THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



39 



end of open letters to men of note, bill boards, and 

 hired halls, he learned wisdom, and made arrangements 

 so that to this day all who will may peruse the pages 

 of Wilshire's Magazine. 



And now, within the calendar year, it has come to 

 pass that another, in the exuberance of his self esteem, 

 having found that small capitals at the heads of printed 

 columns for which the deluded members of the National 

 Irrigation Association were paying, and that giant 

 capitals on imposing looking circulars, and an ex- 

 ceedingly liberal interlardation of his name in hand-me- 

 down interviews and editorials, did not, any one nor 

 all of them, suffice to render him the measure of noto- 

 riety which he considered his due, has burst upon us 

 with Maxwell's Talisman. 



MR. C. E. WANTLAND, 

 Denver, Colo. 



Mr. Maxwell attempts to discredit State 

 control of water on the grounds that 

 local politics affect the efficiency of an ir- 

 rigation administration. Eecently he has become fond 

 of such terms as "Political Boards of Control," "Politi- 

 cal State Engineers," etc., referring to such institutions 

 in Wyoming and Nebraska. If he were better acquaint- 

 ed with the work of these boards or if he knew how care- 

 fully the members were selected as to fitness and experi- 

 ence he would not have fallen into error. To defend his 

 "Home Rule" policy he has tried to convey the impres- 

 sion that these officers receive appointment wholly 

 through political preferment. We defy him to select a 

 single member of a board of control who is not fully 

 qualified by experience and training to carry on the work 

 entrusted to him. Mr. Maxwell can satisfy himself on 

 this point and he must then find some other argument 

 to warrant his stand against this kind of state adminis- 

 tration. If his "Home Rule" policy were carried into 



effect local politics would be more liable to interfere 

 with a just distribution of water than is the case under 

 existing conditions. Corporate interests would have 

 greater power to control the water supply and force 

 small irrigators to the wall unless they were protected 

 by State laws affording equal protection to all. It is 

 true that there would be great opportunities for such a 

 man as Mr. Maxwell in representing large interests ih- 

 the litigation which would be sure to follow the adop- 

 tion of a "Home Rule" policy. 



It may be that Mr. Maxwell hopes all supervision 

 to finally come from Washington. It may be that he 

 has aspirations to be in charge or to be placed where 

 he may dictate to those entrusted with the work. That 

 the few politicians at Washington might be easier for 

 him to control than the many State officers where irri- 

 gation is well understood, is probably true. The recent 

 irrigation act, which was alternately supported and 

 opposed by Mr. Maxwell and his propaganda, finally 

 became a law. It was passed through the united efforts 

 of western statesmen and it is doubtful whether or not 

 Mr. Maxwell's influence greatly affected the final vote 

 on the measure. The same men who fostered this bill 

 are still in Congress and we believe they will continue 

 to stand by their own State institutions and do their 

 utmost for the irrigator through national legislation. 



A Live One. 



When a man dies and his mortal remains 



are laid away in the earth the world at 

 large forgets him, his friends buy a few flowers, heave 

 a sigh or two as they leave the graveyard and then 

 return to their daily avocation of tearing each other 

 to pieces in a buisness and social way, and give very 

 little thought to the good qualities of those who are 

 gone or those who are living, with whom they are in 

 daily contact. It is interestng to study living people, 

 the others should be left for medical students. 



The way to figure out the per cent of goodness in 

 your fellow men is to stand them up in a row in your 

 mind's eye, and learn who in the lot go over fifty per cent 

 to the good and then keep in close touch with those who 

 scale fifty-one per cent or better. 



In looking at an imaginary line of men recently, 

 one figure stood out prominently, as considerably above 

 the half way mark, and on examining the tag the writer 

 learned that it read, Clifford F. Hall, president of the 

 Implement Trade Journal Co., Kansas City, Mo. "Cliff" 

 as he is known to his friends was born in Rochester, 

 N: Y., in 1855, and drifted west with his parents and 

 after a diversified and devious early course learned the 

 printer's trade which, as he says, is the best thing that he 

 ever did, as it gave him an excuse for living and event- 

 ualy led him into a branch of journalism which he 

 thoroughly enjoys and in which his talents are employed 

 to a good purpose. 



Mr. Hall has been conducting the Implement Trade 

 Journal since 1889 as president of the company and 



