84 THE IRR1 GA 11 ON A GE. 



claimed by them should be reserved by the government for actual set- 

 tlers, and the cost of construction should so far as possible be repaid 

 by the land reclaimed. 



The distribution of the waters, the division of the streams among 

 irrigators, should be left to the settles themselves in conformity with 

 state laws and without interfering with those laws or. with vested 

 rights. This policy of the national government should be to aid irri- 

 gation in the several states and territories in such manner as will en- 

 able the people in the local communities to help themselves, and as 

 will stimulate needed reforms in the state laws and regulations gov- 

 erning irrigation. 



The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every 

 portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and Mississ- 

 ippi Valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic states. The increased 

 demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial production, 

 while wider honae markets and the trade of Asia will consume larger 

 food supplies and effectually prevent Western competition with East- 

 ern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irrigation will be consumed 

 chiefly in upbuilding local centers of mining and other industries, 

 which would otherwise not come into existence at all. Our people as 

 a whole will profit, for successful homemaking is but another name 

 for the upbuilding of the nation. 



The necessary foundation has already been laid for the in- 

 auguration of the policy just described. It would be unwise 

 tro* begin by doing too much, for a great deal will doubtless be 

 learned, both as to what can and what cannot be safely attempted, by 

 the early efforts, which must of necessity be partly experimental in 

 character. At the beginning the government should make clear be- 

 yond shadow of doubt, its intention to pursue this policy on lines of 

 the broadest public interest. No reservoir or canal should ever be 

 built to satisfy selfish, personal or local interests; but only in accord- 

 ance with the advice of trained experts, after long investigation has 

 shown the locality where all the conditions combine to make the work 

 most needed and fraught with the greatest usefulness to the community 

 as a whole. There should be no extravagance, and the believers in 

 the need of irrigation will most benefit their cause by seeing to it that 

 it is free from the least taint of excessive or reckless expenditure of 

 the public moneys. 



Whatever the nation doe's for the extension of irrigation should 

 harmonize with, and tend to improve the condition of those now liv- 

 ing on irrigated land. We are not at the starting point of this devel- 

 opment. Over two hundred millions of private capital has already 

 been expended in the construction of irrigation works, and many mil- 

 lion acres of arid land reclaimed. A high degree of enterprise and 



