The St. Johns herald., 1900-03-31

to. the west. and the fact that the general government is rich in some
 thing besides public land.
 "As it is now," said Mir. Meade. practically all of the eo0,0OO, ,OOo acres of public land might as we'll be on the moon for all the good it does the homeseeker, and the riv- CTS only source of expense be- cause there is no agency to direct their conservation and use."
 Irrigation from the Manufacturer's Standpoint.
 That more general interest is be- ing developed in the irrigation problem for the west is shown by the attention given the subject from the standpoint of eastern man ufactures. The secretary of the St. Louis Manufacturers Association, Mr, Tom T. Cannon, delivered aa address to the delegates to the IT, rigation Congress at Missoula, i Montana, in which he stated that while, as an individual, he bad no interest in irrigation, as an Amer ican he was deeply interested in seeing what was virtually new ter ritory developed and reclaimed,
 "I feel" he said, "lhat this is a national question, as much so as the improvement of the harbUrs a. hong the oceans; as much so as the improvement of great streams for navigation from one end of the country to the other. To what ex- tenl federal aid should be given is to be determined by those men se- lected to represent the people in the halls of congress. The ques- ton is one which interests the manufactures of :he east for the reason that any policy which tends to develop any section of the coun- try affords a market for the prod ucts of manufacture, and any pOl- icy which develops one section ex- erts a reflex influence to beHefit all other sections"
 The Demand of the West.
 Tn the course of some remarks Judge W. H. Stillwell said:
 Congress has made apwopria- tions for rivers and harbOr iInprov- ments. But excepting the appro- priation which congress has made for agricultural colleges the farm CT has received comparatively lit- tie consideration. A strong re:s- son why the federal government attend to the distribution of iis waters is that in many cases reservoirs would nave to be built in one state for the purpose of con- serving and holding water fer dis , tributlon in anther state. The fed: eral government alone is in po- {; sition to do such work. lam in favor of the government retaining , it's public land, selling it as 1t has sold it. to the h0meSeeker con sewing the water so that it may he { distributed to the irrigator for the lowest possible price and the profit to be realized from the cultivation :, Df the soil secured to the home {, builder rather than to corporations formed to sell water to farmers" ."
 Hundeds or MllilOnS or dIlu
 Acres. | The sentiments expressed by one and and all of the western men show that the west is q unit for the policy of urging upon eastern con gressmen and others the rights of ts section of the country to gov aid i'll reclaiming it's ar d lands and developing it's latent The great west, which one half of the domain If the United States, and where lie he bulk of the hundreds of mill c ons of acres of public land, will ! demand a just consideration of it's ; claims for recognition at the hands ! 1f congress which has not yet been to 1t.
 Duties of the Ditch Rider." :,
 ? The Rocky Mountain region and E ts development under irrigation is s he subject of q publication issued " or free distribution by the Irriga- d ion branch of the Department of l. Agriculture, It was prepared by a
 = ]. c. Ulrich, an irrigation engineer 1