138 



THE IRBIGATION AGE. 



lence or to advance personal interest or ambition than 

 this same .Reclamation Service. It might seem strange 

 to you, upon casual consideration, that any one en- 

 gaged in legitimate business entirely outside of the 

 sphere of governmental affairs need apprehend injury 

 or persecution at the hands of the officers of the Gov- 

 ernment in the United States. Yet this is precisely 

 the case in a number of instances hereabouts. I have 

 no disposition to air my own grievances except to say 

 that I have been pretty severely "crimped" by these 

 same people and expect to be whenever the opportunity 

 is presented to them, and, in a measure to protect my- 

 self against such injury in the future, I have recently 

 sold my farm and am disposing of my other property 

 preparatory to becoming a "soldier of fortune" if it 

 becomes necessary. 



The case of the Ontario High Line Canal, referred 

 to in my first communication to you, is a peculiarly 

 aggravating one and amounts to a practical confisca- 

 tion of property and investment amounting to thou- 

 sands of dollars. 



The history of the Canyon Canal Company is one 

 of continual persecution on the part of the reclamation 

 officials. These cases and others serve to create a feel- 

 ing of bitter resentment against the Government, which 

 is not growing less as the plans and methods of the 

 Eeclamation Service become better known. The circle 

 of hostility is widening and becoming more pronounced. 

 The Quixotic plans of the Keclamation Service, in- 

 spired by the overweening vanity and unbridled ambi- 

 tion of its chief and exploited by its overzealous sub- 

 ordinate chiefs, promise to invade every field of indus- 

 try and overshadow all institutions of private enterprise 

 in this section of the country. As an example, note 

 a bill recently introduced in Congress to provide for the 

 Eeclamation Bureau to engage in the business of 

 creating townsites, selling town lots, building electric 

 lighting plants, electric railways, power plants, etc., 

 etc. However, if Congress and the officials at Washing- 

 ton can be induced to engage in these socialistic ex- 

 periments I do not see why I should be concerned with 

 the outcome. 



I had intended to go into details relative to the 

 several cases of unjustified interference with private 

 enterprise with which I am connected, but I wil] forego 

 that in view of the necessity of introducing facts and 

 information that it would be better to keep back at 

 this time and until such can be put to more effective 

 use. 



I was pleased to learn that you intended to make 

 a visit to Idaho soon. You might learn much that 

 would interest you as a publisher. People will talk 

 when they will not write sometimes. Wishing you 

 success in your efforts, I am, 



WALTEE H. GRAVES. 



xS><g><M>3><8xJ*S><S>SxSxSxSx8>fc^ 



$ $ 



f x 



| THE IRRIGATION AGE, 1 year $1.00 | 



I THE PRIMER OF IRRIGATION, a finely illustrated 

 300-page book 



Address. IRRIGATION AGE. 



2.00 



112 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 



AUSTRALIA'S PROGRESS RESCUE OF THE 

 WATERLESS PLAINS. 



Australia is the latest country to catch the trans- 

 continental railroad fever and, with an energy char- 

 acteristic of pioneer lands, has taken the most direct 

 way of getting what it wants. The parliament of 

 South Australia has formally invited capitalists of 

 Europe and America to bid for the contract of con- 

 necting the city of Adelaide on the south coast with 

 Palmerston on the north coast. Ninety million acres 

 of land along the right-of-way, with all the minerals 

 and other sources of wealth they may contain, are 

 offered as a bonus to the company that has the courage 

 to undertake a project that will cost from $30,000,- 

 000 to $40,000,000, and to operate a railroad through 

 twelve hundred miles of semi-desert land that has only 

 one white inhabitant to every three square miles. 



But 90,000,000 acres of land, even in the most 

 unpromising region on the earth's surface, may well 

 be a temptation when it is offered at forty cents an 

 acre; and capitalists are not so much afraid of big 

 railway ventures now as they were before the Union 

 Pacific was finished, nearly thirty-five years ago. When 

 our first great transcontinental road was proposed in 

 1852, financiers looked upon it as a wild scheme to 

 run two thousand miles of tracks across the "Great 

 American Desert," where nothing grew but sage brush, 

 and nothing lived but a few scattered tribes of In- 

 dians and dwindling herds of buffalo. The people, how- 

 ever, clamored for the road. We had acquired Cali- 

 fornia the Golden, and Commodore Perry had opened 

 the ports of Japan, and no pessimistic prophesying 

 could make the mines and the oriental trade less al- 

 luring. 



You know the results. The "Great American Des- 

 ert" has disappeared from the maps and from reality, 

 and this generation of young thinkers' may well won- 

 der that there was ever any question as to the wisdom 

 of building the Union Pacific. Today four trans- 

 continental roads connect the Atlantic and the Pacific. 

 Canada has a fifth line and is planning to build an- 

 other. And there is plenty of work and profit for 

 them all. 



One can go now from New York to points in 

 Central America, and some day we shall, no doubt, be 

 able to go on to Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres. Bus- 

 sia has completed a transcontinental line from Mos- 

 cow across Asia to Vladivostock, a distance of nearly 

 six thousand miles. England is constructing the "Cape 

 to Cairo" to connect Egypt with Cape Town, and Bel- 

 gium, England and Germany will cross this line in 

 the Congo country with a road running from the At- 

 lantic to the Indian Ocean. This very month it will 

 be possible for passengers to step on board a train in 

 any European capital and steam away across Central 

 Asia for Canton, China, ove*r the Chinese Eastern Bail- 

 way. 



"And then," say the South Australian enthusiasts, 

 "passengers, freight and mail can make the journey 

 from London, England, to Palmerston, on the north 

 coast of South Australia, in fourteen days, for well- 

 established steamer lines already ply between Canton, 

 Hong Kong and Palmerston. Now, if we had that 

 transcontinental north and south railroad the city of 

 Adelaide would have a boom and our 'Great Aus- 

 tralian Desert' would blossom with the rose." 



Uncle Sam down in Washington is always looking 

 out over the world to see where he can find work and 



