THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



109 



there began the building up of a great empire which 

 has since been consummated, for with the adoption of 

 this policy of national irrigation, the great foundation 

 was laid upon which to build up a great empire in the 

 West. 



At the ninth annual session of the National Irri- 

 gation Congress, a strong memorial to the Congress of 

 the United States was adopted, and a committee con- 

 sisting of Governor Prince of New Mexico, Maxson of 

 Nevada; Maxwell of Illinois; Gowdy of Colorado; Fer- 

 guson and Wolford of California ; Hurtt of Idaho, Lunt 

 of Colorado ; Fowler and Murphy of Arizona ; Goebel of 

 Washington and Stearns of Oregon, was appointed, all 

 of whom proceeded at once to Washington, D. C., and 

 there met Hon. T. F. Walsh, then president of the Irri- 



Kansas Home and Field of Sugar Beets. 



gation Congress. They waited upon the President of the 

 United States and also the Secretary of the Interior 

 and the Secretary of Agriculture, where they left copies 

 of the memorial adopted, and urged action upon its 

 lines in the strongest manner possible, and the full 

 report of this committee was made in the proceedings 

 of the Tenth Irrigation Congress, held at Colorado 

 Springs in 1902, shortly after the National Irrigation 

 Act had been passed, and signed by the President. 



When the committees from different sessions of 

 this congress began to hammer away at the doors of 

 the National Capitol, the importance of this congress 

 was at once recognized, and after the West had agreed 

 upon the most feasible form of action as they believed, 

 and were united with the national irrigation policies, 

 the attendance became larger, and members of both 



A Big Beet Dump, Garden City, Kas. 



branches of Congress, together with the governors of 

 many States, began attending our sessions, where a 

 general exchange of ideas was made, and national irri- 

 gation began to assume shape and receive consideration 

 from the halls of Congress. The Secretary of the In- 

 terior gave this congress very complimentary mention in 



his report in 1900, and when the President, in his 

 message to Congress in December, 1901, endorsed na- 

 tional irrigation, general interest was aroused, and 

 when, later, during the session of Congress, a National 

 Irrigation Law was passed by members of all the great 

 political parties, it marked an epoch in the history of 

 our Government second to none, and when that law was 

 signed on June 17, 1902, it laid the foundation for the 

 building up of a mighty empire in the arid West, and 

 the making of homes for millions of people who will 

 come after us. 



By following the text of the bill, it will be seen 

 that it is self-operative, that the proceeds from the sale 

 of productive lands will be used to reclaim the non- 

 productive lands of the arid West, without asking a 

 dollar from the National Treasury, and as there are now 

 twenty-seven great projects under way, and nearly thirty 

 millions of dollars in the reclamation fund, it is readily 

 seen that the "landless man" of the congested East, if 

 he has energy, ambition and enterprise, would have no 

 difficulty in making himself a good home in any portion 

 of the arid West, which may now be called the "man- 

 less land." 



The Government provides the land in 40, 80 or 

 160 acre tracts, and constructs the reservoirs and canals 

 to convey the water upon these lands, and gives the 

 "homesteader" the water to reclaim the same at actual 



Garden City, Kas., Sugar Factory. 



cost, without interest, and permits the settler to return 

 to the Government, this cost in ten equal instalments 

 during ten years of time, which money reverts to the 

 fund to be used again in the reclamation of other lands. 



I desire to call attention at this time to the fact 

 that the great State of Idaho has been an important 

 factor in irrigation matters. One of its citizens, and 

 State officers, Mr. F. J. Mills, was one of the first com- 

 mittee of three to bring the subject before the National 

 Congress in 1897 and 1898, and following along the 

 lines of progress we find another citizen of Idaho, Hon. 

 C. B. Hurtt, who was one of the committee in 1900 to 

 again bring the matter before the President of the 

 United States and his Cabinet. 



And now, as we meet here in your beautiful capital 

 city, I can not refrain from personally complimenting 

 the very able manner in which the executive committee 

 of this congress has arranged the business of its ses- 

 sion, and furthermore I want to compliment the public- 

 spirited and open-hearted citizens of this city, who have 

 arranged a reception for the members of this congress 

 unequaled in any of its sessions in the past. 



In conclusion, I herewith chronicle the meeting 

 places and presidents of the National Irrigation Con- 

 gress from the first to the present. 



