630 



CONSERVATION 



mation is a national enterprise and de- 

 pends for its development on the will 

 of all the people, as it is one part in a 

 much larger plan for the utilization of 

 land, and as the people in all parts of 

 the country have a right to ask for in- 

 formation, I submit that it is not only 

 wise, but that it is the obligation of 

 this Congress to hold sessions in the 

 East as well as in the West. The West 

 cannot live to itself alone. 



My contention, therefore, is that the 

 people are necessarily interested in ir- 

 rigation as a national enterprise, that 

 irrigation-reclamation is properly only 

 one part of a slowly evolving national 



plan, and also that every man, whether 

 on irrigated land or elsewhere, carries 

 a natural responsibility to leave his 

 land at least as good as he found it. 

 The public domain must be safe- 

 guarded for the entire people, whose 

 estate it is; and if the individual bears 

 a responsibility to posterity, still more 

 does society bear this responsibility. 

 All schemes of protection for the pub- 

 lic resources need to be constantly re- 

 adjusted, in the details of their opera- 

 tion, to local conditions ; but in the 

 end, the fundamental development of 

 the country must rest on the principles 

 and policies of Theodore Roosevelt. 



r 



Headgates and Part of Canal, Bigham River 



