RECLAMATION OF ARID 

 AMERICA. 



ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE CHICAGO 

 FEDERATION OF LABOR. 



Bx GEO. H. MAXWELL. 



Mr. President and Delegates and Members of the Federation: I thank 

 you for this opportunity of bringing to your attention the policy ad- 

 vocated by The National Irrigation Association for the reclamation 

 and settlement of the vast territory known as Arid America. Our as- 

 sociation urges that it shall be administered and reclaimed for the 

 benefit of the whole people, and preserved for those who will build 

 homes on the land; and we want your strong and earnest co-operation 

 and support in a united effort to bring about the inauguration of such 

 a national policy. 



I believe that as you think about it, the conviction will grow 

 stronger and stronger upon you that there is no problem now con- 

 fronting the American people which has a closer or more fundamental 

 relation to the welfare of the great multitude of our citizens whose 

 industry is their capital, than the problem of the preservation and re- 

 clamation for the people and for the homebuilder of the arid public 

 domain. 



The public domain comprises over 500,000,000 acres of land, of 

 which 100,000,000 acres could be reclaimed by irrigation. 



Every one will concede that the land question lies at the root of 

 the labor problem, but there are very few who realize that one-third 

 of the entire area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is public 

 land and still belongs to the people; and that by the building of great 

 storage reservoirs and irrigation works to reclaim the irrigable lands, 

 the arid region could be made to sustain a greater population than in- 

 habits the whole United States to-day. 



No man need argue that these great irrigation works should be 

 by private capital or that the reclamation of Arid America should be 

 left to individual or corporate enterprise. It has been tried and has 

 failed. It is as impossible as that private capital should have built 

 the vast irrigation systems of India or the great dam now being built 

 by the Egyptian Government across the Nile. 



The arid region can be reclaimed and settled in only one way, and 

 that is for the State and National governments to build the irrigation 

 works and open the lands up for settlement at a price within the reach 



