The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-26
DUTY OF THE GENERAL GOVERN.
MENT TOWARDS IRRIGATION.
tColonel Fl. W Lewis of this City. Represent
ing the Irrigation Interests OF Arizona.]

ular American song of that day, in which
the refrain ran something like this:
Come along. come along. make no delay;
Come from every nation, come from every
way.
Our lands they are all broad enough, so
DON'T YOU feel alarm,
For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us
all farm"
Few persons then living expected to see
a day when the "old gentleman's" domain
would be so cut up, divided ard curtailed
that the opening up 10 settlement Of few
thousand acres Of mediocre public land
would be attended by scramble and a
rush unparalleled in modern civilization.
And yet. within this short span. under
the mighty onsweep of our increasing
population, all the millions of acres then
constituting our arabic public domain,
besides millions upon millions more in
Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota not
then deemed productive, have been carved
out into homssteads and put under the
plow.
The demand for more land is already
| pressing upon US. Our population for the
last ITO years-from 1850 to 1S90-has iu-
creased at nearly uniform ratio of about
30 per cent. with every decade This more
than doubles our population every thirty
years. AT this continued ratio OF increase,
the child is now living who will see pop.
ulation in the United States of 500, GOO, 600
souls Put that against the fact that with
Is. 900. 600 of people today we are occupying
all the available area of arabic land in our
country and what is the necessary con
| clusiou? That we must prepare to bring
out Of every foot of our soil the best posi-
bic agricultural results, or perish as ma
| ton.
When the European conditions OF a
population, largely cougested in great
cities shall confront us; when our num-
bers shall average as in Germany over zoe,
Or as in England over 400 to the square
mile, as against twenty at the present date.
then will come the supreme test of our
American institutions Then shall be
known, whether or not, thu prediction of
Macaulev shall be verified. Said he in
1857: ''Yonr fate believe to be certain,
though it is deferred by physical cause. As
long as you have bOundless extent OF
fertile and unoccupied lands. your laboriug
population will be far more at ease than
the laboring population of the old world
| wish you good deliverance. But my
reason and my wishes are at war, and l
cannot help foreboding the worst"
Only thirtysix years have passed since
these prophetic words were penned, and is
there not already canse for US to shudder
at the signs of their fulfillment? Have we
not too vivid examples in some of our
overcrowded cities of the growth of that
foreign born plant-the deadly ightshade
of discomfort, of defiance of law, of hatred
of our free institutions, disloyalty and
anarchy?
When the population of these cities is
doubled, and doubled again-when other
cities by the score spring up and grow to
the present dimensions Of New York and
Cbicago-when the ceaseless tide of Euro
pean Immigration shall have poured into
them its millions of un-Amerlcaniz.d re-
cruits Joining hands with the debased and
vicious of our own production. what shall
be the power that shall hold in check this
mighty tide of evil and stand rs bull
wark around our country's flag, and up
hold our free institutions for the coming
generations of mankind? Plainly we must
look TO the non-urban populations; to the
Woodworking yeoman1y; to the home
stead owners; to the cOntented, prosper
Gus, intelligent, agricultural millions Of
the nation.
Anything that tends to multiply this
class of our population should be encOur-
aged and promoted. Anything that brings
to higher state of cultivation. and thus
enables us to sub-divide our broad acres
into smaller farms aud multiply homes,
it is our duty as patriots to foster.
In working out the great problem OF our
continued existence as a nation there IS no
element, aside from Christianity and our
public schools, SO important or that gives
promise of so much as the long-delayed,
lttle-understood, but now rapidly rising
subject of irrigation.
While ali our arabic lands are now APP
parently taken up and utilized, we are &C
tually standing upon the borders Of q do
main practically boundless in extent. an
empire ready to spring into life and verdure
and to bring forth food for all the mighty
hosts of the oncoming millions, when
touched with the magic wand of irrigation.
Stretching away on the plains of Kansas
and Colorado, in the valleys of Wyoming
and Idaho, down to the sun-klssed deserts
of New Mexico and Arizona. the broad
bosom of earth waits and yearns for the
vivifyIng likelihood of irrigating canals
to quicken it into a golden harvest
of grains and fruits more precious
than the riches of her gOld-lined
mountains These lands, once brought
under irrigation are MS fertile and mex
haustible as that famous land upon which
for forty centuries the pyramids have
looked down upou-the wondrous valley
of the Nile. The possibilities of produc-
ton can hardly be estimated.
1t seems as if the Almighty, having es-
pecial regard for the fact that this west
ern world must ultimately become the
home of the teeming and untold millions
of the Anglo-Saxon race-the theatre of
the last and greatest display OF human en-
lightenment and power until the millen-
ium shall dawn-made special provision
for the maintainance OF It's dense popuia-
ton by the conformity of the surface, the
distribution of its waters, and the ingre-
dients OF its soil.
All that is wanted is an intelligent CO.
operation on the part of man with the Di-
vine purpose to prepare this country Tor
its assured destiny The waters must be
conserved and utilized. To do this effect
lively, requires large and consolidated
effort. entirely within the functions and
ability of the federal government, but too
colossal In many instances for private per-
sons or corporations to undertake. IL Is
the undoubted duty of. the government to
take immediate steps toward the erection
of immense storage reservoirs In ali the
mountain states of the arid regions, such
as will store securely, above the line OF
rapid evaporation, the enormous quanti-
ties of the life giving liquid that Is now
wasted in the floods and freshets of spring
time. IL is, no less, its duty to make sucn
Investigation and practical tests as vii!
demonstrate the feasibility of raising TO
the surface the vast subterranean supplies
that seem to underlie western Kansas and
Colorado.
II it has been wise for the government,
which l don't deny, to spend millions OF
dollars in the matter OF transportation
aud commerce-iu the building or subsi
diziuy of railroads and the improvement
of WATERWAYS aud haFbo.s, Is 1t not now
lime to consider the interests OK agTlcu1-
ture.
If il has been wise, aud do not deny IL,
20 spend millions and millions upon our