THE TENTH IRRIGATION CONGRESS, 



A NOTABLE AND IMPORTANT MEETING. 



The Tenth National Irrigation Congress, which convened in the 

 auditorium of the Antlers Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colo., Monday. 

 October 6th, was in every way a notable and important meeting. It 

 was particularly notable for its large attendence and the broad hu- 

 manitarian sentiments expressed by the leaders in their opening 

 speeches. The number of delegates in attendance was 325, which 

 was larger than that of any congress heretofore held. Another inte- 

 resting feature of the congress was the large number of prominent 

 men in attendance from different sections of the country, including 

 Hon. Thos. F. Walsh, of Washington, D. C., president of the Irriga- 

 tion Congress, Senators Teller and Patterson of Colorado, Senator 

 Carey, of Wyoming, and others of equal importance. 



As stated above there was a broad humanitarian sentiment, ex- 

 pressed in all the speeches which were far away from a commercial 

 view of the movement. 



During the early part of the proceedings a message of greeting 

 was received from President Roosevelt. 



The principal speaker of the opening day was Hon. Thos. F. 

 Walsh, who in describing the benefits to be derived from national aid, 

 stated that he was thinking of the family as a unit; father and mother 

 and little children now confined within the narrow limits of city life, 

 how their horizon would be broadened and enriched by the transition 

 from paved streets and crowded tenements out under the blue sky and 

 in the pure air that westerners love so well. 



Mr. Walsh stated that it is not the dream of empire which may 

 come to a great nation wherein 100,000,000 will some time dwell, but 

 it is the dream of home and independence, which will come to many a 

 struggling family with the announcement that other fair valleys have 

 been thrown open to settlement at the actual cost of reclamation. 



In discussing the humanitarian features of irrigation, of how the 

 reclamation of arid land would improve the conditions of the poorer 

 people by opening up new channels of industry for them, Mr. Walsh 

 suggested that great good could be accomplished by philanthropists 

 if they would use their money in assisting poor people to secure a 

 start on a small irrigated farm. Mr. Walsh's speech is printed in full 

 elsewhere in this issue. 



Considerable strife was noticable among delegates from different 



