FEDERAL AID TO IRRIGATORS. 



With only 3,000,000 people at present occupying the Pacific slope 

 of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, President James 

 J. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway system, say that when that 

 slope shall have 20,000,000 people Chicago ought to be the largest 

 city in the world. He bases this interesting possibility upon the fact 

 that 76,000,000 people in the country are supported more or less di- 

 rectly by trade with Europe and Africa, with their 400,000,000 popu- 

 lation. 



"On the other hand," he says, "there are a thousand million peo- 

 ple off our Western coast with whom we should trade, and yet we have 

 only 3,000,000 population to reach out for it," 



He confesses to the handicap of the present coast country, but he 

 is sanguine of the good time coming when the United States shall 

 dominate the trade of Asia. Mr. Hill insists that the building up of 

 such a trade will depend in great measure upon the development of 

 the agricultural resources of the Pacific slope. To develop this he 

 says that government aid in building irrigating canals will be neces- 

 sary. 



"Except for manufactured stuffs and cotton, these far Eastern 

 exports will be grain and flour," said Mr. Hill in a Chicago interview, 

 "and these agricultural products must be grown on the Pacific coast. 

 For this purpose we have a territory 1.000 miles square, which, 

 through centuries of aridity, have become vast beds of fertility, need- 

 ing only water to make them the most productive spots in the world. 

 There is water enough for the purpose melling from the mountain 

 snows; all that is needed is the canal system. 



"The execution of this irrigation work is the one thing needed to 

 give to the United States the domination of the Pacific Ocean com- 

 merce and the supremacy of the world's trade. Without it progress 

 will be slow, because, unless there is an abundant supply of food pro- 

 ducts always available at shipping ports, it will be impossible to in- 

 sure full cargoes and quick dispatch to the vessels of large capacity, 

 which alone can be profitably employed in the trade. Every business 

 interest which hopes to benefit by participation in the trade of the 

 Pacific Ocean must be in favor of the reclamation of the great moun- 

 tain valleys for the occupation of agricultural workers. If successful 

 in the advocacy of this public improvement full rewards will come in 

 the shape of new markets in the orient, and it will be found, addition- 

 ally, that the settlement of the Western mountain region has devel- 

 oped a local market richer in natural resources than any other portion 

 of the earth's surface. 



