THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



139 



ambition. His Forest Service was organized when the 

 advertising department was created. He has had con- 

 siderable time to study other duties which might be 

 performed in the interest of posterity. In all of this, 

 however, he has not forgotten the party of the first part 

 and his present aims and purposes. He would rather 

 deal with problems of the present which relate to his 

 own aggrandizement, than to determine by observation 

 or experience whether it is best to cut southern pine 

 with a butter knife or a hack saw. He is a deep student. 

 When not engaged in writing articles dealing with the 

 prospects of a meeting of the conservation commission, 

 or describing in plain but elegant English the political 

 support that he is obtaining, he is in a brown study 

 Revising some relief for posterity. The results of his 

 jnental labors are becoming apparent. It would seem 

 that any policy or regulation which will make life a 

 burden to the people of the West, he gladly accepts as 

 a, boon to future humanity. The difficulties which con- 

 iront the homemaker without means seem to be of but 

 little consequence to him. It is the descendants of 

 these settlers that must be protected. If necessary, 

 starve the new comer, who must face all of the obstacles 

 that a rugged nature presents, if, by so doing, those who 

 -are to build a wood shed five hundred years hence may 

 get timber at their door rather than to convey it for a 

 mile or two. Anything that can be preserved and kept 

 in its wild and natural state immediately rouses his 

 interest. If the entire West could be fenced and placed* 

 under his control, ideal conditions, according to his 

 judgment, would be attained. Never in the history of 

 the world has one man held sway over an area compar- 

 ing with the expanse of the present forest reserves. Such 

 things were, doubtless, among the dreams of Alexander 

 the Great and Ca?sar, but neither dared to whisper any 

 policy which would realize them in practice. Fate has 

 decreed, seemingly to spite what should be regarded as 

 a natural sequence of events, that such a condition 

 should first present itself in a republic the first and 

 greatest nation, where laws are made by and for the 

 people. 



History can cite no greater misuse of executive au- 

 thority than when portions of states were moved from 

 *the sovereignty of those states and placed under the con- 

 trol of a national and absent landlord. History evi- 

 dences no greater tribute to advertising than is wit- 

 nessed in the creation and growth of the Forest Service. 

 'This advertising has been so successful that he who 

 raises his voice in protest must do so with some feeling 

 of misgiving. Our ideas and the principles we support 

 are discredited because we have been advertised in the 

 East as land-grabbers and thieves. Those who may 

 have already profited by fraudulent practice in securing 

 lands in the West are now profiting further by the re- 

 " Hut; placed on all land laws. The people of the 

 public land and states are now cursed with such a repu- 

 iation as these few law breakers alone should merit. 

 "This is one of the results of bureaucratic advertising. 



We have discussed our troubles and endeavored to 

 point out some of the causes. If there is a remedy, we 

 should seek it and take immediate steps to put it into 

 practice. We must agree on one point. No depart- 

 ment of the Government or the state should go into the 

 business of advertising. This is true, because it is not 

 necessary to advertise good government or good govern- 

 mental policies. The bad ones cannot endure, but they 

 can bo maintained for a time by cunning advertising. 



The publicity department of the Forest Service may be 

 likened unto the hair of Samson. We should unite in 

 an effort to make plain to the East, as it is to the West, 

 the iniquity of the advertising system of this Depart- 

 ment. We should then take an inventory of our ability 

 as a people of a commonwealth that fifteen years ago 

 had a future. We should satisfy ourselves that we have 

 a great responsibility in this conservation movement. 

 We should realize that we can trust ourselves rather 

 than be compelled to comply with the whims and child- 

 ish theories of some pleasant gentlemen who seem to 

 think that they are endowed with a divine right to rule, 

 and to restrict settlement, for the benefit of wild ani- 

 mals and trees. The people of the West have the ca- 

 pacity, the honesty and the ability to administer those 

 resources which were, we had presumed, been dedicated 

 to our use by Congress. Our progress as a state must 

 depend upon our uniting every element in a demonstra- 

 tion which will convince the nation at large that we are 

 able to deal with all problems relating to the control and 

 development of natural resources and to show that 

 proper use rather than conservation is essential. 



:::: NEW MEXICO :: :: 



BY OI.ANIJER. 



The probability of the Territory of New Mexico be- 

 coming a state has already had its effect. All over the 

 territory people are looking for an immediate increase in 

 business and increased values. Those who have gotten in 

 feel that they are very fortunate. 



The Bluewater Development Company contemplates 

 raising its dam to a height which will enable it to pro- 

 vide water for considerable additional acreage, which 

 should cause a decided movement in the valley. It is 

 rapidly approaching its limit on the present construction 

 and there is little doubt that this season will see the lands 

 pretty well taken up. 



The results in crops and prices obtained therefor last 

 season have stimulated those who are here to increase their 

 acreage. The location of the lands right on the railroad, 

 the high prices obtained for all products of the soil, 90 

 cents per bushel for oats and $16 per ton for alfalfa, the 

 free range surrounding the valley, the fact that New 

 Mexico imports 85 per cent of what it eats, all assure great 

 success for the settler. 



Perhaps one writing from here gets or appears to get, 

 overenthusiastic, but he at least feels that he has a good 

 deal of justification in the fact that no one who has seen 

 the valley has failed to fall in love with it, with the possi- 

 ble exception of one man, and he had walked several 

 hundred miles. 



Work is progressing rapidly and it looks as though 

 any one who wants to get some of the land close to town, 

 and which has already been under cultivation, had better 

 get it quickly. 



(Alt inquiries may he addressed to the editor of this paper.) 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age, one year, and 1 ', 

 the Primer of Irrigation, a 260-page finely illustrated 

 work for new beginners in irrigation. 



