158 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



water. All over the western states, local and sec- 

 tional irrigation conferences were held at increasing 

 intervals at which it became increasingly evident that 

 states themselves must assume large responsibilities, 

 and once a year delegates from groups in all the far 

 western states, together with many interested in- 

 dividuals, met to discuss the larger problems. Many 

 apparently insuperable obstacles had to be overcome 

 before state irrigation could be undertaken, of which 

 states' rights on interstate rivers was by no means 

 the least. 



It was at the Phoenix, Arizona, general Con- 

 gress in 1901 that national reclamation was born 

 quite unexpectedly. The California delegation was 

 late, and resolutions had already been passed urging 

 states to action. One of the California men, not an 

 agriculturalist but a lawyer interested in reclama- 

 tion as a public question, asked the privilege of a 

 belated hearing. In a brief address which electrified 

 the convention, George H. Maxwell held that irri- 

 gation was also a national function. Leaving state 

 and local responsibilities undiminished, he argued 

 that great undertakings on federally-owned lands, 

 involving vast expenditures, were clearly the duty 

 of the federal government. Projects of these kinds 

 supplementing state and group activities might easi- 

 ly solve the problem of western agriculture. 



Backed by the National Irrigation Congress, 

 Mr. Maxwell devoted himself thereafter exclusively 

 to realization of his plan. A national association 



