THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



103 



tributed $2,456,000 from the sale of its land, will be 

 benefited very little by the work of the reclamation 

 service and in fact no plans have yet been devised or 

 even seriously thought of for work in that State. Sena- 

 tor McCumber's bill is evidently intended to bring 

 about a more even distribution of the enormous fund 

 already amounting to 'over $16,000,000 and to secure 

 to those States that have contributed large sums greater 

 benefits than are now possible under the reclamation 

 act. The people of Colorado are active in opposing Mc- 

 Cumber's bill, for they fear that, should it become a 

 law, it may interfere with the work on the Gunnison 

 project, which is to cost about $2,000,000, and actually 

 prevent, for many years at least, work in any other 

 section of the State. 



Mr. Willis T. Beardsley, of the Proceed- 

 Bad Proof- ings Publishing Co., of Ogden, which is 

 reading. printing the proceedings of the last irri- 



gation congress, writes us that he is 

 deeply pained because THE IRRIGATION AGE said last 

 month that members of the congress were expected to 

 pay for a copy of the proceedings. Like General Buller 

 and Admiral Alexieff, Mr. Beardsley is filled with 

 "regrets." He "regrets" that an impression that any- 

 body should pay for a copy of the proceedings should 

 get out because his arrangement with Mr. Keisel "calls 

 for one copy postpaid to the address of each delegate." 

 This is good news, but nobody would have guessed it 

 from the circular that Mr. Beardsley and his partner. 

 Gilbert McClurg, sent out in regard to these proceed- 

 ings. Mr. Beardsley further "regrets" that "the circu- 

 lar is somewhat misleading in this regard and occurred 

 through careless proofreading." He also "regrets" that 

 "there are some errors in it, as you will note." Really, 

 Mr. Beardsley and his partner, Mr. McClurg, ought to 

 issue another circular correcting the mistakes of the 

 first. Mr. Beardsley does not admit that it is a mistake 

 that the Proceedings Publishing Company is boning 

 everybody for advertising at $50 a page and begging 

 ambitious gentlemen to have their portraits published 

 at so much per. The National Irrigation Congress can 

 much better afford to print its own proceedings here- 

 after than to have its name put to such base uses. 



John P. Irish calls attention to one omission in 

 Senator Hansbrough's bill, which he thinks may imperil 

 the irrigation work of the Government. Mr. Irish be- 

 lieves that the income from the marketed resources of 

 timber and stone lands as provided in the bill should 

 . 'go into irrigation directly by adding them to the irriga- 

 tion fund, or indirectly by devoting them to the admin- 

 istration of forest reserves to protect the water sources 

 from impairment. We agree with Mr. Irish that it will 

 be well if the campaign against the irrigation income 

 stops at the conservative measure of the Senator from 

 North Dakota. 



Gifford Pinchot, Forester of United 

 Mr. Pinchot States, is one of the most prominent 

 on a social figures in Washington. He enjoys 



String. the confidence of President Roosevelt 



perhaps as much as any other man in 

 public life. He is rich, having inherited some millions, 

 a bachelor who knows Washington society thoroughly 

 and who is forever in the eye of designing mothers of 

 marriageable daughters. He understands the business 

 of forestry, however, and loves the work. The Govern- 

 ment gives him a barrel of money to spend in his de- 

 partment every year and he has wide liberty to exploit 

 his theories about forest planting and forest saving. 



Mr. Pinchot is a guileless young man, however, in 

 many ways and has a reputation of being easily manipu- 

 lated by designing men. Just now he is the special ob- 

 ject of the attentions of that devoted band of gentlemen 

 who want the land laws repealed for the benefit of future 

 generations, and incidentally for themselves. The Press 

 Bureau, which is supported by the contributions of the 

 land corporations, has recently sent to all the news- 

 papers of the United States a long article of fulsome 

 praise of Mr. Pinchot's peculiar genius as a forester. 

 Along with this delightful bit of journalistic imagery, 

 the manager of the bureau couples an offer of Mr. 

 Pinchot's photograph in a characteristic pose, that of a 

 man who is thinking deep, hard thoughts, which the 

 newspapers have had made into a cut at their own 

 expense. 



All this is well enough, but the pity of it is that 

 the Press Bureau through a subtle and skillful manipu- 

 lation of the article, makes it appear that Mr. Pinchot 

 is the special champion of their plans and is in full 

 sympathy with all of their schemes to take from settle- 

 ment the millions of acres of available lands now open. 

 They quote him as supporting their efforts to repeal 

 the timber and stone act and make it appear that as the 

 representative of President Roosevelt and the Govern- 

 ment itself, he is in hearty sympathy with all of the 

 underhanded work that is being done by the combina- 

 tion. On another page of this issue of THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE is a reproduction of the letter that was sent out 

 under the auspices of the National Irrigation Associa- 

 tion under which the land corporations do business. 

 It was intended as an alluring bait for newspaper men, 

 but so far as our press clipping bureau has informed us, 

 only one paper, a farm weekly with a circulation of per- 

 haps 600 in far-off Massachusetts, has even nibbled at 

 it. It is really too bad that a man of Mr. Pinchot's 

 recognized ability and social accomplishments and in- 

 fluence should allow himself to be made a cat's paw by 

 this unholy combination of land grabbers. Indeed it is 

 'to be doubted whether the chief forester himself is 

 aware of the uses to which his name and position are 

 being put by these enemies of the public good. 



