THE IRRIGATION" AGE. 



137 



started to canvass the district and took with him a 

 staff writer of the Oregonian, the most powerful, able 

 and influential newspaper in all this Northwest region. 

 Mr. Holman's ability as a writer and his high character 

 as a reliable correspondent were valuable reinforce- 

 ments in the campaign. His first letter, written from 

 Prineville, the capital of Crook county and the candi- 

 date's home, told the people that "the people here are 

 opposed to irrigation." The influence behind that 

 Miiiement was apparent. It was well understood that 

 the Oregonian's correspondent had been permitted to 

 me"et and talk with only those parties, whom it suited 

 the candidate and his stock-raising supporters to have 

 him meet. 



The statement raised a howl as being false repre- 

 sentation of opinion; but Williamson was equal to the 

 emergency. He had made a mistake; the people every- 

 where wanted irrigation; they must be humored. It 

 would not answer to have their representative appear 

 the enemy of the most popular relief measure yet offered 

 that constituency. No, he did not mean to oppose 

 irrigation; what he meant, was to oppose that dreadful 

 system by which, "under the Carey act, great and 

 greedy corporations could come into their beautiful 

 county and gobble up the land." "Let us have the 

 National system and no other," he cried and the "peo- 

 ple" swallowed, while his employers winked at each 

 other and said "he's all right." He now proceeded to 

 advocate vociferously the system of National Irrigation, 

 while he denounced the Carey act, which, as yet, is 

 the only practical system yet offered for that immense 

 area of Crook county. He understood as did his clients, 

 that with Williamson in congress the National Irriga- 

 tion system would never come to molest the piratical 

 interest of the stock raisers. He will be patriotic and 

 let it go to other counties. 



He was the active party in organizing the Oregon 

 Irrigation Association, which has elected Mr. Devers, 

 a delegate to the National Irrigation Congress, its presi- 

 dent because he is a citizen of Portland, the com- 

 mercial center of the state. A public spirited man, 

 who has undeviating faith in Williamson's devotion to 

 irrigation, a subject of which he does not profess 

 knowledge. 



It has been one of the frauds practised by men, 

 who are so wrapped up in the National System of 

 Irrigation, to discredit citizens, who favor all other 

 systems, including the Carey system. Especially are 

 the advocates of the Carey act in the valley of the 

 River Des Chutes, made the subjects of their curses. 

 I send The Age a copy of Williamson's speech in the 

 convention, from which may be learned his bitterness 

 towards those who have dared expose his Jesuitical 

 professions. To make it plainer I enclose with it the 

 letter of the present writer to the people of Oregon, 

 dealing with the gentleman's conduct. They are for- 

 warded only to illustrate the difficulties, that honest 

 intention to irrigate land, where stock-raisers have 

 usurped the territory, is forced to encounter in the 

 members of that very legislative body, which has pre- 

 pared the way for them. And this ,. corruption in the 

 legislator will seek to impede the progress of improve- 

 ment in home-building all over the arid region. You 

 will discover that in order to kill irrigation by the 

 Carey act, Williamson professes patriotic approval of 

 the National act. 



At last,, in dispatches to the Oregonian of the 18th 

 instant, comes the revelation of the Maxwell scheme, 



exposed by the Chairman of the Public Lands Com- 

 mittee in Congress, who holds the man up as an at- 

 torney of the great railroad corporations and declares 

 that his plan if successful will kill irrigation, it being 

 nothing less than the repeal of all the desert, timber 

 and homestead laws in the interest of his clients. 

 This is the clan of which our new member of congress 

 is a factor. It is however felt by the friends of irriga- 

 tion, that his defeat in the convention has taught him 

 the folly of pursuing the course he opened for himself 

 in the convention and has intimidated him with the fear 

 of political death. 



The truth is, the trick was not understood, when 

 that body met. Williamson came here with 37 del- 



MR. JOHN HENRY SMITH, SALT LAKE CIIY 



egates (claquers) from his county, the representatives 

 of his sheep raising clients, who, with their heels and 

 howls gave acclaim to every word condemning the 

 Carey act or lauding their man, who had promised 

 more than half of them lucrative places in the govern- 

 ment service. The ultimate situation was saved by Mr. 

 Ernest Bross, the managing editor of the Oregonian, 

 who proposed by motion, that the committee on resolu- 

 tions should be composed of one member from each 

 county, and thus utterly disconcerted the claquers from 

 Crook, for whom Williamson had already drafted a 

 resolution, making the convention condemn the Carey 

 act. In the language of the Oregonian, the resolutions 

 will be seen to be nicely worded. By the diplomacy 

 which they reflect, the convention steered clear of the 

 Scylla of the private irrigation companies and the 



