298 THE IRRIGATION AGE 



The new homes of the future must be found on irrigated lands. 

 There are, according to accepted Government reports, some 74, 000, 000 

 acres of rich western land capable of irrigation if the western waters 

 are properly conserved. Irrigation is not an experiment in the United 

 States, and there is no question raised as to the feasibility of this 

 reclalmation, but irrigation development in a private way has reached 

 its limits. But, since under irrigation, yields are very large, a few 

 acres of this land would generously support a family, so that with the 

 lands irrigated rural homes would be provided for millions of citizens, 

 waiting and anxious to go upon them. 



The advocates of the national irrigation policy urge that the Gov- 

 ernment should, where possible, build storage reservoirs to catch the 

 flood waters of the western streams and thus provide for the reclama- 

 tion of these lands. The Newlands bill, now before the House Irriga- 

 tion Committee, and its counterpart, the Hansbrough bill, on the Sen- 

 ate side, provide for the setting aside of the proceeds from the sale of 

 public lands in the arid States and Territories as an "arid land reclam- 

 ation fund," to be used for building such reservoirs, and that the cost 

 of such construction shall be put upon the land reclaimed by them, 

 and the land then offered for sale by the Government in small tracts 

 to bona fide settlers, upon easy terms. 



Who will come to the support of such a policy? More people and 

 a greater diversity of interests than supported the homestead act, and 

 such legislation would be even more popular than the free home enact- 

 ments. What other proposition is before the country upon which 

 labor and capital can better unite and which they can support, hand 

 in hand, without clash or jealousy? Every labor union in the United 

 States, which has discussed the question, has unanimously supported 

 it; every combination of capital, of whatever sort, which has consid- 

 ered it, has given it unqualified endorsement. 



The opening of the vast area of western lands by irrigation would 

 provide cheap homes, certain of returning the owners a comfortable 

 livelihood. It would create a valuable and growing market for every 

 kind and description of manufactured product, and would thus be 

 favored by all classes of manufacturing and commercial interests in 

 the country. It would insure cheaper living in the West, which would 

 result in the opening of numberless mining properties whose grade of 

 ore is not sufficiently high to warrant development under present 

 wage conditions. It would create a demand for transportation which 

 would bring to its support every railroad interest. 



Can any proposition ever before the American people claim the 

 support of a greater diversity of interests than the irrigation and rec- 

 lamation of the vast and waste areas of arid land under an honest 



