THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XVIII. 



CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER, 1903. 



No. 



1 1. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



THE D. H. ANDERSON PUBLISHING CO., 



PUBLISHERS, 

 112 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 



Entered at the Postoffice at Chicago, 111., as Second-Class Matter. 



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor. 



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A monthly illustrated magazine recognized throughout the world as 

 the exponent ol Irrigation and its kindred industries. It is the pioneer 

 journal of its kind in the world, and has no rival in half a continent. It 

 advocates the mineral development and the industrial growth of the West. 



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Ij may interest advertisers to know that The Irrigation Age is the only publication 

 ^ thg worfd having an actoal paid in ad - vance circulation among individual 



irrigators and large irrigation corporations. It is read regularly by all interested in this subject and has readers in all parts of the world. 



The Irrigation Age is (8 years old and is the pioneer publication of its class in the world. 



Copyright 1908 by D. H. Anderson. 



EDITORIAL 



It is impossible to believe that the Elev- 

 Fiat enth National Irrigation Congress will 



Justicia prove so weak an organization that it 



Ruat will succumb to the blandishments and 



Coelum. become a catspaw for any specific class 

 of persons who aim to realize enormous 

 fortunes out of the expenditures of the government 

 in carrying out the provisions of the national irrigation 

 law, and out of private land and water schemes a la 

 Dawes Indian land commission. 



There is no man in this country great enough 

 to dictate what that Congress shall or must do, no 

 man is too insignificant that lie may not make a 

 suggestion worth consideration. 



The organization of the Congress is complete, and 

 to save time, anxiety, put an end to the machinations 

 to destroy its organization, the first business under- 

 taken after coming to order, should be the adoption 

 of a resolution making the National Irrigation Con- 

 gress a perpetual and independent organization, the 

 main object of which at this stage of the irrigation 

 problem shall be governmental and protective, to the 

 extent of seeing to it that the national irrigation law 

 be honestly and justly enforced for the direct benefit 

 of actual homeseekers. 



It is a sorrowful fact that must be admitted that 



the Government is not strong enough to protect its 

 citizens in their home rights under any land or water 

 law that was or ever will be enacted. A middleman, 

 practically a "sooner," springs from somewhere ajid 

 wards off the Government with one hand and the 

 homeseeker with the other until his ambitions are 

 realized, and when he lets go there is little left but 

 husks. 



The universal demand is for an honest and just 

 enforcement of the national irrigation law, but who is 

 there to see that it is honestly and justly enforced? 

 We know by the Indian land revelations that where 

 there is a dollar and a helpless citizen or individual, 

 the latter loses that dollar. We know also from the 

 pages of the United States court reports that a man 

 with land at stake finds no friend in a government 

 agent if he stands alone without a protective influ- 

 ence behind him. And will it be any better with 

 water, and tens of millions to be expended by the 

 Government, perhaps hundreds of millions before the 

 entire matter is fully adjusted? 



There is already deprecatory talk in the newspa- 

 pers, a haunting fear lest the irrigation law be di- 

 verted from its purpose into the hands of schemers. 

 Thart is as sure to come as fate in the shape of in- 

 terest, taxes, death. It is human nature and until 

 the leopard can change his spots land grabbing and 

 now water grabbing will go on merrily. 



The National Irrigation Congress stands as the 

 representative body of the very men who are to be 

 helped by the irrigation law, the constituents of the 



