THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



201 



The Fifteenth National Irrigation Congress. 



To Be Held at Sacramento California, During the Week Beginning Sept 2, 1907. 



BY W. A. BEARD, CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF BOARD OF CONTROL. 



The Fifteenth National Irrigation Congress prom- 

 ises to be a very large and enthusiastic meeting. The 

 people of Sacramento, where the sessions will be held, 

 began early to make plans and preparations for the 

 comfort and entertainment of delegates. Work was al- 

 ready begun when the California delegation to the Boise 

 Congress reached home and its scope has increased ac- 

 cordingly. Shortly after the political campaign closed 

 last Pall a Board of Control, consisting of prominent 

 citizens of Sacramento and of California, was appointed 

 by the Chamber of Commerce and forthwith we began 

 the work of creating and preparing for the . Fifteenth 

 Congress. The members of the Board of Control are 



HON. JAS. N. GILLETTE. 

 Governor of California. 



Geo. W. Peltier, manager of the California National 

 Bank, chairman ; Jas. N. Gillett, governor of California; 

 M. R. Beard, mayor of Sacramento; W. H. Devlin, 

 Col. E. A. Forbes, M. Diggs, Col. H. I. Seymour, J. M. 

 Henderson, Jr. and C. F. Dillman. 



Sacramento is preparing to entertain visitors on a 

 very large scale, and we have reason to believe that the 

 ample facilities which, we propose to provide for the 

 comfort and entertainment of delegates will all or nearly 

 all be required, for we understand from correspondence 

 with people in various portion of the United States that 

 the Fifteenth Congress is already attracting very wide- 

 spread attention and interest. * 



The history of the National Irrigation Congress 

 shows it to have been a manifestation of the interest 

 of the people of the West and later of the whole United 



States in the great problems of forest conservation and 

 irrigation development. As public interest in these 

 problems and in their solution has grown, interest in the 

 Congress has necessarily increased from year to year. 

 The last Congress held at Boise, Idaho, was much 

 larger in point of attendance than its predecessors held 

 at Portland and at El Paso, and it is reasonable to ex- 

 pect that the Fifteenth Congress held in Sacramento 

 this year will be very much larger than the fourteenth 

 session in fact, to be a success it must be larger, and 

 it will be a success because the interest of the people 

 of the United States is aroused. 



The movement, of which the Irrigation Congress 



HON. W. A. BEARD, 



Chairman Executive Committee, Fifteenth National Irrigation Congress. 



is a part and which its annual and biennial sessions in 

 years gone by have done so much to initiate and further, 

 has for its object the conservatism and development of 

 great natural resources of the country. These resources 

 belong not to one state or one section but to the people 

 of all the states. Their development means an in- 

 crease in the commonwealth and is therefore of interest 

 alike to the people of all states and to those engaged 

 in all the various industries known to this country. 



In the begininng the Irrigtation Congress was an 

 expression of a demand on the part of the West and 

 many people, no doubt, still regard it as largely a West- 

 ern movement. But it is not and it should not be a 

 Western movement alone. The irrigation work in 

 progress in the Western States, while perhaps more 

 directly associated with the progress of those states 



