184 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



in the Deming Basin and the White River, one- 

 twentieth in the Wilcox Basin and the San Cruces 

 River at Nogales, one-twentieth on the upper Gila, 

 one-twentieth on the middle Gila, one-twentieth on 

 the lower Gila, one-twentieth on the Colorado at 

 points for construction of canals to fill dry lakes 

 lower than the sea level, including Death's Valley, 

 one-twentieth at Parker (for the great dam there), 

 one-twentieth at Black Point for the Palo Verde 

 project, one-twentieth on the Colorado between Palo 

 Verde and the Laguna dam, one-twentieth to finish 

 the Laguna project and to construct permanent in- 

 take for the Imperial project, one-twentieth in the . 

 San Diego country for the preservation and devel- 

 opment of the water for San Diego on the creeks 

 and small rivers adjacent ; yes, and the crowning 

 glory of it all, one-twentieth to extend the works on 

 the Colorado into Mexico (with her consent) making 

 her a present of the water now going to waste, calling 

 on Mexico to aid, making her a present of the rarest 

 "gem of agriculture" in all her domain ; that would 

 be a punitive expedition that would resound down 

 the ages of time, inaugurating a new epoch among 

 nations. The remainder of the force to be distrib- 

 uted at the pleasure of the chief. With this force the 

 construction of roads joining all these points would 

 now have been nearly complete, and the basis well 

 laid to reclaim, within the years of 1916 and 1917, 

 land worth in actual cash value the combined navies 

 of the civilized world. The men would be drilled 

 weekly, inured to the country, and would be aiding 

 in engineering schemes unqualed in the world. The 

 land so reclaimed would have returned to the gov- 

 ernment many times its cost and the number of 

 men could have been doubled and put on a decent 

 wage. The bonds on the land would have paid 

 the bill ; as it is, our men have dtig useless trenches 

 in the sand, made "hikes" from point to point like 

 boys and feeling like fools, and shamefully begging 

 to be allowed to come home. Can you blame them ? 

 These men are Americans who feel and think as 

 Americans, who love to do "something worth while." 

 On these projects thus inaugurated, Goethels could 

 use 250,000 men to the end of 1917 and by that 

 time they would be well drilled, disciplined, and as 

 hardy as any troops in the German trenches, capable 

 of meeting the world in arms, and would h'ave done 

 a work of incalculable value to their country and to 

 the world. As it is, the money is wasted, and the 

 men. half prepared and anxious to quit in disgust. 

 One hundred thirty-five millions thrown away, our 

 nation made ridiculous and patriotism -shamed. 



Yes, but what about defense? I have provided 

 you an army of a quarter of a million and made it 

 pay big. It has cost you nothing under my plan. 

 As it is, you have wasted $135,000,000. 



Our most vulnerable point is up the Colorado 

 River. It is open and undefended. I want one- 

 tenth of that billion ($100,000.000) that you are go- 

 ing to waste on army and navy placed on the Colo- 

 rado, together with 50,000 troops of the United States 

 army. Under the direction of Goethals and his 

 mighty Panama engineers, with the Ludys, Yarwoods, 

 the Marriables, the Sanguinettas, the Hodges, and the 

 countless able men along the river that know it, there 

 will be placed a hydro-electric power plant every 

 12 miles throughout the length of the 2,200 miles 

 of this mighty river and its branches. These men 



with this money will conserve every drop of its 

 132,000 cubic second feet of maximum flow; they will 

 reservoir its flood-wave in the 10,000 box canyons 

 along its mountain sides, and run cool and life-giving 

 to the hungry, waiting desert that has longed for 

 centuries to give its blessings to its children yet to 

 be; they will fill the 1,000 "desert dry lakes" adja- 

 cent to its mesas, and keep them forever replenished, 

 until all the mountain desert shall drink from the 

 cloud mists formed here in its valley bosom, and the 

 cattle feeding on a thousand hills shall glad the eyes 

 of man where today are the bare rocks only ; at each 

 dam they will place their silt pit, for the enriching of 

 the mesas, and their boat and ship locks that shall 

 bear a nation's commerce to a waiting world, and the 

 waters at the dams they will harness to the turbine 

 and the dynamo, creating electric power for. trans- 

 portation, sending their trolley cars for freight 'and 

 passengers through every square mile of the coun.- 

 try, and power for manufacturing all their raw 

 products into finished articles of commerce, for 

 lighting the homes and for developing the mines 

 within 200 miles of each hydro-electric dam center, 

 every 12 miles throughout the territory 400 miles 

 wide by the full length of the river, in ten short years 

 from the. time .Goethals is done, your reclaimed land 

 will be worth $50,000,000,000. Fifty billions in cash. 

 The desert reclaimed is the ideal home of mankind. 

 Is -that not a fair return for the one-tenth part of this 

 billion dollars that is destined to utter waste? 



In doing this we have rendered our weakest 

 point (the Colorado River) invulnerable, and made it 

 our strongest bulwark in time of trouble. We have 

 injured no one, have quarreled with no one, but 

 have "subdued the earth" and have provided homes 

 for at least ten millions of people, the most beautiful 

 and healthful in the world, homes not for a little 

 while, but for all time, as long as the river runs to 

 the sea; and have created in perpetuity an annual 

 income that would buy the entire combined navies 

 of all the civilized countries of the world. Is it not 

 enough? All this for one-tenth of what is to be wan- 

 tonly wasted. Shall we forsake what God has given 

 us to do to ape the bully of the earth? God save 

 his people from this billion dollar sword that our 

 Congress has just voted for us. 



I have not space to give you the development 

 even in outline, but I want one-tenth of the billion 

 spent in same kind of development I have outlined 

 for the Colorado, provided with an equal number of 

 men for the rivers of the great northwest. The 

 territory here reclaimed and values added would 

 equal that on the Colorado. 



I want an equal amount (one-tenth of a billion) 

 given to Missouri River and its tributaries. An 

 equal amount given to the Mississippi. An equal 

 amount and men to the Ohio and its tributaries, and 

 the same plan of reservoiring, diverting and con- 

 trolling and utilizing power and irrigation in each 

 of these projects, and in so doing the taxable prop- 

 terties and values in these valleys will be multiplied 

 by 100 in less than ten years from the beginning of 

 the work. 



I want one-tenth used on the rivers of the south 

 in exactly the same way and one-tenth on the rivers 

 of the Atlantic seaboard. 



The remaining three-tenths I would be glad to 



