422 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



EIGHTEENTH NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS 



TO BE HELD IN PUEBLO, COLORADO, SEPTEMBER 26 30, 1910. EVERY INDICATION 

 THAT THIS WILL BE THE LARGEST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL EVENT 

 IN THE HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION. 

 By R 



H 



FAXON 



THE Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress came to 

 the State of Colorado and to Pueblo at the exact 

 psychological moment. 



The eyes of the country are turned today on the West, 

 and on the Mountain-West, at that. 



There is greater interest today in development in the 

 big work of the West than there ever has been before. 



Pueblo is located in the very heart of the irrigated 

 West, and is the center of an irrigated territory that is 

 surprising in its accomplishments and in the future before 

 it. Pueblo is also the seat of large effort of a successful 

 nature in extending the irrigated area of Colorado. 



It is peculiarly significant that the greatest sessions 

 of this foremost development agency of the land should 

 be held, first, in the state having the greatest irrigated area 

 of the states of the West for Colorado has more than 3^ 

 million acres under water; and, second, in the city, the sec- 

 ond in size in Colorado and the third in size and import- 

 ance in the Mountain-West, that was named for a tribe of 

 Indians that practiced the ancient art of irrigation cen- 

 turies ago. 



Colorado stands foremost among irrigated states. 

 More than a generation ago indeed, 40 years ago irriga- 

 tion was cradled in the famous north Colorado district. 

 Only the endeavors of the Pueblo Indians in the great 

 Southwest and of the Mormons in Utah antedated effort 

 in this state. The finished type of irrigation in the north 

 Colorado district, along the South Platte, is of the high- 

 est possible character, and has long achieved the wonder of 

 the country and the accomplishment of complete success. 



Pueblo for some years has aspired to the most dis- 

 tinguished honor of entertaining this organization that 

 former President Roosevelt has so aptly called, "the great- 

 est development agency of the country." As long ago as 

 1907, when the fifteenth congress met at Sacramento, Cal., 

 delegates will remember there was insistence on the part 

 of this great second city of Colorado for the honors. But 

 Albuquerque was there with greater organization and was 

 successful. Again at Albuquerque, in 1908, Pueblo sent its 

 splendid delegation and band to the thriving New Mexico 

 metropolis with another invitation. Spokane had carefully 

 mapped out its campaign, however, and the congress went 

 there, and in August last year held what had been, up to 

 that time, the most successful gathering of the congress. 

 Last year, at Spokane, Pueblo went with determination 

 and a rousing delegation to capture the big event it had so 

 long desired, and it was successful. 



Pueblo Accomplishes a Great Task. 



It is not too much, perhaps, to say that Pueblo went 

 about the work of arrangement for what it appreciated 

 would be a great task, a little earlier and a little harder 

 than any of its predecessors. Early in October, the board 

 of control was formed, and early in November the offices 

 opened in the Central block at Pueblo. From then on, 

 a most active and energetic campaign was prosecuted, to 

 the end that now, as these lines are written, the work of 

 organization and publicity have gone forward with more 

 gratifying results than ever before at a like time preceding 

 the annual sessions. 



The board of control of the eighteenth congress is 

 larger than any of those preceding it- It numbers sixty- 

 five. Of this number forty are residents of Pueblo, and 

 twenty-three from the state of Colorado at large. Three 

 are from weste r n Kansas, from the far-famed lower Ar- 

 kansas valley, and from the town of Garden City tiat 

 stands out as the capital of the lower valley even as Pueblo 



is of the valley as a whole, and that is the center of a vast 

 irrigated area where pumping is in vogue. 



It it perhaps too much to undertake to review in de- 

 tail the personnel of the board of control, numbering a-, it 

 does so many. The chairman is P. J. Dugan, kn&wn all 

 over Colorado and the West as a foremost authority on 

 land, irrigation, and mining law. He has been active in 

 local affairs, and is peculiarly fitted for the position. 



The vice-chairman of the board is A. G. Watson, an 

 active man in the commercial organization life of the town. 

 a delegate to Albuquerque in 1908, and the Pueblo leader 

 at Spokane in 1909, He is past secretary of the state fair 

 association, and has been a director of the Colorado com- 

 mercial association. 



The secretary of the board of control and also its 

 director of publicity is R. H. Faxon, editor of the Evening 

 Telegram, Garden City, Kan. Mr. Faxon has been a 

 delegate to the several congresses, twice secretary of the 

 committee on resolutions, and was active in the Pueblo 

 campaign at Spokane. 



The treasurer of the board is Alva Adams, three times 

 governor of the State of Colorado, one of its most dis- 

 tinguished citizens, and a leading resident of Pueblo, where 

 he has lived for more than a third of a century. 



The executive committee is composed of thirteen 

 members, and has done a great work in behalf of the con- 

 gress. Besides the four officers above enumerated, it 

 includes: 



Asbury White, one of the leading merchants of 

 Pueblo; George D. Meston, who was one of the Pueblo 

 delegation at Spokane and whose chief work this year has 

 been the erection of the splendid Congress Hotel that will 

 play so important a part in the congress deliberations; \V. 

 D. Keen, president of the Real Estate Exchange, and one 

 of the active men in the commercial organization life of 

 the town; C. K. McHarg, secretary of the principal ditch 

 association in the Pueblo district; P. J. Byrnes, an editor 

 and publisher of Pueblo; C. W. Daniels, a retired mer- 

 chant and a heavy owner of irrigated and improved lands; 

 J. A. Barclay, manager of the Chieftain; F. S. Hoag, man- 

 ager of the Evening Star-Journal; and J. S. Greene, for- 

 mer state engineer and a well-known consulting engineer. 



Among others who are members of the board of con- 

 trol are: 



Senator Simon Guggenheim. Representative John A. 

 Martin, Governor John F. Shafroth, Mayor A. L. Fugard, 

 P'rofessor L. G. Carpenter, head of the engineering depart- 

 ment of the State Agricultural College, and former state 

 engineer. 



The board has met frequently and counseled together 

 in an interesting and profitable way. 



Entire State Is Aroused. 



Pueblo's chief desire in the matter has been to make 

 the eighteenth session of state-wide importance and char- 

 acter, and to this end. the entire state has been aroused 

 and organized. This broad spirit on the part of Pueblo as 

 the entertaining city, and bearing the brunt as it must, 

 may well act as precedent to future entertaining cities. 



The national officers of the congress are such as to 

 inspire the closest attention and consideration, and the 

 most complete confidence. 



The president is B. A. Fowler of Phoenix, Ariz., for- 

 mer secretary of the congress, president of the Salt River 

 Water-Users' Association, and one of the foremost men in 

 the congress work for the past decade. 



The secretary is Arthur Hooker, an active, alert young 

 man from Spokane, who was secretary last year of the 

 board of control, and whose heart is in his labor. 



The chairman of the board of governors the execu- 

 tive committee of the executive committee is R. Insinger 

 of Spokane, who made such an admirable chairman of 











