

CL 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XV1v 



CHICAGO, OCTOBER, 1900. 



NO. 1 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN RMERICH 



Reclaim The executive committee of 

 The the National Business League 



Laud held a meeting- recently at the 



Wellington hotel, Chicago, and adopted 

 resolutions urging the reclaimation of the 

 arid regions of the West. Charles Truax 

 read a paper on the loss that accrues by 

 exchanging the money of one country for 

 that of another. 



Those present were: President Erskine 

 M. Phelps, Vice-president Alexander H. 

 Revell, General Counsel John W. Ela, 

 LaVerne W. Noyes,Colonel Elliott Durand, 

 Charles A. Mallory, Charles Truax, P. W. 

 Gates, Benjamin J. Rosenthal, George H. 

 Maxwell, F. Howard and A. A. Burnham. 



The resolutions set forth that one-third 

 of the entire area of the United States is 

 public land, nearly all of which is in the 

 western half of the country. It is esti- 

 mated that 74,000,000 acres of this vast 

 territory could be reclaimed by irrigation. 

 The expense of irrigation is so great that 

 it will uatu rally have to fall on the general 

 government, and action on this line is 

 urged in the resolutions. 



In Mr. Truax's paper it was claimed that 

 there was need of an international money 

 for the use of travelers. 



The An organization has recently 



Farmers' been incorporated in Kansas 

 Combine known as the Farmers' Ameri- 

 can Federation, which pro- 

 poses to benefit the farmer by improving 

 the present method of selling farm prod- 

 ucts. The capital stock of the new corpo- 

 ration is $20,000 divided into shares of $10 



each, and its aim is to secure co-operation 

 among the farmers of the Mississippi val- 

 ley by their membership in the federation, 

 and thereby to secure better and more 

 stable prices for farm produce, fixing min- 

 imum prices for staple farm products based 

 on the average cost of production. The 

 secretary of the federation, in outlining- 

 the objects, says: "It is our purpose to 

 establish a bureau of statistics, giving in- 

 foBmation regarding farm products and 

 their prices in the market; to place farm- 

 ers in control of the elevators, warehouses 

 and btockyards, and put them in full con- 

 trol of the marketing of their own pro- 

 ducts; to put farming on a business basis, 

 make provisions for failure of crops, add 

 the cost of insurance and risks to the price 

 of .the products we offer for sale, and to 

 secure the practice of equity in trade rela- 

 tion between all organized industries." 



The objects are very fine theoretically, 

 but whether they can be put into practical 

 operation is another question. The Mil- 

 waukee Sentinel says: "It is obvious that 

 the federation will have great difficulties 

 to overcome before it can be made success- 

 ful. The present established methods of 

 handling farm products must be almost 

 completely superseded before it can expect 

 to regulate prices. This means that there 

 must be co-operation on the most exten- 

 sive scale among the farmers of the coun- 

 try. Besides, there must be the most 

 intelligent and honest management of the 

 affairs of the federation in order to assure 

 good results. The objects in view are DO 

 doubt excellent, but to attain them seems 

 little short of impossible.' 1 



