298 



THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



gress kept on boring into the granitic intellects of the 

 powers that cast obstacles in their way, until, on June 

 17, 1902, President Eoosevelt signed the first national 

 irrigation law. 



Standing upon the same soil in which the first 

 National Irrigation Congress had planted the seed, wat- 

 ered it, and husbanded its growth until it produced a 

 glorious fruit, that is to say, at Ogden, on May 29, 

 1903, President Roosevelt thus addressed the citizens 

 of Utah and the whole nation, in the following momen- 

 tous language : 



"Mr. Mayor, Senator Smoot, and you, my fellow citi- 

 zens, men and women of Ogden, Utah It is a great pleas- 

 ure to come before you this afternoon, and if I needed, 

 which I do not, a vindication of what was done in irrigation, 

 I would appeal to the experience of the people who. have 

 made so marvelous a success of irrigation in this beautiful 

 valley. 



"What you have succeeded in doing with sugar beets 

 alone is sufficient to show the wisdom of trying to de- 

 velop in every way the irrigated agriculture of the country; 

 and I was more pleased than I can say to have been able 

 to render any aid whatsoever in putting upon the national 

 statute books a law which I consider second in beneficence 

 to none connected with our internal development since the 

 homestead law was passed. 



IRRIGATION PARAMOUNT QUESTION. 



"I am delighted that the National Irrigation Congress 

 is to be held here next fall, and I congratulate the state of 

 Utah upon the fact that its legislature was the first ever to 

 pass an appropriation for such a congress. There can be 

 nothing of greater importance to the welfare and growth 

 of our country d_uring the half-century that is opening than 

 this question of irrigation. It is of vital consequence to the 

 growth of all of the states of the Rocky Mountains and im- 

 mediately to either side; and anything that is of such conse- 

 quence to one portion of our country is necessarily of conse- 

 quence to all. I can not with top much emphasis say that 

 every wise and patriotic man will favor anv scheme for 

 the betterment of a part of the country, whether it is in his 

 own section or not, because whatever helps a part of us in 

 the long run helps all. 



ALL STAND TOGETHER. 



"Fundamentally, we go up or down together. Prosperity 

 does not stop at state lines, and neither does adversity. 

 When prosperity comes, while it may come unequally, yet it 

 comes somewhat to all ; and when adversity comes, while 

 some will suffer more than others, yet all must suffer 

 somewhat. The greatest lesson which the American body 

 politic need to take to heart at the beginning of the twentieth 

 century is that it is out of the question permanently for our 

 people to progress save on lines that tell for the progression 

 of all ; that you can not raise permanently one section by 

 depressing another, one class by depressing another, and the 

 man is recreant to the principles of our Government no 

 less than to the welfare of our people who seeks to arouse 

 any feeling among Americans against his fellow Americans, 

 whether he makes his appeal in the fancied interest of a sec- 

 tion or in the fancied interest of a class. We can go up 

 as we shall go up only by each of us keeping in mind not 

 merely his own rights, but his duties to his neighbors ; 

 meaning by neighbor every man living in this broad land. 

 The safe motto on which to act is the motto : Not of 'some 

 men down,' but of 'all men;' and therefore I feel that 

 it was not merely my privilege but my duty to ask the 

 National Government the Government representing the peo- 

 ple of the entire nation to do all in its power for the fur- 

 therance of the interest of those states whose success is 

 largely dependent upon the application of the principles of 

 irrigation. 



MUST HELP YOURSELF. 



"And now you know the proverb 'The Lord helps 

 those who help themselves.' If you throw all the duty of 

 helping you on the Lord, He will throw it back on you. 

 Now, it is the same way with your fellow-men. Providence 

 is not going to do everything for you and the National 

 Government can not. All that the National Government 

 can do is to try to give you a fair show to help you 

 to the chance of doing your work under favorable conditions, 

 and then the work has pot to be done by you yourselves. 



SUCCESS OF THE CONGRESS. 



"And as one step toward doing that work, I hope most 

 earnestly that you and all the other states in interest will 

 push forward and will in every way endeavor to make the 

 meeting of the Irrigation Congress here in Ogden a thor- 

 ough success. And I say that, not merely in the interest of 

 Ogden, not merely in the interest of the states which are 

 to be benefited by irrigation, but in the interest of the 

 Union, I want to see that Congress a success ; I want to see 

 the work of irrigation made the greatest possible success." 



THE FUTURE OF THE CONGRESS. 



When the Revolutionary Fathers in Congress as- 

 sembled, announced to the world the Declaration of 

 Independence, they did not stop at that and dissolve 

 and disband; they remained in session and continued 

 on with the work of building up the nation, and see- 

 ing to it that the great principles they had adopted! 

 were properly and effectually carried out and enforced, 

 and they are still in session; that is why we have a 

 great nation. Had they stopped their work and left 

 the nation to the mercy of chance or designing persons, 

 we should now have been saddled with a king in whose 

 nostrils freedom would have been a stench, and irri- 

 gable lands would have been crown preserves to dis- 

 tribute among favorites. 



It follows for similar reasons that the National 

 Irrigation Congress may not dissolve and disband with 

 honor to itself. It is the bulwark of a vast empire, 

 the interests of which demand constant watchfulness 

 lest they be prejudiced through being absorbed by a 

 few designing individuals. It is its work, its busi- 

 ness to see that the provisions of the national irriga- 

 tion law are properly, honestly, and faithfully carried 

 out and applied for the purposes intended, and to 

 the persons intended. It must now inaugurate a sys- 

 tem of government, establish a protective power and 

 tribunal, which, by virtue of its organization will see 

 that the just demands of the people it governs are 

 heeded, and that its equitable, reasonable decrees are 

 enforced. It must be prepared to say to this or that 

 legislator: "You are betraying the interests of the 

 people you represent and you shall meet with a polit- 

 ical death." It must warn the state legislator that 

 his hands must be kept clean of jobs, and it must set 

 traps for the rats and mice gnawing at the public crib. 

 It must unify con- 

 flicting irrigation 

 laws, see that the 

 present land laws 

 of the nation, which 

 were good enough 

 to build up the 

 West, be preserved, 

 or so amended as to 

 conform to the na- 

 t i o n a 1 irrigation 

 laws. There is a 

 vast amount of 

 work for the Con- 

 gress to do. and it 

 is all within its 

 scope and province, 

 indeed, there is no 

 other trustworthy 

 body of men who 

 can do it. 



HOW TO PERPETU- 

 ATE IT. 



.It is certain that GILBERT MCCLURG, 



a Simple plan for Gen'l Representatire Executive Committee. 



