102 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



In our issue of January, in which appeared 

 Roosevelt and editorial notes by G. L. Shumway, that 

 Assistants. gentleman attempted to explain from his 

 viewpoint the situation of affairs in the 

 West, and he took occasion to mildly criticise the plans 

 of federal officials. 



We are publishing in this issue other comments by 

 Mr. Shumway, which will no doubt attract wide atten- 

 tion, owing to the fact that he gives inside information 

 of actual conditions as viewed from contact and asso- 

 ciation therewith. 



While the editor is fully convinced of the sincerity 

 and honest purpose of Mr. Shumway, it is his impres- 

 sion that his views concerning the head of the forestry 

 department are slightly overdrawn. The fact of the 

 matter appears to be that too much authority is vested 

 in Mr. Pinchot and some of his assistants. These men 

 are unquestionably honest, but, like many others who 

 hold positions which have become important through 

 Western development, have assumed an authority far in 

 excess of the intent of the law which formed the office 

 now filled by them. There is no doubt but that the 

 gentleman discussed by Mr. Shumway intends to be fair. 

 His action, however, has created much adverse criticism, 

 and it is our impression that sooner or later some other 

 administration than the present will curb him, and the 

 people will be given liberty to bring their grievances 

 before others in authority, when justice will be done 

 to all interested. It must not be understood that 

 any direct criticism is suggested concerning the Presi- 

 dent of the United States. The fact of the matter is 

 that all who have studied President Eoosevelt's adminis- 

 tration will agree that his intentions are eminently fair. 

 It is also a clearly defined fact that his confidence has 

 been abused by department heads, not that there is the 

 slightest inclination, in our opinion, among these men 

 toward what is known as graft, the mistakes made being 

 more in the line of a desire or inclination toward self- 

 agrandizenrent, a tendency to form cliques and combina- 

 tions in Washington, which will have more or less 

 influence with congressmen and senators and permit 

 individual heads of departments to carry out plans in 

 a .direction which suits them best, rather than in such 

 form as to benefit the large majority of those interested 

 in the West. 



Senator Heyburn of Idaho has given some inside 

 information concerning the forestry conditions in his 

 State and some conditions prevailing in other Western 

 States where large bodies of timber are to be found. 



There is no doubt that many of the errors com- 

 plained of by Mr. Shumway and others would have been 

 corrected had Secretary Hitchcock continued in office. 

 This gentleman, as well as Secretary Wilson, has been 

 severely criticised by the press, but it will be learned 

 some day that both of them aimed at fairness in all their 

 suggestions and decisions. 



The management of the Missouri Pacific 

 Instruction by Railway seems to be more alive to the 

 Train Method, possibility of development under drain- 

 age and irrigation than are many of the 

 other lines which traverse the West. 



This company will run, so we are informed, a 

 drainage and good-roads train over its lines in Arkansas 

 and Louisiana, January 28 to February 11, and public 

 meetings will be held at prominent points, the first stop 

 to be at Wynne, Ark., an the 28th. 



This enterprise will be in charge of D. E. King, 

 industrial commissioner of that system. J. 0. Wright 

 of the office of irrigation and drainage investigations, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, will present 

 the subject of drainage at each meeting by talks illus- 

 trated by maps, diagrams and lantern slides. 



This is the first attempt to promote drainage by 

 the popular train method, and the commissioner of the 

 Missouri Pacific is to be commended for advancing the 

 interests of the farmers of the valley lands as well as 

 his road by teaching drainage. 



A notable feature in connection with the increased 

 interest in the subject of drainage is the large number 

 of new drainage contracting firms which have come into 

 existence and which now seem sufficient to meet the 

 demands, a matter upon which experts had some doubts 

 two years ago. Manufacturers of excavating machinery 

 are also multiplying, which is indicative of the general 

 growth of interest in the subject. 





Colonel 

 Maxson. 



We are presenting in this issue a portrait 

 of Col. H. B. Maxson, second vice-presi- 

 dent, National Irrigation Congress. Col- 

 onel Maxson has held the office of secretary for the past 

 eight years, and has taken an active part in all of the 

 congresses during that time. He is a man of prom- 

 inence in his own State is chairman of the Eepublican 

 County Central Committee of Washoe county, Nevada, 

 is clerk of the Board of Education of Eeno, Nevada, 

 and fills, as well, other positions of importance in his 

 State and district. 



We are presenting elsewhere in this issue a report 

 prepared by Colonel Maxson as secretary of the Four- 

 teenth National Irrigation Congress held at Boise, 

 Idaho, in September, 1906. 



Colonel Maxson was also commissioner from his 

 State to the World's Fair at Omaha, in 1898, and at 

 Paris, in 1900, and filled the same position by appoint- 

 ment from the State of Arizona, at the New Orleans' 

 Exposition in 1885, so it may be seen that he is no 

 "spring chicken" in public service. 





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