334 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of 1 per cent of the area of the forest reserves was 

 burned over in 1905. This achievement was due both 

 to the Forest Service and to the effective assistance of 

 settlers and others in and near the reserves. Every- 

 thing the Government has ever spent upon its forest 

 work is a small price to pay for the knowledge that the 

 streams which make your prosperity can be and arc 

 being freed from the ever-present threat of forest fires. 



The long-standing and formerly bitter differences 

 between the stockmen and the forest officers are nearly 

 all settled. Those which remain are in process of 

 settlement. Hearty co-operation exists almost every- 

 where between the officers of the Forest Service and the 

 local associations of stockmen, who are appointing ad- 

 visory committees which are systematically consulted 

 by the Forest Service on all questions in which they 

 are concerned. This most satisfactory condition of mu- 

 tual help will be as welcome to you as it is to the ad- 

 ministration and to the stockmen. To the stockmen it 

 means more, and more certain, grass; to you, because 

 of the better protection and wiser use of the range, it 

 means steadier stream-flow and more water. 



The sales of forest-reserve timber to settlers, 

 miners, lumbermen, and other users are increasing very 

 rapidly, and in that way also the reserves are success- 

 fully meeting a growing need. 



Lands in the forest reserves that are more valuable 

 for agriculture than for forest purposes are being 

 opened to settlement and entry as fast as their agricul- 

 tural character can be ascertained. There is therefore 

 no longer excuse for saying that the reserves retard 

 the legitimate settlement and development of the coun- 

 try. On the contrary, they promote and sustain that 

 development, and they will do so in no way more 

 powerfully than through their direct contributions to 

 the schools and roads. Ten per cent of all the money 

 received from the forest reserves goes to the states 

 for the use of the counties in which the reserves lie, 

 to be used for schools and roads. The amount of this 

 contribution is nearly $70,000 for the first year. It 

 will grow steadily larger, and will form a certain and 

 permanent source of income, which would not have 

 been the case with the taxes whose place it takes. 



Finally, a body of intelligent, practical, well- 

 trained men, citizens of the West, is being built up 

 men in whose hands the public interests, including your 

 own, are and will be safe. 



All these results are good; but they have not been 

 achieved by the Forest Service alone. On the contrary, 

 they represent also the needs and suggestions of the 

 people of the whole West. They embody constant, 

 changes and adjustments to meet these suggestions and 

 needs. The forest policy of the Government in the 

 West has now become what the West desired it to be. 

 It is a national policy wider than the boundaries of 

 any state, and larger than the interests of any single 

 industry. Of course it can not give any set of men 

 exactly what they would choose. Undoubtedly the 

 irrigator would often like to have less stock on hi? 

 watersheds, while the stockman wants more. The lum- 

 berman would like to cut more timber, the settler and 

 the miner would often like him to cut less. The county 

 authorities want to see more money coming in for 

 schools and roads, while the lumberman and stock- 

 man object to the rise in value of timber and grass. 

 But the interests of the people as a whole are, I repeat, 

 safe in the hands of the Forest Service. 



By keeping the public forests in the public hands 

 our forest policy substitutes the good of the whole 

 people for the profits of the privileged few. With that 

 result none will quarrel except the men who are losing 

 the chance of personal profit at the public expense. 



Our western forest policy is based upon meeting 

 the wishes of the best public sentiment of the whole 

 West. It proposes to create new reserves wherever 

 forest lands still vacant are found in the public domain, 

 and to give the reserves already made the highest pos- 

 sible usefulness to all the people. So far our promises 

 to the people in regard to it have all been made good; 

 and I have faith that this policy will be carried to suc- 

 cessful completion, because I believe that the people 

 of the West are behind it. 



Sincerely yours, 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



Vice-President Fairbanks addressed the Congress 

 as follows: 



"Mr. President and Members of the National Irri- 

 gation Congress: It is impossible to exaggerate the 

 importance of the work in which you are engaged. It 

 is fraught with far-reaching interest, 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 contemplated, in the 

 arid and semi-arid regions. It will bring under culti- 

 ation 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 policy is in the 

 highest degree beneficent. It not only enlarges the 

 field of wholesome, individual opportunity, but it is 

 in a very especial degree of national significance. It 

 increases the opportunity for the development of the 

 agricultural 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 

 institutions. I firmly believe that the most conserva- 

 tive elements will always be found upon the farm. 

 You will generally find among the millions throughout 

 the great agricultural regions less tendency than else- 

 where to inconsiderate and hysterical judgment. 



"The general subject which is under consideration 

 is one of those great practical, everyday questions which 

 requires the application of good business 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 bene- 

 factors of their day and kind. They have the satisfac- 

 tion 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 enamored of 

 grown up anotheiiiirv|biii cmfwrdl cmfrd cmfwyp ppp 

 their institutions. They have thus far overcome many 

 of the seemingly impossible obstacles of nature in the 

 great arid and semi-arid regions, and have erected 

 their habitation and made prosperous and happy neigh- 



