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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



gress has laid out to do will relieve us. from the neces- 

 sity of making an apology for omissions. The kindness 

 of our subscribers on all occasions of this nature leads 

 us to so believe, and, in compensation, we desire to 

 say that THE IRRIGATION AGE is endeavoring to faith- 

 fully carry out its promise to be the only true and 

 disinterested medium for irrigation in the great west 

 disinterested in the sense that it is laboring for the 

 interests of all irrigators without distinction, and with- 

 out regard to its own advantages. 



The citizens of the city of Ogden, and 

 A Few the people of Utah generally, merit the 



Words of highest praise for their energetic action 

 Praise. with reference to the sessions of the Elev- 



enth National Irrigation Congress. They 

 hare not hesitated to display an open-handed generosity, 

 liberality, and an expectant hospitality that deserves 

 more than mere verbal commendation. The people of 

 Utah see in their state the making of a vast empire of 

 productiveness, and they are bound to make it come 

 up to the spirit of their intention to make it so. This 

 will necessarily create a great city of Odgen, which 

 already shows more than a beginning in that direction. 



Their energy is not limited to themselves, but 

 spreads out over the entire arid and semi-arid West, 

 injecting energy into the veins of the pioneers of irri- 

 gation, and nerving them up by an example which men 

 regard as the only one to be followed if success is to 

 be attained. 



With her dynamic force affecting the entire West 

 there is no reason why Utah should not become, in 

 the near future, the center, the entrepot, the great 

 mart of the teeming millions bound to come, and 

 why Ogden should not become the gigantic metropolis 

 of the empire of which she is almost the parent. 



The unanimous, hearty welcome of Utah and Og- 

 den, spontaneous, let it be said, betokens hearty co- 

 operation by the delegates in whatever may be offered 

 for them to consider. THE IRRIGATION AGE believes 

 that the delegates will be as pleased with Ogden and 

 with Utah, as the latter will be pleased with the dele- 

 gates. The coming together of them will be productive 

 of mutual benefit, and that benefit, we sincerely hope, 

 will be far reaching, and be the beginning of the dawn 

 of a bright, glorious day for irrigation. This carries 

 with it everything else in the way of material prospects. 



. On September 15, 16, 17 and 18, at the 

 Eleventh city of Ogden, Utah, will be held a Con- 

 National gress of an important part of the peo- 

 Irrigation pie of the nation of as great a signifi- 

 Congress. cance and importance as any that has 

 ever been held since the memorable Con- 

 gress that sounded the tocsin of American independence. 

 Its proceedings will relate to an extent of terri- 



tory of vaster dimensions than the original thirteen 

 states, and its deliberations must cover a possible pop- 

 ulation running into the millions. The brawn and 

 muscle of the nation, toiling millions seeking homes, 

 comfort and comparative ease, look to that Congress 

 to blaze for them an unobstructed path to plenty. Our 

 cities are crowded with millions of helpless infancy 

 who, when they shall have reached maturity, will have 

 no other haven to seek but the vast plains of the West. 

 There are other millions yet unborn whose future must 

 be provided for in the vast area which is looming up 

 as the jewel of the nation, the feeding ground of the 

 world. 



It will not be an easy thing for this National 

 Irrigation Congress to acquit itself of its task without 

 the most bitter and determined opposition from in- 

 terested persons who care as little for the interests 

 of millions of people as the Tories of the Revolution 

 cared for American Independence. Its delegates will 

 be buttonholed, cajoled, threatened, flattered, and even 

 their bribery attempted for the purpose of seducing 

 them from their great purpose of protecting the arid 

 and semi-arid world from the horde of land and water 

 grabbers who have already set the machinery in mo- 

 tion to pervert the act of Congress and destroy the in- 

 tent and purpose of the Government to create an em- 

 pire for the benefit of the people the home seekers. 



But THE IRRIGATION AGE believes that the petty 

 triflers with the rights of the people are too small and 

 insignificant to be regarded as of any more importance 

 than mere disturbers of the peace, blood suckers on a 

 vigorous corpse, gnats that do not require sledge ham- 

 mers to be crushed. It believes that all these small 

 people, whether they be private individuals or pettj 

 officials working schemes through private individuals, 

 will all be brushed off the main question, which is: 

 "Shall the irrigation of the arid and semi-arid lands 

 of the West be controlled for the benefit of a few land 

 and water grabbers, or for the benefit of the people 

 of the nation?" 



It seems ridiculous to think that a few persons 

 can subvert the designs of the legislative and executive 

 branches of this great nation, and pervert, as well as 

 set at naught, the objects for which beneficent laws 

 are enacted. But so it is. The Government is so great 

 that it overlooks the gnats penetrating its armor, fails 

 to see the rats gnawing into its wealth of grain. Its 

 machinery is too cumbersome to crush its petty offi- 

 cials who are robbing it of a little oil here and there 

 and making it creak and run awry, but there are those 

 interested who will clear away the obstacles to its 

 beneficent purpose, and do it so effectually that their 

 memory will be nothing but that of a passing nightmare. 



The delegates of the Eleventh National Irrigation 

 Congress will be men of experience and will work with 

 a will over the numerous vexing problems that have 

 confronted every irrigator for years. There are prac- 



