, 1901-12-20

Resources.
Wyoming will take no part in the
Van Zant movement to destroy com
binations of capital" said Governor
DeForest Richards of Wyoming at the
Brown Palace to a Denver Times Io-
porter. What Wyoming wants is to
bring moneyed men to the state who
will invest and help build up our great
institutions and enlarge our irrigation
facilities. There is no law in our state
under which we may thwart the plans
of the railroads and | know no move
ment to enact such measures. We
want all of the railroads that we can
get in Wyoming. There is plenty Of
room for more railroads and We are
not losing any sleep owe the combin-
ations of railroads.
Irrigation is the thing that we are
giving most of our attention to now.
The capitalists of Wyoming are real
izing at last what Wyoming may dC-
complish through irrigation. The pos
sibilities with the proper use OF water
are limitless. The east is beginning
to understand what We have in The
arid region. Last summer when the
terrible drought was destroying every
thing in sight the farmers of Wyo-
ming were going serenely on apply
ing their water as usual and caring
not whether it rained or not.
During the drought a very anus
ing thing occurred. One of the big
New York papers wired me to know
if | had set apart a day in Wyoming
for fasting and prayer on account Of
the drought, hoping thereby to bring
rain SO that every vestige of growing
vegetation should not perish from the
earth. The dispatch asked me to es-
innate the damage done to growing
crops by the lsct, dry weather. 1t was
my chance to get in a good lick for
the arid region, sometimes called the
Great American Desert and | avail
ed myself of it. | answered that we
had not set apart a day for fasting
aud prayer because we were not hay
ing any drought. that the crops in
Wyoming were eve in better coudi
ton, the farmers were turning on their
water each day as usual and there
was plenty at hand. | wired that the
farmers of Wyoming did not have %
hold fast and prayer services for rain
a they had learned to do without it
and while they sympathized with the
sufferers in the unfortunate east and
in the low attitudes that they were
not dependent upon summer showers.
They looked to the snow in the win
ter for their crops.
my idea is for the federal govern
ment to establish large storage resar-
voirs for irrigation n allow the wa
ter to be distributed, under the state
laws. | believe this system will prove
a great success and the arid region
will soon be looked to by the Other
states as the region where crops new
err fail. We are not waiting for the
government, however. We are going
ahead doing the best we can with pri-
vate capital. In the past two years
irrigated lands in Wyoming have N
creased in value so per cen as a re-
suit of the limited irrigation fecilitios
at hand. 1t is the same way in your
state. Now suppose the federal gov
ernment took hold of the matter on al
large scale. You can imagine how val
e in agricultural lands would null
tiply in the Rocky mountain region.
Il would be glad if you would COR
rect the impression hat cattle has sTf
fered to such a great extent in WyO-
ming as a result of the recent storm
The contrary Is true. am largely
interested in cattle myself n have
Investigated the mater. If we had
been given the power to order the
storm we would have arranged it just
as it came. The TO- came at a time
and in a way that Just suited the cat
tlemen all over the state. OF course
there are some herds in isolated dis
tricts that may suffer or even perish,
but a great many more would have
suffered and persisted in the end had
il not been for the snow. 1t will eve.
ate fine grazing as the snow protect
ed the ground from the cold and when
it begins to melt we can turn our
herds Oh virgin grass"
Governor Richards. who is accom-
panied by his wife. came down to Den
yer for a day on private business and
will return tomorrow.
For a Christmas present