366 TEE IRRIGATION AGE. 



It means that the door is open to permit the man, who is not needed 

 where he is. to go to the place where he is needed. It means the re- 

 storation of those automatic- social conditions which in past genera- 

 tions relieved the pressure of population upon the old centers and 

 constantly extended the frontiers of civilization toward the North, 

 the South, and the West. When we read the history of the people of 

 the United States in McMaster's pages, for instance, we are surprised 

 to find at how early a date there was serious unrest because of the 

 crowding of population and consequent depression of industry. Im- 

 mediately after the close of the Revolution there was marked evi- 

 dence of land hunger, and a fierce demand for more territory with 

 which to feed the appetite for homes. It was then that the Ohio val- 

 ley received its first influx of settlers from the Eastern States. So it 

 was again after the close of the Rebellion, when the prairie states to 

 the west of the Mississippi sprang into sudden existence, and when 

 the tide of emigration flowed out upon the plains until it came within 

 sight of the Rocky mountains. We stand upon the threshold of 

 another great colonization movement made possible by the glorious 

 fact of national irrigation. 



It is not, however, to broad movements of population that I 

 especially desire to direct your attention in the brief time at my dis- 

 posal. I am thinking rather of the family unit of the father and 

 mother and little children now confined within the narrow limitations 

 of city life. I am thinking of how their horizon is to be broadened, 

 and how their daily lives are to be enriched, by the transition from 

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

 the sweet, pure air which we know and love so well. It is not the 

 dream of empire, which may come to a great nation with the cpnquest 

 of a territory wherein a hundred million will sometime dwell, which 

 appeals to my imagination. But it is the dream of home and inde- 

 pendence which will come to many a struggling family with the an- 

 nouncement that one more fair valley of Arid America has been 

 thrown open to settlement at the actual cost of reclamation. I pic- 

 ture to my mind the ambitious young man and woman ]ust starting 

 life and disheartened at the conditions offered them by the harsh com- 

 petition of the town. I see the couple of middle age, with their chil- 

 dren about them, wondering how they are to make provision for old 

 age. I see the men of talent and ambition, some of them broadly 

 trained in the trades and professions, who are yet unable to prosper 

 in the midst of our changing economic conditions. These, and many 

 other classes, I see living in hired houses and working at small 

 wages for others more favored in ability or fortune. I know the 

 pressure of poverty upon them, and the haunting fear of future want. 

 Such people, and many of our best stock and breeding, are found all 



