FAIRBANKS ON IRRIGATION 



The Vice-President of the United States 

 Attends the National Irrigation Congress 



"Mr. President and Members of the 

 National Irrigation Congress : It is im- 

 possible to exaggerate the importance 

 of the work in which you are engaged. 

 It is fraught with far-reaching inter- 

 est, not only to the present but to 

 the future. It is a subject to which 

 I have given considerable attention 

 during my public service, for I have 

 been a firm believer in the feasibility 

 of national irrigation, as now contem- 

 plated, in the arid and semi-arid re- 

 gions. It will bring under cultivation 

 large areas of the public domain which 

 would Otherwise remain sterile and 

 practically uninhabitable. 



"The rapid increase of population 

 and the pre-emption and settlement of 

 the arable portions of the public lands 

 has rendered it important that we 

 should reclaim the waste places and 

 make them productive through a wise 

 irrigation system which lies beyond the 

 capacity of individual effort. This pol- 

 icy is in the highest degree beneficent. 

 It not only enlarges the field of whole- 

 some, individual opportunity, but it is 

 in a very especial degree, of national 

 significance. It increases the oppor- 

 tunity for the development of the agri- 

 cultural regions of the republic, for 

 multiplying the number of American 

 farms and American homes, thereby 

 augmenting the great conservative 

 forces which are the surest reliance 

 and safeguard of our political insti- 

 tutions. I firmly believe that the most 

 conservative elements will always be 

 found upon the farm. You will gen- 

 erally find among the millions through- 

 out the great agricultural regions less 

 tendency than elsewhere to incon- 

 siderate and hysterical judgment. 



"The general subject which is under 

 consideration is one of those great 

 practical, everyday questions which 

 requires the application of good busi- 



ness sense. The real benefactor, we 

 understand, is the one who makes two 

 blades of grass grow where one grew 

 before. Those who have been engaged 

 in the promotion of irrigation fall most 

 distinctly within this definition and are 

 benefactors of their day and kind. 

 They have the satisfaction of knowing 

 that they have in a measure promoted 

 the interest and welfare of the home- 

 makers. The home-builders of America 

 have been and are as a rule, a hardy 

 people, in love with nature and enam- 

 ored of their institutions. They have 

 thus far overcome many of the seem- 

 ingly impossible obstacles of nature 

 in the great arid and semi-arid regions, 

 and have erected their habitation and 

 made prosperous and happy neighbor- 

 hoods. They are entitled to all suc- 

 cess in their beneficent enterprise. 

 Some of our wisest statesmen, of a 

 not very remote past, had but little 

 conception of the possibilities which 

 many of you have opened up to our 

 country and our civilization. We 

 may well believe that, with our larg- 

 er experience and greater light, we 

 have as inadequate a conception of 

 the vast possibilities of this western 

 section of the country, as many of 

 our predecessors had of the large 

 development which has already been 

 accomplished. The growth of irri- 

 gation thus far is largely due to in- 

 dividual and corporate enterprise. It 

 has been carried on by our people for 

 many years in a more or less satis- 

 factory way, but it has not been until 

 recently the subject of national con- 

 sideration. No one can appreciate 

 the magnitude and the possibilities 

 of the reclamation service in which 

 the national government is engaged 

 and which you are met to encourage, 

 who has not looked upon what irri- 

 gation has already accomplished. Go 



