196 THE IKRIGA TION A GE. 



not promoting it from any local or sectional point of view, but from 

 the conviction that the planting of American civilization and the build- 

 ing of homes for one hundred million new citizens under the American 

 flag in places which are now waste and desolate is a national purpose, 

 Which demands support from citizen and statesman, from merchant 

 and manufacturer, from farmer and factory operative, and from every 

 class of the people and section of the country, because the far reach- 

 ing and widespread benefits from the reclai (nation of this vast area of 

 virgin territory would create a new national prosperity in which all 

 would share. 



To the newspapers of the country is largely due the credit for the 

 remarkable progress which the national irrigation movement has 

 made, because, without regard to party or section, the almost unani- 

 mous and united support of the press has been given to the movement. 



The great political parties of the country in their platforms in the 

 last campaign both endorsed it, and hence the movement is in no sense 

 partisan or political. It rises to the 1 highest and the purest patriot- 

 ism, and the motto of the movement, "Save the forests, and store the 

 floods," is one in which every citizen, no matter to what political party 

 he may belong, may enlist and fight as a soldier in the cause of the 

 conquest and subjugation of the deserts of arid America. 



