THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



183 



IRRIGATION AS A MEANS OF PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE 



JOHN M. HESS 



In the Country of Mighty Endeavor, the land of 

 the Colorado, I have seen the American with his 

 bare, unaided hands lay hold of the work of a nation, 

 and through twelve long, weary years wring victory 

 from Nature and force the desert to "blossom as 

 the rose." 



I have seen that nation's government destroy 

 that work ruthlessly and heartlessly turn away these 

 Americans, uncompensated, reduced to beggary, to 

 start life anew or to die in the almshouse. 



Again, I have seen the American bare-handed and 

 unaided, through another twelve years of unutter- 

 able hardship, aid that same government to turn 

 seven million dollars, niggardly doled out through 

 that long twelve years, into seven hundred million 

 dollars' worth of valuable farm property, which will 

 within twenty years more be valued at seven billion 

 dollars. 



. A seven-billion-dollar oasis in the desert, which 

 joining hands with the great Imperial oasis to the 

 southwest and the great Palo Verde oasis to the 



eight or ten years, after costing us a quarter of a 

 million per annum, and has been a constant menace 

 besides. 



Yes, to this mighty Laguna project this same 

 government has voted a niggardly half-million dol- 

 lars, and has voted to the navy four hundred fifty 

 million dollars and to the army four hundred seventy 

 million dollars, and to the Mexican punitive expedi- 

 tion one hundred thirty-five million dollars. One 

 billion dollars spent on war in times of profound 

 peace. We are at war with no nation. 



"Who taketh the sword shall perish by the 

 sword," is the unchangeable word of God, and is 

 spoken to us today, whilst bleeding Europe cine- 

 matographs the word in fire and blood. In defiance 

 of that word we have taken into our hands, in this 

 year of our Lord, a billion-dollar sword. 



Listen to what that billion dollars would have 

 done for our county. "But we must be prepared," 

 you cry. Yes, yes, I know. Let me show you what 

 preparation it would have given us. 



' 



* V >< 



:m 



Owned by the Spring Valley Water Co., Being Constructed to Supply Water to the 

 City of San Francisco, Cal. 



northwest, and the great Salt River oasis to the 

 northeast, will be worth more to the nation in that 

 same twenty years in actual cash value than the en- 

 tire American navy of today, and as a matter of de- 

 fense in case of war with Japan, than "fifty first- 

 class battleships of the line." 



And yet these projects, The Laguna, the Im- 

 perial, the Palo Verde, and the Roosevelt, have al- 

 together cost the government less than the price of 

 one such battleship, and must be paid back to the 

 government dollar for dollar, besides paying taxes 

 whilst the dear battleship goes to the scrap heap in 



With the Mexican punitive expedition we sent 

 men there to watch. With that $135,000,000, had we 

 summoned Goethals with his mighty Panama engi- 

 neers and the 200,000 men we have there, all told 

 (standing army and national guards) and placed this 

 grand old man in charge, and directed him to place 

 these men as he needed them (so as not to interfere 

 with their accessibility for service, about as follows : 

 one-twentieth on the lower Rio Grande, one-twen- 

 tieth on the Little Colorado, one-twentieth on the 

 middle Rio Grande, one-twentieth on the Pecos, one- 

 twentieth on the upper Rio Grande, one-twentieth 



