THE EIGHTH ANNUAL IRRIGA- 

 TION CONGRESS. 



HELD AT MISSOULA, MONT., SEPT. 25, 26 AND 27 



About 200 accredited delegates attended the meeting of the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress. They came from every part of the union 

 in which an interest is taken in irrigation of heretofore arid lands, 

 and included a number of officials from Washington, D. C. 



Prof. J. E. Stubbs was chosen temporary president in the ab- 

 sence of Dr. S. B. Young, of Utah, the president. 



Guy E Mitchell, of Washington, D. C., briefly stated that the 

 work the congress is to accomplish was ' 'The proper presentation of 

 the problem of satisfactorily disposing of the grazing lands by the 

 leasing system, and the securing of a just and suitable share by im- 

 provement appropriations for the development and improvement of 

 interior states, along with the seaboard states." 



Prof. Maxwell's address was practical throughout. He held that 

 irrigation congresses had accomplished about all that could be ac- 

 complished by them along the lines that had been followed. It was 

 useless to appeal to eastern congressmen. They could not be brought 

 to see the question as the people of the west view it. They believe 

 that when we ask for government aid to construct storage reservoirs 

 we have the desire to put our hands in Uncle Sam's pocket and take 

 therefrom what we want. He said that if the people of the west 

 would go about it right they could secure in one year what they have 

 been working for for 10 years or more and are no nearer than at first. 

 The politician should be left alone. We should demonstrate to east- 

 ern manufacturers, wholesale merchants and trades unions that by 

 the reclamation of arid lands trade would be quadrupled within a year 

 or two and that the poor man with a few dollars could make a home 

 for himself and his descendants. He held that we must appeal to the 

 pockets of the manufacturer and the merchant and the good sense of 

 the wage earner if we secure co-operation, and only by that co-opera- 

 tion can government assistance be had. He advocated the holding of 

 the next session of the congress in Chicago. The west asks for noth- 

 ing more than is just and fair. It wishes for no more than its due, 

 and equitable distribution of the appropriations that are made for im- 

 provement of water courses and a system that will properly recom- 

 pense the western states for the expenses that they are put to in 

 policing the vast areas of public lands; combined with this a system 



