The Arizona sentinel., 1901-02-27
WATER STORAGE. Extract from Speech of lion. John RI. TE1urston
 Of Nebraska,
Ln the United States Senate Jan.
 D, 1901.
On She Proposed AnerGr!e'2f to the
 Indian Appropriation; Bill.

 who have been pushing this res ervoir plan--I told the commit tee frankly that I was largely influenced in reaching a fayora- ble conclusion by the fact that 1 thought here was the best oP- porGunity that would ever be afforded for trying an irrigation experiment on large scale in satisfactory manner, withoutcO to thepeople of the United States, and 1 will tell you why. Nature has not only been favorable to dam site and reservoir site, but she has been favorable by put ting a vast area of land in just the position where it can be irri- gated through ditches from this dam and this reservoir-land Ut terly unproductive, land that cannot be used for anything else but land holding within its elements the riches that nature has deposited there, waiting the arrival of water that man can turn upon it through an irrigation plant; land now worth nothing, but with water upon it, worth from forty to fifty, yea, an hun dred dollars Der acre. 1 am not exaggerating about that. It is land that means gardens, not farms; land that will produce grain, vegetables, fruits, the vine-everything that can be grown on the soil i'll a favorable locality and under proper climat ic conditions. IL means homes for thirty or forty thousand peo- pie where now there is only a desert. Is t not worth while to try this experiment?
 "But the Senator says let Us wait until the irrigation commit tee cf the senate has proposed a general scheme for irrigation throughout the country. MT. President, we are not ready for any general irrigation scheme. Congress in my judgment would be unwise, would bealmost crim- inal in the expenditure of money if it entered at the present time upou any great irrigation plan. Why? We have rot had enough practical experience. You may theorize and the0rize until the rivers run dry and congress will not be any better informed than it is now as to what we can do in a practical way for the irrigation of the arid wastes. We need the experiment: and $2,000, eco to demonstrate on the Gila river whether irrigation can be made financially successful; whether we can make our desert bloom, whether we can frd homes for happy millions, will be money well expended, The senators who ask of the West to stand with them and vote millions as a donation to the shipbuiIders of the United States ought to he willing to stand by Us in the West to give us a million or two now and then for the develop Iment and the experiment of this great problem of national irriga- ton.
 The senator from Connecticut, Mr. President, has just told Us about what has been done with our public domain; that when we bought it from the Indians. through OUT various treaties, We did it on the pretense that We were to sell it for better prices to the people of the United States.
 An, Mr. President, we might have been justified in eNpending many millions more in purchas- ing the lands from cur Indians if we had no other purpose than to open them as free homes to the workers of the United States that they might occupy them, til them, cultivate them, and make happy homes. The sena- tor from Connecticut would urge that a subsidy to q ship flying an American flag is a benefit to all 1bp Dp0Dla of tho TTuitpI