326 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



illustrious men of the West, buffeted and cuffed 

 about, treated almost with contempt. And the ex- 

 cuse a King's government might not like it. 



How proud of this mess the American officials 

 of the congress, who sold it out to the Canadian 

 land boomers, must feel ! 



Clinch the 

 Markets 

 While They 

 Are Open 



"An army marches on its belly," 

 is one of the most widely quoted 

 axioms of Napoleon, and also a 

 very truthful one. 



"The Irrigated West is insur- 

 ance for the United States against 

 drouth or any other great disaster," is a statement 

 to which practically all students of economy will 

 agree. 



And now with Europe plunged into the great- 

 est war of all ages, these two statements take on 

 added strength. 



This is the hour of opportunity for the irrigated 

 areas. It is not the hour for suddenly building up 

 a fortune by withholding produce from the markets 

 for war-time prices. It is the hour for introducing 

 the produce of the irrigated sections into those parts 

 of the United States and other nations at peace 

 where the markets have been controlled by the war- 

 torn countries. If this introduction is done in a 

 businesslike manner the produce offered at fair 

 prices and in attractive form the irrigators will 

 have builded far better than could be any quickly- 

 made fortune through war-time prices. 



Markets for all time for their farms and gardens 

 will be secure against all competition, and success 

 and in time a liberal competence for each irrigator 

 and his children will be assured. 



The farmers on every project should busy 

 themselves immediately in taking advantage of this 

 remarkable opportunity. On the Federal projects, 

 the Water Users' Associations should be put to 

 work immediately as co-operative marketing asso- 

 ciations. On other projects, where there are no 

 marketing associations, steps should be taken im- 

 mediately to organize. The associations should pick 

 competent men among their fellows or hire experts 

 and begin a whirlwind campaign to place their prod- 

 ucts in homes where they have never been before 

 and in markets which have formerly looked to 

 Europe for their supplies. 



Let's Americanize America right now, so far as 

 farm produce is concerned. If the irrigators of the 

 West take hold, they can do it and do it so well that 

 competition will be stilled forever. 



The English, supreme in commercial lines 

 when the war began, realize this better than anyone 

 else, and they are striving with all their might to 

 halt the commercial advance of the United States. 



Even now in Canada, the English have already be- 

 gun a press campaign to encourage their colony to 

 hold for the mother country part of its trade and to 

 discourage so far as possible any enthusiasm among 

 Americans to make inroads upon their vast trade. 



The war will make prices higher in some lines 

 of farm produce. A considerable portion of the 

 crops of the United States will be shipped to the 

 warring nations while the struggle goes on. There- 

 by the farmer will benefit. 



The depletion of our home stocks may be just 

 cause for some increase in prices in the United 

 States, thus bringing further benefit to the farmers. 



These, however, are only temporary benefits. 

 It is the permanent markets right here at home, in 

 the other countries at peace, which can be now es- 

 tablished, that offer the real benefits to the farmers 

 of the^ nation and particularly to the irrigators, 

 whose greatest need has been markets. 



The irrigated West now has also opportunity, 

 as never before, to prove its "insurance" value. By 

 putting every acre to work, the irrigators can pro- 

 duce a crop for the next season that will hold the 

 balance of power in the world a balance of power 

 for equitable prices in the United States. On the 

 irrigated lands sufficient crops can be raised in 1915 

 to prevent any shortage in the United States, should 

 speculators and the "food trusts" sufficiently evade 

 the nation's law officers to ship unlimited quantities 

 of foodstuffs out of the United States to the warring 

 nations. 



The West should benefit further through hur- 

 ried completion of projects under way, and develop- 

 ment of new ones. As soon as capital gets straight- 

 ened out of the tangle into which war tossed inter- 

 national credits, it is bound to realize the values of 

 land-at-work in the United States and there should 

 be money to develop every feasible project. 



Irrigation will double and treble crops on many 

 semi-arid farms. W r here water can be obtained by 

 pumping, the wise farmer on these semi-arid lands 

 is going to dig wells just as quickly as possible, 

 and install pumps and bring his land up to its 

 highest efficiency. 



The war is a tremendous struggle, awesome in 

 its greatness and horror, but do not be blinded by 

 its awesomeness and miss this opportunity great- 

 est in the history of the United States and even 

 greater for the West and the irrigators. 



Americanize America. Clinch the markets 

 while they are open. 



It is our earnest hope that out of Europe's great 

 struggle there will evolve the truism : "The sun 

 never sets on the American flag, flying above Amer- 

 ican ships.'' 



