THE IRRIGATION A GL 

 THE NATIONAL IRRIGATION POLICY. 



The opponents of the national irrigation movement seems im- 

 bued with two ideas. First, that national irrigation is a matter of 

 flight and fancy about which all sorts of extravagant, unauthenticated r 

 and theoretical statements are made by its advocates, and, second, 

 that whatever the scheme may be. the people of the East will never 

 endorse it. Neither of these ideas is founded upon fact. The national 

 policy is not a plan reared upon fancy, but a legitimate problem en- 

 tirely capable of performance, as shown by the recommendations of 

 the best government engineers of the various departments at Wash- 

 ington. The friends of national irrigation want nothing more than 

 that the recommendations of these engineers shall be carried out. And 

 if this is done there can be no other possible outcome than that the 

 population of the country lying between the Missouri and the coast 

 will be vastly increased with resulting prosperity. The waste waters 

 of the West, if stored, would create a permanent source of wealth to 

 the nation. 



And the eastern opposition to western reclamation is getting to- 

 be more of a myth than a reality since the crusade has been started 

 throughout the manufacturing states calling attention to the vast pos- 

 sibilities which lie to manufacturers through the development of the 

 arid West in giving to them the best market in the world for their 

 goods. It is well enough for the opponents of the national irrigation 

 policy to talk of unalterable eastern opposition to the scheme, but the 

 fact is that the East contains thousands of the strongest and most in- 

 fluential supporters which the movement claims. 



Intimately connected with the conservation of water for irriga- 

 tion is the preservation of forests. Every irrigated valley and the 

 supply of every storage reservoir is dependent upon forested tracks 

 which will absorb rainfalls and gradually let it out through streams 

 and springs. 



Primitive man did not at first begin his agricultural operations by 

 irrigating great valleys and plains. He commenced, perhaps, with a 

 small patch of ground and a little stream of water, or planted his sim- 

 ple crops on the edge of the desert, utilizing the water of some small 

 but perennial spring, or laboriously drew it from a well. Then later 

 he learned to broaden his operations and work in communities, until 

 finally he undertook great projects and accomplished engineering 

 feats in the construction of canals, viaducts, and complete systems 

 which have hardly since been surpassed by modern capital and in- 

 genuity. 



AN UNWATERED EMPIRE. 



The vista that the possibilities of irrigation reveals, say the Los 

 Angeles Herald, is almost stupendous, as a few facts and figures pre 

 pared by the National Irrigation Association demonstrate. The Fed- 



