THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



329 



sonal gain, or who has put aside the interests of the 

 people, the home seekers, the real empire builders, is 

 not a pioneer ; he is an obstacle in the way of progress, 

 a, drag upon the proper solution of the problems that 

 are bound to arise. His counsel is not beyond sus- 

 picion, his piety is a mere garment, familiar old clothes. 



A very long time ago the Greeks and the Trojans 

 were at war. The former were beseiging the capital 

 city of Troy but did not make much headway in an 

 open fight, so they thought of a plan to overcome 

 the unsuspicious, confiding Trojans. They pretended 

 to give up the fight as too arduous an undertaking, 

 so they packed up their baggage and moved away 

 apparently, and the Trojans rejoiced because they 

 thought their ene- 

 mies were defeated. 



But the pious 

 -Greeks left behind 

 them a nice gift for 

 the Trojans, and, af- 

 ter quite a parley 

 with the principal 

 Greek land grabbers, 

 the Trojans accepted 

 the gift. It was a 

 monster horse, in the 

 belly of which was 

 hid a strong force of 

 armed men. When 

 the horse had been 

 dragged into the re- 

 joicing city and 

 night had fallen, the 

 armed Greeks issued 

 out of the belly of 

 the horse, put the 

 Trojans to death, 

 and burned up their 

 city. Ever since this 

 historical event a 

 similar attempt to 

 beguile honesty and 

 confiding simplicity 

 by pious ejaculations 

 and a great show of 

 goodness has at- 

 tached to it the say- 

 ing of a wise Trojan 

 who objected to the 

 acceptance of the 

 monster horse, but 

 whose wise counsel 

 was unheeded : "I 

 fear the Greeks bear- 

 ing gifts." 



There need be 

 no fear of anything 



happening adverse to the interests and right? of the 

 actual homeseekers in -the carrying out of the objects 

 of the national irrigation law, if the pioneers of it, 

 the National Irrigation Congress, that brought about 

 that legislation, continue to keep guard over its cradle 

 until it is weaned and has cut its eye teeth and can 

 draw upon its own vitality. The danger that is al- 

 ready apprehended by those timid souls who seem 

 to be anxious to wet nurse the infant, will surely 

 happen if its own parent abandons it to the suspicious 

 mercies of strangers. 



Some indiivdual members of the Congress may 



BRIGHAM YOUNG, FOUNDER..OF THE INTER-MCU/NTAIN EMPIRE. 



be afflicted with an influenced dissatisfaction and with- 

 draw their support, preferring to pay membership fees 

 in other less high aimed, but perhaps more lucrative 

 organizations, and if so, what of ii? Their places 

 will be quickly filled by others less finicky, and so 

 will be obviated the fulfillment of the Scriptural fiat: 

 "A house divided against itself shall surely fall." If 

 there be any who take such action they will but make 

 clear the line between the vanguard of the hardy pio- 

 neers and the mere camp followers. 



We have reached the cross roads in the irriga- 

 tion problem and the land question, where it must be 

 decided whether the people of sixteen great states of 

 overmastering productive powers, shall be the owners 



of their own soil, or 

 become the eternal 

 mortgagees of insati- 

 'able grasping schem- 

 ers of the same ilk 

 as those who have 

 been squeezing them 

 like sponges for so 

 many years. 



Never, since the 

 Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence was rung 

 out to the world has 

 there been so great 

 and pressing a neces- 

 sity for freedom 

 not that foreign ene- 

 mies are crushing us, 

 but our home Tories 

 are more dangerous 

 than open foes be- 

 cause they are more 

 insinuating, and they 

 are protected by cer- 

 tain business policies 

 which discountenance 

 their exposure, and 

 they are garbed in 

 robes of light by lib- 

 eral applications of 

 printer's ink. 



The liberty to 

 be rung out to the 

 people of this nation 

 and to the world, is 

 the liberty of the 

 homeseeker, the toil- 

 ing builder of the 

 western empire, to 

 select his own home 

 and the water to 

 cultivate it, free from 

 interference, and the 



liberty to possess and enjoy it in peace, comfort, and 

 happiness in his own fashion, and to his own profit, 

 without being disturbed by conflicting laws, or dis- 

 criminating interpretations put upon them by grasping, 

 envious outsiders, who see in a prosperous farmer good 

 game to be plucked, hampered, harassed, and even 

 ruined. 



With these objects to be attained, who can aid 

 in their attainment better than those who are imbued 

 with the spirit of the pioneers, and who aim to further 

 and perfect their work the new apostles of irrigation 

 the successors of the old the National Irrigation 



