THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL xv. 



CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER, 1900. 



NO. 12 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN HMERICfl. 



Eastern 

 Interest 



That the eastern manufac- 

 turer is awakening to the pos- 

 sibilities of an irrigated West 

 as a market for his products is 

 shown to some extent in the remarks of 

 Mr. Tom. L. Cannon, the representative 

 of an Eastern manufacturing association, 

 at the recent Tran^mississippi Congress. 

 Mr. Cannon said in part: "If the water 

 that goes to waste in the mountains of the 

 arid regions were stored and controlled it 

 would save to the federal government, by 

 preventing floods in the overflowed lands 

 along the Mississippi river, more than the 

 cost of construction and operation of res- 

 ervoirs. If arid America were made 

 humid, the crops pi-oduced would give to 

 the federal government revenue in the 

 way of increased taxation: millions of peo- 

 ple would be employed, millions of homes 

 would be established, and the richest 

 country ever known to the world of com- 

 merce would be developed. 



' ; If steps were taken for the construc- 

 tion of storage reservors by the federal 

 government for the reclamation of arid 

 America, the next fifty years would show 

 a ratio of increase in population far 

 greater in this section than during the 

 past fifty years. 



"I believe it to be the duty of every 

 man who is interested in populating the 

 western half of this hemisphere as densely 

 as the eastern half is populated, to aid in 

 the reclamation of arid America through 

 irrigation by means of federal storage 

 reservoirs, which will serve the double 



purpose of irrigation supplies and flood 

 protectors.'' 



Commerce bet ween the 

 Frafic with United States and Porto Rico 

 our Islands, during the two months in 

 which the new tariff act has 

 been in operation shows an enormous in- 

 crease over that of the corresponding two 

 months of the preceding year. This is the 

 more observable because of the assertion 

 which has been frequently made during 

 the past few months that the island is 

 practically impoverished since the storm 

 of last August. Notwithstanding the con- 

 ditious due to the storm both as to material 

 for exportation and facilities for purchase, 

 the exports to the United States in May 

 and June, 1900, were 50 per cent in excess 

 of those of the corresponding months of 

 1899 and the imports from the United 

 States were more than double those of the 

 same months in 1899. In May and June, 

 1899 the imports into the United States 

 from Porto Rico, as shown by the Treasury 

 Bureau Statistics were $1,461,998, and in 

 May and June, 1900, they were $2,322,124. 

 In May and June, 1899, the exports to 

 Porto Rico from the United States were 

 $666.987, and in May and June, 1900, they 

 were $1,587,478. Thus the imports into 

 the United States from Porto Rico show 

 in May and June, 190, an increase of 60 

 per cent over those of the same months of 

 1899, both of which occurred prior to the 

 storm of that year, and the exports from 

 the United States to Porto Rico show an 



