338 



THE IBRIGA TION A GE. 



creasing at a remarkable ratio. As the 

 population increases, the opportunity for 

 young and ambitious men who live in the 

 older States of the Union to gain an 

 honest livelihood, is every year becoming 

 less. Labor is necessarily becoming 

 cheaper. If no more unoccupied lands 

 are made fit for use, landholding will soon 

 be the privelege of the rich, and tenantry 

 the only hope of the poor. 



Another point that should be regarded 

 in this connection is the increased sta- 

 bility lent to a government where man} 7 of 

 the citizens are land-owners. The irri- 

 gation of these arid lands would do much 

 to promote the welfare of the entire 

 nation, by taking from the unemployed 

 classes and adding to the class of land- 

 owners. 



The following paragraph, from the 

 report of the committee, might have been 

 written today: 



"Before the republic should seek to 

 acquire new territory, it should wisely 

 utilize the territory it now has, and it is 

 most respectfully submitted that a 

 national system of irrigation, directed by 

 wise and uniform laws, controlling the 



rights of water and its uses, will be of 

 infinite advantage to the whole American 

 people, and especially so if carried out 

 under the wise supervision of the national 

 government and engineered by its scien- 

 tific and experienced men. When this is 

 accomplished, there will be ample room in 

 the unsettled portion of the United States 

 to find homes for the millions of people 

 who are to come after us." 



There is another feature to be con- 

 sidered in connection with this question. 

 This is the large opening for labor which 

 the construction of great irrigation works 

 would make. The problem of the unem- 

 ployed in this country is constantly 

 becoming a more serious one. It is, just 

 now, temporarily obscured by the war, 

 but will certainly come to the front again, 

 as soon as the war is over. The con- 

 struction of these irrigation works would be 

 more than a temporary remedy for the 

 evil. It would, first, furnish employment 

 to a large number of men, and then create 

 conditions which would enable them to 

 get homes on the land, and become 

 permanently self-sustaining. 



