360 



THE I IRRIGATION AGE. 



ELEVENTH NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



Inauguration of an Empire of Productiveness The Man Behind the Irrigation Ditch 

 will Rule the World The Deserts Made to Bloom as a Rose Garden, and a Phoenix 

 of Fruit and Grain Springs from the Barren Ashes of Ages of Desolation Hope for 

 the Future through the Downfall of Scheming Home-Destroyers The Canker Worm 

 of Land Stealing Crushed, and the Hypocritical Coddling Moth Scattering its Per- 

 nicious Germs in the Heart of a Fair Domain, Asphyxiated. 



For twelve years a body of energetic men. patriotic, 

 wise, intelligent and insistent, have been endeavoring 

 to interest the world in the wealth of soil within the 

 boundaries of the United States west of the 100th de- 

 gree of longitude. 

 "Pooh ! you have 

 nothing but a bar- 

 ren desert," was 

 the sneering reply 

 of the humid and 

 swamp land man of 

 the East. "You 

 can't compete with 

 the God's country 

 of the rising sun." 

 "Come and see." 

 quoth the Irrigator. 

 And the\ did come, 

 dribbled in ; they 

 were dragged in, 

 figuratively speak- 

 ing, until, the fame 

 of the great west- 

 ern empire spread- 

 ing, they came of 

 their own accord- 

 nay, rushed in an 

 army of them to 

 see what the Ogden 

 Congress had to 

 show in the way of 

 wealth. Well, they 

 found that the loud 

 trumpetings of the 

 man behind the ir- 

 rigation ditch, his 

 boasts and hilarity 

 over the success he 

 had reached were 

 not idle vapor, not 

 dreains, but stu- 

 pendous realities, 

 and the men who 

 came and saw were 

 conquered, and 

 they wanted some 

 of the wealth. 

 They shall have 

 some of it, for 

 there is abundance 

 to spare, but they shall not have all of it. 



When successful endeavor appeared in sight, the 

 influences that had been steadily at work to destroy, 

 by undermining, the efforts of the pioneers of irriga- 

 tion and reclamation, the land gophers gnawing at the 

 root of every growing plant, the coddling moths boring 

 into the heart of the fair and noble fruit, the canker 

 worms eating out its soul and vitality ; when national 

 irrigation became an accomplished fact in spite of their 

 efforts to prevent it, when there appeared millions of 



U. S. SENATOR WM. A. CLARK. 

 President 12th National rrigation Congress. 



money in the reclamation fund and more millions in 

 sight, all these destructive agents threw up their hats 

 with a "Whoop ! Hurrah !" and boldly announced 

 themselves as the only, the true apostles of irrigation. 

 And they said : "You have done well, you are indeed 

 brave men, but your work is done; you have reached a 

 point where you, can no longer continue your work. 

 We will come in and manage this good tiling hereafter, 

 we know how to do it and you do not. The money 

 in the reclamation fund must be carefully watched lest 

 it be misapplied. We are the fellows who know how to 

 handle the people's money ; you are letting dishonest men 



steal millions of 

 acres per annum ; 

 the government can 

 not stop them, 

 neither can you, 

 but we can." 



But the Ogden 

 Congress laughed ; 

 they knew what 

 was beneath these 

 crocodile profes- 

 sions, this Uriah 

 Heap anxiety, and 

 they took the 

 mourners, the ca- 

 lamity howlers, the 

 self- constituted 

 apostles of every- 

 thing that dis- 

 played a dollar or a 

 rich acre of ground 

 in sight took them 

 at their word, we 

 say, and said to 

 them in so many 

 words : "Inasmuch 

 as you claim that 

 land stealing has 

 grown into such 

 monstrous propor- 

 tions and you also 

 claim that you have 

 had charge of this 

 entire business for 

 years, that you are 

 the apostles of it 

 we deem you un- 

 faithful to your 

 principles, recreant 

 to your duty, and 

 we sincerely believe 

 that with you in 

 control the public 

 domain and the re- 

 clamation fund will 

 have a poor pros- 



spect of fulfilling the prophecies, accomplishing the 

 desires and aims of our great and good president, 

 Theodore Roosevelt, with whom you insultingly pro- 

 fess to be hand and glove, and we will turn you down 

 hard, so hard that the bump of your coming down 

 will be heard in Washington, and mildly intimate 

 to the powers that are so anxious to preserve the pub- 

 lic domain for the people, that you are the cause why 

 it is diverted from that great object. It is time to re- 

 move your tin halo and put you under guard in a soli- 



