106 



THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



its grandmother. The grandmother re- 

 fused to give it up. The father persisted. 

 When the grandmother ran to the tele- 

 phone, which was in another part of the 

 house, the father ran into an adjoining 

 room where the nurse was washing the 

 baby and took it from her arms before she 

 realized what he was doing: with the half 

 dressed child in his arms he rushed out of 

 the house, followed closely by its grand- 

 mother, who ran back at the nurse's 

 screams. 



The grandmother overtook the father 

 in the middle of the lawn and seized him 

 by the throat. He struck at her desper- 

 ately, but was handicapped by having the 

 baby in his arms. And there, in the 

 most aristocratic part of Kenosha, facing 

 the Simmons' Library, in Central Park, 

 the grandmother and the father did 

 battle. 



In the midst of the struggle, which 

 attracted a crowd of neighbors and passers 

 by, the nurse succeeded in wrestling the 

 baby from the father, who was being 

 choked on the ground by the maddened 

 grandmother. 



The doctors were immediately called 

 who pronounced the child in a precarious 

 condition from the exposure. 



The Secretary of the Interior 

 in his late report takes the 

 position that private enter- 

 prise in irrigation has used up all the 

 opportunities in its reach, and have 

 thereby demonstrated its value, so that 

 the nation, in taking hold of irrigation on 

 a lareer scale can do so with practical 

 assurance that it will be a success. He 

 does not make specific recommedations, 

 contenting himself with the feasibility 

 and leaves the rest to congress. 



A subject for general con- 



oMhe 1 Press. g ratulation to the West is the 

 broad national manner in 

 which the Eastern press has treated the 

 problem, since the Chicago Irrigation 

 Congress brought the subject prominently 

 before the country. With hardly an 

 exception the great dailies from Omaha to 



Its all 

 Right. 



Cape Cod have cordially commended tfie 

 national irrigation movement from every 

 standpoint, and have pointed out the 

 great good which would accrue to the 

 nation through its practical application r 

 at the same time showing that the 

 Federal Government is the logical and 

 only agent which can most successfully 

 put into operation a plan of general 

 reclamation . 



Tf this is the sentiment 

 Western throuhout the East a feeling 

 Pushing. o f -willing and friendly co- 



operation the West should certainly 

 arise stimulated to lend every energy and 

 pat forth every possible effort to push it& 

 case before Congress. 



Lack of organization and failure to 

 co-operate are main causes which have 

 retarded the development of the West and 

 kept Congress from taking up the ques- 

 tion of the reclamation of the arid lands, 

 Were they organized there are enough 

 non-resident property owners of the West 

 to carry through Congress any legitimate 

 measure for public improvement. 



Opportunity Tne failure of Western com- 

 for organized mercial interests to recognize 

 the opportunity of pushing 

 the national irrigation movement as a 

 national issue, and act unitedly in urging' 

 the matter upon Congressmen, is respon- 

 sible for the apparent lack of interest in 

 the cause shown by some localities, and 

 this has prevented the Western members- 

 of Congress from pushing the fight as 

 they would have done had they been, 

 loyally and vigorously supported at home. 



The indications are, however, 

 that the country is approach- 

 ing the time when, if the 

 people of the West will use plain, ordi- 

 nary business sense, and stand solidly 

 together behind their representatives in. 

 Congress, eliminating any sectional con- 

 troversies, the appropriations bill may r 

 without opposition, contain each year 

 good sized sums for the systematic recla- 

 mation of the irrigable area of the West- 



