436 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



that is in the abundance and cheapness of 

 iron. This will enable great conduits to 

 be laid to reach any section, instead of 

 being confined to ditches, which must 

 follow the configuration of the ground, or 

 be carried across valleys and ravines by 

 expensive acqueducts. We got a hint of 

 the future in this direction by an order to 

 our iron manufacturers from Australia a 

 year or two ago for 300 miles of iron pipe. 

 That length would carry water from the 

 foothills of the Rockies to almost any point 

 on the plains below. 



It is true that the present tendency of 

 iron is upward, but the constant wave is 

 toward cheapening its production by im- 

 provements in the methods of manufac- 

 ture. 



Irrigation Congresses have already done 

 much good work in arousing attention to 

 the vast importance of the subject. What 

 is wanted is such public interest in the 

 work as will lift it to the plane of a great 

 National policy, like the Rivers and Har- 

 bors, the Seaside Fortifications, the Navy, 

 and the Tariff systems. It is deserving of 

 fully as much interest and agitation as the 

 most important of these. The people on 

 the lower rivers deserve protection from 

 the annual inundations. The home-seek- 

 ers deserve to have the desert places made 

 fit for habitation, and for their improving 

 labor. 



What is immediately needed is the inaug- 

 uration of a comprehensive National policy 

 of irrigation, which will select the sites of 

 storage basins in the Rocky Mountains 

 and their foothills, and begin their con- 

 struction. It will be high economy to 

 begin this work at once, while the title to 

 all the lands involved remains in the United 

 States. As soon as any lines of irrigation 

 are decided upon, there will be a rapid 

 settlement of the lands to be benefited, and 

 their improvement will compensate the 

 Government for any outlay. 



Senator Warren came near getting a bill 

 through the last Congress to begin this 

 work. It can be done in the coming ses- 

 sion if those who see the immense im- 



portance of the work will arouse themselves 

 and make their influence felt. 



When once the benefits of irrigation are 

 demonstrated, other methods will be em- 

 ployed in addition to the great Govern- 

 ment works. There are subterranian 

 rivers in large areas of the arid section. 

 Windmills employed as freely as they are 

 in Holland would bring up enough water 

 to irrigate great tracts. In California they 

 are even bringing in electricity, with every 

 promise of success, to the work. The 

 power is generated by the waterfalls in the 

 mountains, and transmitted by wire to the 

 lowlands, where it will work pumps. 



Proper effort will result in the arid and 

 semi-arid regions of the far West being 

 made in the near future to support in as- 

 sured comfort an immnese population. 



TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 WEST. 



The greatest obstacle in the path of 

 storage of water in the West by the 

 Federal Government lies in Eastern oppo- 

 sition among farmers. Many Eastern men 

 cannot be convinced that the development 

 of the West means a sympathetic quick- 

 ening in the East through increased 

 manufacturing to supply Western com- 

 munities, which will employ additional 

 labor and cause an 'increased Eastern 

 demand for farm products. 



An official of the Eastern Grange and a 

 member of other farmers' organizations 

 a man liberal minded on most large ques- 

 tions said, in discussing the question, 

 that he could not see anything but local 

 benefit to the West to result from irri- 

 gation, and as far as Government assist- 

 ance was concerned he was strongly op- 

 posed to it. The whole people should not 

 be taxed to help out a few sparcely settled 

 arid States. 



"But how about doing the work through 

 an equitable division of the river and 

 harbor bill appropriations, giving the 

 West some sort of show against the im 

 mense annual expenditure in the East 

 under this bill?" was asked. 



