ANNEX ARID AMERICA. 



STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE AND CONCENTRA- 

 TION OF EFFORT BY THE IRRIGATION 

 CONGRESS WILL ACCOMPLISH IT. 



GEORGE H. MAXWELL. 



Steadfastness of purpose is in itself a power, and this the Nation- 

 al Irrigation Congress has attained. All that is now necessary to 

 work out the grand destiny which may be achieved for Arid America 

 through the reclamation by irrigation of the waste places that are 

 now a desolate desert is that the Irrigation Congress and all its mem- 

 bers and all those who are laboring to accomplish this great purpose 

 shall concentrate their efforts and not diverge upon minor matters and 

 thereby dissipate and lose the strength and influence which their 

 limited labors would achieve . The resolutions which were published 

 in the August number of the IRRIGATION AGE, were adopted in full 

 by the Cheyenne Irrigation Congress, thus reaffirming the principles 

 to which the congress anchored itself at the Phosnix session. The 

 only additional matter added to any of these resolutions was a clause 

 appended to the proposed resplutions endorsing the Chittenden re- 

 port in favor of federal storage reservoirs, which made the endorse- 

 ment of that policy broader and stronger. 



These resolutions may well be republished, because they are the 

 broad ground upon which all should unite who are working for the 

 common cause, which is the reclamation of the arid west and the up- 

 building of rural homes to conquer and occupy the deserts. The re- 

 solutions as adopted by the Cheyenne Congress are as follows: 



We favor the preservation and development of our national re - 

 sources by the construction of storage reservoirs by the federal gov- 

 ernment, for flood protection and to save for use in aid of navigation 

 and irrigation, the flood waters which now run to waste and cause 

 overflow and destruction, as recommended in the report of Col. Hiram 

 M. Chittenden, and we urge the adoption of the recommendation of 

 this report as to the construction of storage reservoirs in the arid re- 

 gions, as a part of the national policy of internal improvements. 



We favor the leasing of the public grazing lands at a nominal 

 rental in limited areas to settlers tilling adjacent lands, the revenue 

 from rentals to go to the states for irrigation development, leases to 

 be subject to right of reclamation by irrigation and of settlement on 

 lands actually cultivated, title of land to remain in federal government 

 until actual settlement. 



