THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



327 



all its force, its power and authority by securing the pas- 

 sage of the national irrigation law, it is defunctus officio 

 and can not merge with anything. The Transmissis- 

 sippi and the National Irrigation Association concerns 

 do not want to take :i corpse to their arms, do they? 

 Perhaps it is the machinery of the National Irrigation 

 Congress the two outside organizations aje after, and 

 need in their business. This hath a lean and hungry 

 look. If that machinery is to be used for the same 

 purpose as it has already been used by the National 

 Irrigation Congress, wherefore should the latter not 

 keep on with the working of it? Suspicion grows 

 apace. If, however, there is to be a transformation 

 that transformation can be no other than its con- 

 version into a personal machine, to be operated by 

 personal combined interests for personal profit. What 

 else can it be turned into when the objects for which 

 it was organized can not be altered, amended, or bet- 

 tered? Why? but pshaw! It is bad policy to swap 

 horses while crossing a stream. 



THE IRRIGATION AGB is at a loss to ac- 



Good count for the misgivings expressed by so 



Cause to many present ardent supporters of the 



Rejoice. national irrigation law, that the same will 



not be honestly carried out. 



It is quite true that our public land laws are not 

 ideal, and it is also true that they never will reach 

 a state of perfection. Every law enacted for the pub- 

 lic benefit has a flaw in it big enough to drive through 

 a coach and six of fraud. Witness the exemption and 

 homestead laws, the Pacific railroads, and now the In- 

 dian lands. Think also of the army contracts, postal 

 diabolics, river and harbor bill every governmental 

 scheme has tied to it a string that is positively sticky 

 with fraud and corruption. 



Yet, somehow, the nation lias flourished, and is 

 now at such a prosperous height that the people are 

 actually growing dizzy. Why is it, and how does such 

 an anomaly come about? Can right come out of 

 wrong? Is it good theology that men may do evil 

 that good shall come of it? It may be remarked in- 

 cidentally that there is no code of laws so "badly broken 

 into as the Ten Commandments, yet it is said we 

 are more piously inclined than when men's heads were 

 removed for disobeying a single precept. 



In the midst of the boundless sea of fraud and 

 corruption, with so many stealing for the benefit of 

 the nation generally and for themselves particularly, it 

 makes our hearts glad to perceive a gentle glimmer 

 of honest, determined piety. Quoth the stuff that 

 has been deluging the mails and the columns of the 

 country press for the past several weeks: "Land 

 Speculation and Stealing Must be Stopped (for use 

 not before Monday, August 17)." 



We rejoice that this is so. for after about fifty 

 years of attempts on the part of the Government, with 



the aid of the courts, and an army of officials, that 

 unpleasant condition of land affairs lias not even 

 been scratched on the surface. Can it be that we are 

 to be blessed with the mighty aid of some supernatural 

 power to do that which the weak arm of mortal man 

 has been powerless to do? 



It must be so, for in connection with the gratis 

 stuff aforesaid, come columns of assurances from the 

 same central supply press bureau, that the "national 

 irrigation law shall be honestly and justly carried out 

 for the benefit of the homeseekers," and contributions 

 are called for. The grandeur of the idea grows by 

 thinking, and it looks as if some one really intended 

 to take charge of the entire business and manage it 

 as it should be. We are glad that this is so, and 

 in the full realization of its meaning according to the 

 canons of interpretation in such cases, we sing in uni- 

 son with the pious gentlemen who are repeating the 

 refrain from one end of the nation to the other, for 

 the plain purpose of earning a testimonial of good 

 conduct from the Eleventh National Irrigation Con- 

 gress : "Land speculation and stealing will be stopped 

 when there is not enough of it left for speculative 

 purposes or worth stealing." 



A certain Man of very exalted Proclivities was 

 one Day walking along a Highway, with his Eyes 

 turned up toward Heaven, which he had concluded to 

 make his future abiding Place. 



While so occupied in gazing upward he did not 

 notice a Ditch across his path and he accordingly fell 

 into it. 



As he floundered about in the mud and water 

 at the bottom, he angrily charged the Ditch with 

 gross Negligence in not keeping out of his way. 



"You saw me coming," he exclaimed in a fine 

 Rage, "and it was your Duty and Biisiness to keep 

 out of the way." 



"It is true I saw you coming," admitted the Ditch 

 politely, "but as I noticed that your Eyes were looking 

 up toward Heaven. I thought you were going in that 



Direction." 



The Board of Control of the Eleventh 

 Honor to National Irrigation Congress, together 

 Whom with the citizens of Ogden, Utah, gen- 



Honor erally, deserve the highest praise and 



is Due. credit for the energy they have displayed 



in preparing for the great event of the 

 15-18. Such energy deserves success and will attain 

 a full measure of it. There has nothing been left 

 undone to make the visit of outsiders one to be re- 

 membered by them, and that they will remember it 

 whenever the name of Ogden, Utah, is mentioned is 

 as certain as sunrise. If the great Congress shall 

 be in successful accord in working out the vast im- 

 portant problems under their charge and auspices, it 

 will be due in a great measure to the spirit of broth- 

 erly love and abiding friendship \\.it Ui ..iu.iUl the 



