THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



good intentions of the administration. 



This point is made not in the belief that 

 the President would resort to vindictive 

 measures foreign to a brave nature, bul 

 that the inevitable compensations of policy 

 beyond his control would be felt by othe? 

 interests depending on irrigation in pro- 

 portion as the pending measure for the re- 

 lief of Cuba is threatened or obstructed by 

 the beet sugar contingent. 



The case is not without its perplexing 

 features and stubborn complications, fully 

 provided for by the wisdom and discretion 

 of the statesmen who are facing a great op- 

 portunity where the short-sighted antago- 

 nist is usually at a disadvantage, and as 

 between pugnacious commercialism and in- 

 trepid patriotism there is but one choice. 



Beet sugar is a toothsome product, but 

 the soil of the great West grows other sta- 

 ples even more numerous and essential to 

 the welfare of the American citizen. 



The following statement to 

 More Sugar. TTT i.- j 



a Washington correspond- 

 ent by one of the leading beet-sugar men 

 suggests that the Cuban war in congress is 

 really between the growers of sugar baets 

 and the sugar trust. 



In any event the people pay the tax. 



The item may be taken for what it is 

 worth : 



"When we sift the question down to its 

 last analysis," he said, "this is the fact: 

 We can stand a cut of 20 or 25 per cent, 

 and will not suffer any appreciable injury 

 from it, provided the cut is made in such 

 way that the sugar trust cannot get the re- 

 duction and use the money in fighting us 

 in the western market. The fact about the 

 whole business is that the sugar trust hopes 

 to capture about 50 per cent, of whatever 

 reduction congress may grant, and to use 

 those millions in making war on our indus- 

 try by cutting suirar prices in the Missis- 

 sippi and Missouri valleys, We know this, 

 and it is our only opjection to the proposed 

 reduction. Grant the reduction in such 

 way that the trust cannot get its fingers on 

 about half the sum remitted, and we will 

 b content. But we would be the biggest 

 fools on earth if we sat still and permitted 



our enemy to put his hands in the United 

 States treasury for funds with which to 

 fight his battle against us." 



A Significant At the banquet of the Nation- 

 Event. a ] Business League in Chicago 

 on February 27th, a spirited interest in the 

 movement to reclaim the arid west charac- 

 terized the purpose of the occasion, and 

 gave special point to the addresses of some 

 of the most distinguished representatives 

 of American business enterprise. 



The sentiment of the evening was well 

 expressed by Hon. Leslie M. Shaw, the 

 new secretary of the treasury, when he 

 said: 



''With the same fostering that other na- 

 tions afford, American ships will carry the 

 I rodujts of ur mines and of our farms, 

 our fields, our folds, and our factories be- 

 neath all skies and into all lands, and 

 America will' become the workshop of the 

 world, where he who seeks to sell his labor 

 shall find abundant employment, and he 

 who employs labor shall find abundant mar- 

 ket, thereby contributing to the comfort 

 and the contentment of all." 



While the object of the occasion was 

 plainly the recognition of our expanding 

 commerce and the importance of seizing 

 every foreign opportunity for larger trcde, 

 no speaker failed to emphasize the supreme 

 importance of that greater home market 

 and its varied sources of inexhaustible sup- 

 ply promised by the national irrigation 

 movement. 



In this connection Secretary Shaw's fig- 

 ures indicating the volume of business 

 measured at Chicago as the great store- 

 bouse and distributing point of western 

 products are truly astonishing. 



From his carefully-prepared statistics 

 we learn that: 



' 'Chicago sends eastward over trunk lines 

 of railroad 150 tons of provisions each 

 hour of the calendar year; Minneapolis ex- 

 ports 4,000.000 barrels of flour per annum; 

 Duluth and Superior forward by way of the 

 lakes 65, 000,000 bushel* of gra'n; Duluth, 

 West Superior, and Milwaukee receive 

 from the East cargoes of coal aggregating 

 3,000,000 tons per annum; Buffalo receives 



