Vol. XVIII, No. 4 WASHINGTON 



April, 1907 



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The entire contents of this Magazine are protected by copyright 



MILLIONS FOR MOISTURE* 



An Account of the Work of the U. S. Reclamation 



Service 



By C. J. Blanchard 



Statistician, U. S. Reclamation Service 



WE are living in an age of big 

 things. It is a creative 

 epoch. Our perspective has 

 broadened to such an extent that it is no 

 longer confined by fixed geographical 

 lines. It embraces the whole world, the 

 undiscovered Poles not excepted. It is 

 the day of the engineer, and in no pre- 

 vious period of our history has he occu- 

 pied so prominent a place in national af- 

 fairs as he does today. The National 

 Treasury and the surplus of huge corpo- 

 rations are at his command. Unafraid, 

 he is proceeding to cut a great gash 

 across a continent, through which the 

 shipping of the world may pass. Eighty 

 millions have been appropriated this year 

 to deepen our waterways to relieve con- 

 gested traffic conditions. He has tun- 

 neled the streets of our great cities for 

 many miles to furnish readier transporta- 

 tion. Thousands of miles of steel are 

 being laid to connect new regions with 



the nation's markets. We are today 

 launched upon a policy of internal expan- 

 sion which many have declared to be the 

 most paternal ever attempted. Our gov- 

 ernment is actually loaning money to its 

 citizens and making homes for them, and 

 is loaning it as a father to a son — on long 

 time, without interest. 



On June 17, 1902, Congress enacted a 

 law known as the National Reclamation 

 Act. Briefly, this act provided that the 

 money received from the sales of public 

 lands in fourteen arid states and two ter- 

 ritories should be used as a reclamation 

 fund for the construction of the works 

 necessary to irrigate arid lands in those 

 states and territories. By wise provis- 

 ions in the law this fund was made re- 

 volving. As soon as any work is com- 

 pleted the owners of land benefited must 

 begin to return the cost thereof, payments 

 being made in ten annual installments 

 without interest. The money so returned 



*An address to the National Geographic Society, March 11, 1907. 



