and to relieve the conditions of 

 disaster which have arisen in the irriga- 

 tion district system, and to aid in inaug- 

 urating and carrying on an educational 

 campaign to arouse the people to a real- 

 ization of the far-reaching benefits which 

 would result to all classes of the people 

 from the construction of state and national 

 irrigation works and Federal storage res- 

 ervoirs.'' 



The sections of the principles of the 

 propaganda relating to -a national arid 

 land policy were either taken from the 

 resolutions of the Phoenix and Lincoln Ir- 

 rigation Congresses or have been endorsed 

 by them. Mr. Maxwell was a delegate 

 from California to the Phoenix Irrigation 

 Congress and he urges that the people of 

 California do all in their power to make 

 the next Irrigation Congress, which is to 

 be held in Cheyenne in September, a 

 great success. 



On July 25 Mr. Maxwell lectured at the 

 Chamber of Commerce at San Francisco 

 on the proposed construction of Federal 

 storage reservoirs to supply water to the 

 arid lands of the west. After quoting 

 from the report of Col. Chittenden to the 

 effect that "No one can cope with the 

 problem [of storage reservoirs] except the 

 Federal governmen," Mr. Maxwell says: 



"There is no difference in principle be- 

 tween the government building levees 

 along the Mississippi, to protect the ad- 

 jacent territory from destruction by flood 

 and building reservoirs to restrain the 

 flood waters for use in irrigation to pro- 



