THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



391 



years later, or about 250 B. C., the great 

 Teheng-Ko canal was constructed to di- 

 vert the waters of the King River, by 

 which fully a million acres of arid land 

 were made highly productive. This, Chi- 

 nese history states, so increased the wealth 

 and enriched the monarch that he was en- 

 abled to transform his Kingdom into an 

 Empire. 



The Wealth "In the new West," said 

 Mr. Wantland in his address 

 at the Transmississippi Congress at Crip- 

 ple Creek, "the main lines of railway are 

 already provided. The pioneer lines were 

 not constructed because the products of 

 the country they crossed justified the ex- 

 penditure. There were profits in the days 

 when the first trans-continental road was 

 built. This was done when the great pos- 

 sibilities of the West were only talked of 

 by dreamers; now, 'All wise men agree 

 that beyond the Mississippi lies the great 

 wealth of the days to come,' and the 

 prophets of today tell us that the great 

 trade to be developed in the lands beyond 

 the Pacific will call for all the grain which 

 can be raised in the irrigated valleys of 

 the Pacific Coast states. 



"In a report to the 56th Congress on 

 the Free Homes Bill, the Committee on 

 Public Lands said: 



' ' No legislative enactment ever placed 

 upon the statute books of the nation has 

 been more lauded than the free home- 

 stead law of the United States. Under its 

 beneficent provisions the hardy sons of 

 New England, the thrifty young men of 

 the middle and western states, and the 

 sturdy immigrants of the Old World 

 poured into the fertile, unoccupied regions 

 of the West, and by the labor of their 

 hands they transformed the forests into 

 fruitful farms and changed the almost 

 limitless plains of prairie grass into billowy 

 fields of waving grain. Cities and towns 

 sprang up in this territory as if by magic, 

 churches and schoolhouses are found at 

 every crossroads, and no more valuable 



and loyal citizens can be found in all the 

 commonwealth than the original home- 

 steaders and their descendants. It was a 

 poor man's law; poor men availed them- 

 selves of its advantages, but the fabulous 

 wealth they have created for themselves 

 and the nation is beyond computation.' 



'The arguments in favor of paying a few 

 millions of dollars to Indians in order that 

 additional lands in reservations could be 

 thrown open to homestead entry free apply 

 with double force in favor of appropria- 

 tions by congress to assist in the reclama- 

 tion of arid lands farther away from the 

 great centers of population in order that 

 home-builders may be given an opportunity 

 to make a living in the mountain and 

 Pacific Coast states, where irrigation is 

 necessary. 



"If it is good policy to buy off Indians 

 and open the 12,000 homestead tracts in 

 Oklahoma, for which 100,000 struggled, 

 the business men of the West may con- 

 sistently urged that it is right to put water 

 upon 40,000,000 acres of arid lands, upon 

 which a million families can raise grain 

 and fruit on forty acre farms. But unless 

 the merchants and manufacturers and 

 heavy taxpayers of the West realize that 

 it is their burden, and get behind the ef- 

 forts of the National Irrigation and other 

 associations working for improved condi- 

 tions, many of us will be a long time dead 

 probably before the western members of 

 congress will get together and secure the 

 necessary strength to push through con- 

 gress the needed legislation. 



"Trade follows the flag, but it also fol- 

 lows the irrigation reservoir and the ditch, 

 if they carry water at the right time. 



"If organization can be substituted for 

 talk; surveys for theories, reservoir build- 

 ing for resolutions, and the homelesa 

 from other states be brought into our val- 

 leys and given a chance to build up homes 

 under favorable conditions, then we may 

 justly claim it to be true that 'The West 

 is the most American part of America. ' ' 



