212 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



that the prestige of so strong a publication would lead 

 other publishers to accept it as truth, this latter being 

 impossible were it known that it emanated in the offices 

 of the National Irrigation -Association. 



We reproduce below the editorial mentioned: 

 "In the evolution of schemes for thwarting the 

 work of a Christian church the devil has now got be- 

 yond the simple expedient of joining it himself, with 

 the purpose of sowing dissension among the brethren 

 and so breaking it up. That game has been so often 

 played, and the interloper so often photographed, that 

 he is too easily detected when he offers himself for 

 baptism. Instead, he now gathers his servants into a 

 church of his own, labels it 'Christian,' and employs 

 smooth tongued 'evangelists' to proclaim that there 

 alone is the gospel of righteousness preached in all its 

 purity. 



"Similar to the course pursued by the arch-enemy 

 of man is that now adopted by the enemies of the na- 

 tional irrigation law, the advocates of land monopoly 

 and the men who oppose the repeal of the land laws 

 now perverted almost wholly to purposes of fraud in 

 organizing the so-called 'American Irrigators' Federa- 



all their previous record proclaims them the enemies 

 of everything sought to be accomplished by the National 

 Irrigation Association, in the support of whose work 

 between three and four thousand of the most distin- 

 guished citizens of the United States are co-operating. 

 "These men are smooth of tongue, and adepts in 

 disguising their real purposes by circulating much of 

 the literature of the genuine irrigation propaganda. 

 But the press of the country should take early warning 

 of their real objects, the accomplishment of which would 

 spell ruin to everything which President Roosevelt and 

 his followers have sought through the establishment of 

 the reclamation service." 



NOTES. 



The following from The Portland Oregonian of a 

 recent date expresses the feeling of the majority 

 throughout the West regarding the best method: 



W. J. Furnish, of Pendleton, has just completed 

 an irrigation ditch which will water 20,000 acres of 

 land. The long-expected government irrigation projects 

 are still "pending," although Oregon has contributed 



A Western Scene. 



tion,' the formation of which, at a meeting in Omaha, 

 was announced in Thursday morning's dispatches. 



"The men most prominent in that meeting, with 

 some exceptions, have been heretofore among the most 

 active in opposing the beneficent work of the National 

 Irrigation Association. They have demanded the subor- 

 dination of national irrigation to private projects. They 

 have opposed the limitation of individual holdings in 

 irrigated tracts to 160 acres or less, and demanded that 

 capitalists be permitted to absorb all the government 

 land they can pay for. They are the enemies of Sec- 

 retary Hitchcock in his efforts to check the absorption 

 of the public lands into vast holdings by the fraudulent 

 use of the timber and stone act, the desert land act 

 and the commutation clause of the homestead act. 



"It is the purpose of this new organization to pick 

 up the derelict irrigation congress abandoned by the 

 practical workers of the National Irrigation Association 

 as no longer serving any useful purpose and use it as 

 a pirate craft cruising in the selfish interests of specu- 

 lators and monopolists as against the small home-builder. 

 They regard the home-builder as an obstacle in the way 

 of 'enterprise.' In their view, one great energetic land- 

 owner, occupying ten thousand acres and employing a 

 thousand peasants, does more to Imild up the country 5 

 than a thousand independent farmers each tilling his 

 own irrigated ten-acre plat. They may deny this, but 



vast sums to the reclamation fund. Private enterprise 

 is sometimes, in fact generally, hampered for want of 

 funds, while the government is seldom troubled from 

 this cause. But when it comes to doing things, the pri- 

 vate individual or corporation has the government dis- 

 tanced so far that it is not sighted until a year or two 

 after the private enterprise is perfected. The govern- 

 ment may some day build an irrigation canal in Uma- 

 tilla county, but from present appearances Mr. Furnish 

 will be picking peaches from the orchards on his irrigat- 

 ed land before the water is turned in the government 

 canal. 



"A-GOIN" SOME." 



The Kansas cyclone, without much formality, had 

 picked the wandering tramp up, whirling and twirling 

 him about unmercifully, finally landing him abruptly 

 in the yard of a minister's home. Soon the storm was 

 all past and the good minister bestirred himself to 

 assist the unfortunate. The tramp was pulling him- 

 self together when the minister came up. 



"Are you hurt much ?" asked the minister. 



"No." 



"Any bones broken?" 



"No." 



"The Lord must have been with you." 



"Well, if He wuz He was a-goin' some." 



