THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



235 



ONE WAY TO REVIVE IRRIGATION BONDS 



Excerpts from an Address Delivered at the Denver Conference by an Eastern Expert 



H. L. Hollistcr, 

 Chicago, 111. 



By EUGENE E. PRUSSING 



A Chicago Attorney. 



MY presence here today, as I 

 am a resident of Chicago 

 and not of the State of Idaho, 

 which I have the honor to rep- 

 resent in conjunction with the 

 other members of a large dele- 

 gation, is due first to the cour- 

 tesy of Governor Haines, Sec- 

 retary Jones and the managers 

 of this Assembly, and second, 

 to the fact that I have been fur 

 years and am now the legal adviser of two men who 

 have perhaps done more for irrigation than any one 

 in this generation, except that man whom we grate- 

 fully and affectionately acknowledge to be "the no- 

 blest Roman of them all," Governor Gary. The men 

 I refer to are Ira B. Perrine, of Blue Lakes and 

 Twin Falls. Idaho, the father of irrigation in that 

 State, and Harry L. Hollister, of Chicago, his part- 

 ner and friend. Between them, they brought twen- 

 ty thousand or more of the best people in the world 

 into the Twin Falls country in five years, estab- 

 lished them in farm and city homes of the highest 

 type and added $25,000,000 to the taxable value of 

 the State and ten per cent to its population and 

 citizenship, by their faith in irrigation and sunshine 

 and by hard work. To do this they advertised "Ida- 

 ho and Sunshine" to the world, drew from it an 

 army of sturdy pioneers, young, intelligent and 

 well-to-do, and sold them $18,000,000 worth of land. 



The moral responsibility resting upon these two 

 men to insure the future stability and success of 

 the works upon which the great enterprises they 

 launched are absolutely dependent is my excuse 

 for appearing before you for "finally," as Carl 

 Schurz tersely put it, "every question is a moral 

 question." 



Xow. if two men in private life, dealing with a 

 highly successful project have so great a burden and 

 so great a sense of moral responsibility, what must 

 be the burden and responsibility of the Governors 

 and other officers of the 15 States composing the 

 Irrigated Empire, all of whom are inviting the im- 

 migration and investments of their Eastern fellow 

 citizens to be made at the risk of faith and fortune, 

 of happiness of wife and children and self, yes, in 

 many cases, at the risk of life itself? 



The source of these elements of immigration, 

 and capital in money, energy and brains, is in the 

 Eastern States and Europe, almost wholly. It must, 

 therefore, be persuaded and brought, it cannot be 

 driven into our States. 



The necessities of the situation in our relations 

 to the Federal Government, our need of financial 

 help to complete the projects in hand and to create 

 new ones are absolute and must likewise be solved 

 with the help and sympathy, the votes and funds. 



I. B. Perrine, 

 Twin Falls, Idaho. 



and above all, the active 

 friendly co-operation of the 

 men and women of the East. 



In dealing with our East- 

 ern brethren, we must always 

 remember that we are show- 

 ing them not only our prob- 

 lems and troubles and seeking 

 the solution of far off Western 

 interests and policies, but that 

 these problems are theirs as 

 well, and their children's unto 

 all the generations ; that we 

 propose to create a great field 



for them, a market for their products and manufac- 

 tures, for their capital and energy, and on that ba- 

 sis, namely, their interests, as well as their patriot- 

 ism, and the glory of our common country we are 

 inviting and insisting upon their attention and help. 

 The resulting benefits, moral, political and 

 financial to them and all of us, must be the basis 

 and the only basis of our appeal. Let us not make 

 the mistake of making sectional demands as local 

 rights, if we hope to be successful with the nation. 

 The good of all should be our principle and hope, 

 for we are appealing to those who comprise about 

 80% of the population and wealth of the country, 

 and from whom we must draw not only immediate 

 help, but our future population, and to whom we 

 must sell 80% of our products. So they are our 

 hope of salvation and success and we must make 

 them our friends and lovers. 



Once we convince the intelligence of the coun- 

 try of the soundness of our plans and the rightful- 

 ness of our demands, then success is assured. 



Persuade the thinking ten per cent and all the 

 rest wil! follow. Let us, therefore, make a joint 

 appeal to the judgment of those who can understand 

 and will act upon their knowledge. 



There is in the Eastern states a vast population 

 of prosperous, ambitious and intelligent farmers 

 and city people, the descendants of farmers, who 

 have realized the need of a change in the policy of 

 following ancient methods of farming and driving 

 people to the cities. "Back to the Farm" is not? 

 only the call of the farmers, but the hope and the 

 need of city people, and the L'niversities of the va- 

 rious States and their Agricultural schools, normal 

 schools, vocational schools, farmers' institutes, with 

 their thousand of yearly graduates, the Granges 

 and the hundreds of other associations of farmers 

 are preaching and praying in the new faith. 



Let us address ourselves directly to these, our 

 real constituents, and having convinced them and 

 secured their favorable verdict, our cause will have 

 become their cause and the rapid and complete rem- 

 edy will follow. 



For that remedy we need two more factors; 

 Congress and Capital. 



The chief reasons for favoring Congressional 



