THE I RBI G A TION A GM. 389 



When I view the progress that has been made, however, in informing 

 the inhabitants of this humid region of the United States of the possi- 

 bilities lying in the arid region through a great system of national ir- 

 rigation, and when I see the evident interest which is being mani- 

 fested by them today, I think that the prospectus for the west to re- 

 ceive a full recognition in the near years of the future, are very bright 

 and promising." 



The surveys which the government is carrying on along irrigation 

 lines throughout the arid west interest deeply not only that section of 

 the country, but likewise many interests in the east. For their future 

 highest development the east and the west must necessarily pull to- 

 gether. One country, one prosperity! No section of the country ben- 

 efits that some other section does not likewise profit. Take the east 

 and the west in a broad general sense. The east is a great manufac- 

 turing region. Her factories are scattered about in every eastern 

 state. They must find markets for their goods. A home market is 

 the more preferable. The west is a great producing section. Under 

 a complete irrigation its population and production would be ten times 

 doubled and ships of commerce would pour its products into the 

 Orient. But this vast western population would draw heavily upon 

 the manufacturing east for the products of those same factories look- 

 ing for markets for their goods, and the gold of the Orient and the 

 "West would go back to the eastern manufacturers, whose increased 

 labor demands would likewise draw heavily upon the products of the 

 eastern farmer. 



In no other country having an arid belt has the general govern- 

 ment done so little in the matter of irrigation development. Every- 

 thing in the United States has been left to individual enterprise and 

 to State regulation, until in many of the western states and territor- 

 ies, water rights and the like have come to be in a badly tangled con- 

 dition. It needs the hand of the central government to adjust and 

 control matters which are interstate in the character, and until this is 

 done, settlement, investment and the development of the country can- 

 not but be retarded. The sooner the West instructs its Senators and 

 Congressmen to work for a system of national irrigation, the sooner 

 the West will reach a state of highest development and production. 



