80 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



pected from the irrigated farms. In this respect the 

 exposition has fulfilled its purpose and has opened the 

 eyes of Chicagoans to the proven worth of irrigated 

 lands. 



While the Chicago exhibition was well patronized by 

 citizens and was doubtless an excellent financial venture 

 for the Chicago Tribune under whose auspices it was 

 held, exhibitors find some reason for complaint at the 

 lack of attendance by farmers and residents in suburban 

 communities, recognized as being the most likely to 

 grasp the full importance of the show. 



It is but natural that THE IRRIGATION AGE should 

 commend, along general lines, the management of an 

 exposition that has accomplished much for the west. To 

 the complaint as voiced by many western exhibitors 

 against the arbitrary rulings and seeming arrogance of 

 the managers, it must be stated, that the exposition was 

 planned and matured by the Chicago Tribune, a com- 

 mercial organization, and that too great motives of 

 philanthrophy should not therefore have been ascribed to 

 the promoter. Neither a daily newspaper nor a monthly, 

 class journal is an eleemosynary institution a bank 

 account is a necessity for its operation. 



Under co-operative management an exhibition of 

 a style similar to the United States Land and Irrigation 

 Exposition might possibly have been organized to pre- 

 vent many of the criticisms and complaints so generally 

 heard on the floor of the Coliseum. 



Results from this exposition are not to be measured 

 by either inquiry at display counters or sale of lands at 

 the show. It was a demonstration, where the west as 

 a whole proved the utility of irrigation methods in the 

 production of crops. From this show large inquiry must 

 result from those who were personally present and who' 

 have reflected upon the problem, or from those who have 

 been interested by the statements of friends or neigh- 

 bors in describing the marvelous fruits and produce seen 

 at the Chicago irrigation exposition. 



There is a deal of merit in the plan ad- 

 tngineers vanced by Chairman McCorkle, of the 

 May Meet Pueblo Board of Control, for a meeting of 

 at Pueblo irrigation engineers in that city at the 

 Congress. time of the eighteenth -session of the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress. It is to be 

 hoped that this plan will be carried forward with vigor 

 and that there may be formed an organization of en- 

 gineers which shall meet with the congress in succeeding 

 years. 



Aside from the benefits to be gained by the members 

 of this organization through yearly conference and ex- 

 change of ideas, their presence would add materially to 

 the strength of the irrigation congress, for it is rarely 

 that questions do not arise which, while interesting to 

 practical irrigators, cannot be discussed intelligibly and 



in detail except by those who are familiar with engineer- 

 ing lore and practice. Then, too, the financier and the 

 projectors of irrigation works would be brought into 

 close communication and personal acquaintance with 

 the practical engineer. These three agents are the vital 

 forces in private reclamation work and ties of personal 

 friendship would aid in their co-operation for mutual 

 benefit. 



If the time taken at the seventeenth session by 

 Forester Pinchot and his followers in a futile attempt to 

 create a "water power trust" had been used to advantage 

 by the presentation of an address on some practical en- 

 gineering problem, the congress would have better main- 

 tained its dignity and been of more value to irrigators. 



It is anticipated that state engineers from all terri- 

 tory west of the Mississippi river would eagerly embrace 

 the opportunity to meet with the irrigators and exchange 

 ideas. By properly fomenting interest in the proposed 

 organization, Chairman McCorkle would do an excellent 

 service for the National Irrigation Congress. 



The long smoldering agitation of Ways 

 and Means for combating the alarming 

 tendency to herd in the cities to the detri- 

 ment of the substantial and vital interests 

 of the country, finally culminated and 

 found expression through the medium of the Farm Land 

 Congress, called into being through the commendable 

 activity of the Hearst newspapers at large, and the 

 "Chicago Examiner" in particular. 



That the Congress has justified its initial purpose 

 and its continued existence, has been sufficiently demon- 

 strated by the generous response upon the part of all 

 who were invited to co-operate by the initiators of the 

 movement a response far exceeding the most sanguine 

 expectations of its promoters. 



Delegates to the number of -five hundred, from 

 every quarter of the country, the very flower of the 

 land, were in attendance, and without exception devoted 

 their best thought and energies toward the solution of 

 the many matters of detail concerned in the solution of 

 the tremendous problems confronting them. 



That the men responsible for the inauguration and 

 successful execution of this enterprise were fully alive 

 and equal to the situation is evidenced by the elevated 

 character of the committees and of the list of speakers, 

 and by the subjects assigned to them. 



Resolutions often mean little, but the resolutions 

 adopted by this Congress, composed as it was, to so 

 large an extent, of members of law-making bodies, can- 

 not be regarded in any other light than as the fore- 

 runners of desired and much-needed legislation. The 

 resolutions, as finally adopted, must appeal to the highest 

 sense of patriotism of every student of economic affairs. 



From the standpoint of THE IRRIGATION AGE, 



, 



