THE IRR1 GA 7 IOX A GE. 



437 



i- \o, no: it would be a direct injury to 

 "the Eastern farmer. Eastern farmers 

 don't want the opening up of more Western 

 lands. 



Upon the suggestion that this was a 

 narrow view to retard the development 

 -of any part of the United States the 

 reply was made that the people as a whole 

 were not called upon to subsidize the 

 West; let the Western States do their 

 own developing. Moreover, he said, he 

 believed the East particularly the Grange 

 and other farm organizations, would shut 

 <lown squarely upon such projects when 

 the matter was brought before them as an 

 issue. They only needed to understand it 

 to veto it. 



While this dog-in-the-manger policy is 

 cot general in the East there are un- 

 doubtedly many Easterners who entertain 

 just such narrow views, as was very clearly 

 seen in the fight for national aid along 

 these lines made in the last Congress. 

 The West should not deceive itself in the 

 belief that there will be no Eastern oppoo 

 sition to Government expenditures for 

 storage of water. This fact, then, simply 

 emphasizes the necessity of the utmost 

 harmony of purpose and action by the 

 people of the West in demanding the 

 adoption by the Government of a policy 

 whose enactment means the future life of 

 the Western country. The great arid 

 West is no mere corner of land to be 

 shoved aside and allotted any adminis- 

 tration desired by the rest of the country. 

 The West is fast becoming the center of 

 attention from a standpoint of sound 

 financial investment, and no such narrow 

 policy and treatment by the East will be 

 tolerated. Nor is the West powerless, as 

 was forcibly demonstrated in the United 

 States Senate in the closing days of last 

 Congress. It can demand a fair consider- 

 ation of its claim and a fair adjustment, 

 and it can enforce its demand. But this 

 it can accomplish only through a united 

 effort. If the West speaks as one voice 

 and for one thing, its demand will be 

 heard. If different factions cry for 

 different things it will be easy and plaus- 



ible for the Eastern statesman to sayto 

 the W'est: "Why, you come to us with a 

 diversity of demands and we cannot, tell 

 what is the real wish of the people of the 

 West: therefore, it is not wise to take any 

 action. But this ready excuse to avoid 

 action is throttled in its inception by a 

 delegation of Western Senators and Con- 

 gressmen, stating in no uncertain terms 

 that what the whole West wants, each and 

 every State and Territory, is the adoption 

 of a policy by Congress __ whereby the 

 National Government shall build storage 

 reservoirs and control their waters for the 

 use of settlers, out of general appro- 

 priations, which shall thus give to the 

 West its fair share of the public money 

 for internal improvements. 



Will the West make this demand? . Will 

 its national legislators speak with one 

 voice? Will its people demand of their 

 representatives this fidelity to their cause? 

 It lies with the people. 



AN OLD QUESTION. 



Ever since the days of the earliest settlers 

 in the far West, the attractive proposition 

 has presented itself of impounding winter 

 waters in canons and keeping it against the 

 dry time of summer, when it could be 

 utilized for growing purposes. Most of 

 such operations in our W r est must neces- 

 sarily be on a large scale, owing to the 

 generous hand which nature used in mould- 

 ing the country, and this accounts for the 

 fact that the practice of constructing these 

 artificial lakes or reservoirs has not been 

 more general. In India, where the forma- 

 tion of the country is different, thousands 

 of small canons have been dammed and 

 little reservoirs formed, which fill during 

 the period of rains and form a water sup- 

 ply for the cultivation of the acres adjacent- 

 India is looked upon as a benighted portion 

 of the globe, but when the great American 

 Southwest shall have progressed as far as 

 has Ind# with the irrigation problem, 

 those of us who are now familiar with her 

 appearance will fail to recognize her then 

 smiling areas, as the West of to-day 



