1HE IRRIGATION A GE. 



205 



bill paves the way for a permanent popu- 

 lar representative government: for public 

 works on a large scale; granting of fran- 

 chises to develop resources of ihe islands, 

 a coinage system; purchase of the friars' 

 lands, and extends the bill of rights to 

 natives, except in so far as it relates to the 

 right to bear arms and the right of trial 

 by jury. 



While such important changes were 

 taking place among the inhabitants of the 

 globe, Nature herself took a hand in the 

 history making, and her pyrotechnic feats 

 at Martinique will go on record as the 

 most disastrous volcanic eruption of mod- 

 ern times. Rains throughout the middle 

 and western states have done considerable 

 damage to growing crops and property, and 

 occasioned some los of life. Could this 

 storm water which overflows rivers, causing 

 death and destructiou, be impounded in 

 reservoirs near the rivers' sources what a 

 blessing it would be. The recent strikes 

 throughout the country have proven what 

 a power the union has gained in almost all 

 sections. While capital and labor have 

 fought the public has been tossed like a 

 ping pong ball from one to the other, being 

 the most inconvenienced of anyone con- 

 cerned. It is hoped the great coal miners' 

 strike which affects so many industries, 

 perhaps indirectly, may be wisely settled. 

 The strike of the drivers for the meat- 

 houses worked good to the small farmers 

 near Chicago, many butchers deciding to 

 buy stock of them in preference to risking 

 a disturbance by buying from the whole- 

 sale dealers against whom the strikers were 

 waging war. 



The Manu- 



facturers' 



Association. 



At the dinner of the Illinois 



Manufacturers' Association, 

 he]d in ChicagQ) June 4 James 



Hill president of the Great Northern rail- 

 road, spoke on Commercial Expansion. 

 He considered railways, he said, of next 

 importance to agriculture in the interest of 

 the country. "The development of com- 



merce." said Mr. Hill, "is the effort by a 

 country to find a market for its own pro- 

 ductions or to supply itself with material 

 for its necessities or to further increase its 

 means of commercial expansion. The 

 commercial expansion of a nation is the 

 best index of its growth. Commercial 

 growth is both domestic and foreign. In 

 the past the public domain suited to the 

 cultivation of the soil, producing every 

 useful crop, has" furnished homes for the 

 multiplying population. To-day we have 

 about reached the limit of our public do- 

 main which can be made to furnish homes 

 for an intelligent and enterprising popu- 

 lation." 



Mr. Hill's remarks on irrigation were a 

 strong argument for government aid in irri- 

 gation enterprises, for as, he said: "In a 

 few limited communities of the West irri- 

 gation has been commenced by what may 

 be called 'individual effort.' Owing to 

 diverse laws^ made to suit particular inter- 

 est?, the irrigation of large areas is at- 

 tended by greater difficulties than can be 

 well surmounted by individual effort." 



Legislation which would give more uni- 

 form laws to irrigation districts and more 

 financial assistance in constructing irriga- 

 tion systems, would be the means of open- 

 ing a vast territory to settlement. 



Crop Crop conditions throughout 



Conditions. t h e coun try appear to be fav- 

 orable. Travelers returning from the 

 West report the general outlook as excel- 

 lent. Eastern Washington, Oregon and 

 Northern Idaho have enjoyed a rainfall of 

 three inches which insures a wheat crop 

 equal to last year. The monthly crop re- 

 port from Missouri shows that there is an 

 improvement over the previous month in 

 all the principal crops except apples. The 

 crops are generally above the arerage for 

 this time of year. The recent heavy 

 rainfalls, which caused floods in some sec- 

 tions, did considerable damage to crops in 

 portions of Oklahoma, Colorado, Illinois 



