The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-09
THE ARID WEST.
A Talk on the Possibilities of
Irritation.

"A ak on the 1osSADAAAlAcS "a
Irrigation.
Senator Warrens return from Wash
ington to his home in Cheyenne after
the adjournment of Congress was the
occasion of a dinner in his honor, at
which his Jealous advocacy of the
cause of the West was strongly com
mended
An address upon 1.-THE Possibilities Of
Irrigation was made by Elwood Mead,
State Engineer of Wyoming, which was
in part as follows:
THE possibilities of irrigation en-
brace many things which time will not
permit me to consider. What they
have of achievement, of wealth and of
population for this region nothing but
the vision of a prophet would enable
me to forecast The wonderful trans
formation already wrought in the ap-
pearance, resources and popular estI-
nation of the value of the arid West
makes it difficult in many respects for
future possibilities to surpass past
achievements.
Draper says that civilization de-
ponds on climate and agriculture At
ter my recent visit to Arizona l was
ready to indorse the latter part of his
proposition. The long stretches Of
sandy desert with the gigantic cactuses
standing as fitting sentinels over its
desolation made me wonder that the
Indian had ever consented to make
that region his habitation. The miles
and miles of alfalfa fields covered with
their garment Of unapproachableg green,
which in places have .supplanted the
m do OF t6y of
that so many white men had stayed
away. The misery of the crucifixion
thorn above the ditch and the beauty
and bounty of the orange grove below
1t mark the entire span between the
barbarism of past ages and the highest
achievements of nineteenth century
civilization.
The irrigation ditch is the conspicu-
Gus feature which separates the Big
Horn Basin of Captain Bonneyille's
time from the Big Horn Basin of to-
day. A change which marks the dis
placement of a tribe of Indians which.
by common consent, We're the most
adroit and Industrious thieves Of this
continent, by the establishment of COM
munlIes of farmers who are retaining
the land and creating homes under an
and admired beyond the borders of our
own country for the stability, justice
and enlightened principles which form
its basis.
THE success of irrigation has al
ready gone beyond the stage of expert
nlent, but to develop its possibilities
thefe must be legislation and adequate
social and industrial organization. The
greatest obstacle which confronts us is
the ignorance or Indifference which
prevents the enactment of one and de-
Velopnent Of the other In this re-
spect our condition would have been
lar better If the first settlement had
been made on the Pacific instead Of the
Atlantic Slope; in California instead or
Virginia
Our growth in population and wealth
lot the last three hundred years has not
been in the direction of preparation for
the reclamation of the arid West. but
directly against it. The Importance of
the agriculture of humid lands has
MADE the reclamation of the arid half
OF this country seemingly Of little con-
sequence and has caused those who
know nothing of our necessities to re-
gard our claim for needed aid and the
enactment of laws suited to our condi-
lions to be both unnecessary and i'm
pertinent
1t is this preponderance of ignor-
ance and Indifference which constitutes
our greatest danger. The trouble is NOT
10 secure a development of some kind.
but to secure the right kind which will
result IN the largest and best use of our
resources and end in making irrigated
agriculture as stable and prosperous as
That dependent on rainfall. The diff
Guilty which confronts US now is not so
much lack of resources as the oppor-
tunity to make the best use of what we
have.
IT is easier to obtain money to build
a canal than it is to secure the definite
abrogation of)tfle doctrine of riparian
rights, which, so long as it is not abro-
gated, is perpetual menace to the
value of the canal and to the homes it
creates. The trouble is not so much to
dispose of the pubic land as to secure
the enactment of land laws which will
put those lands in the hands of men
who are willing to undergo the priva-
tons of pioneer life for the sake of en-
joying landed independence
1T is these facts which gave signif-
canoe and value to the stopping of the
wheels of legislation at the close of the
last Congress by Senator Warren. It
aroused the people of the East from
their Indifference to this question and
inspired the people of the West to fur
Their effort in behalf of their section by
showing them that in the halls of Con-
grees they had an able, jealous and
effective advocate Denver Republic
can.