The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-30
IRRIGATIoNIsTs AT WASHINGTON
DETERMINED TO BRING THEIR
PLANS BEFORE CONGRESS
NEwLANDs GIVES A DINNER
Government Experts Tell Senator's
and Representatives What Can
= Be Done With Amer
lean Deserts
OPPOSITION IN THE EAST
FROM THE GLOBE BUREAU,

Washington, ID. G.
WASHINGTON, Dec 2s.-An '.irriga-
ton dinner is among the latest of
Washington's politico-social functions
During the congressional season last
year Representative Newlands, of Ne
Vada, gave series of these dinners, and
he has begun this winter, giving the
first one just before Christmas. The III
vitations were like those to any other
dinner. except that on the lower left
hand corner the word irrigation" was
written within quotation marks, as Mr..
Newlands facetiously remarked in intro
ducing the first speaker, so that no one
would come under false pretenses. The
dinner was given at the New Willard, iii
one of the larger private dining rooms.
About enc lCEg table, rounded out at the
center, sat about sixty guests, mostly
Western statesmen, senators and rep
resentatives, but with a few department
officials in the scientific bureaus sprin-
Killed. in.
Before introducing the speakers at
this latest irrigation dinner Mr.: New
lands explained the bill upon which e
rigationists have now agreed. Its notable
feature is the large power which it con-
fers upon the secretary of the interior,
wisely, without doubt, but yet quite at
variance with the discretion allowed 10
other administration officers by the grea-
supply bills of congress- Another of its
principles is the application of the town.
meeting system in the operation and con-
troll of the bitches when once estab-
hshed, the government retaining only
the control of the reservoirs themselves.
AS in other bills, the sum appropriated
Is to be the proceeds from the sale or
public land in the arid and subarid
states, with the accumulations there.
from. The S3000,000 received in the last
fiscal year would be the starter, but of
course funds would increase much faster
with each succeeding year because of the
Increased value of the irrigated lands,
which it is proposed to sell at S. an
acre in eighty acre lots to actual set
tiers. But the terms of the proposed
bill of the secretary of the interior is
declared not to enter on any irrigation
enterprise where the expense of the plant
will be more than $40 an acre for the
regions benefited, and it Is believed that
IS will be the average. AS Mr.. New
lands explained, by this continuous chain
OF receipts and disbursements, 60QOO,Q0O
acres of public land would ultimately be
brought into cultivation at a cost OF
$500, 900 000
The first speaker was Secretary Wilson,
of Iowa. who was asked III to discuss the
effect of opening up new agricultural ter
rftory in competition with the humid re-
gions of the country. The secretary
told his hearers the number of million
dollars worth of agricultural products
which this country is now importing,
half of which he proposes to have raised
In this country, mainly in the irrigated
lands, and the rest in our new posses
sions To stop this importation of agri-
cultural products Mr.. Wilson declared to
be "his job" He also announced that
&C
in different parts of the world, in Europe,
China, and in South America, to create
and extend the markets for American ag-
ricultural products.
In all his speeches Mr.. Wilson stands
suuarely for the broad economic truth
that a nation like our own should always
sell and never buy; that flowing streams
of gold from the richest of the opulent
Chinese and European peasantry are
what we want in return for our prod
ucts. Mr.. Wilson'S speech had little to
do with irrigation except as showing how
it fitted in to his general theory of ma
tional economics.
Charles D. Walcott director Of the
geological survey, next explained the
work of his bureau in relation to irriga-
tion and its facilities for the practical
development of the system. Clifford
Pinchop, the head of the forestry divis-
ion, then spoke with great force and
earnestness on the interdependence of
irrigation and scientific forestry. He
has come to the conclusion that the for
est reserves are more than anything else
water reserves, and that when President
Harrison, in 1892, began this policy OF set
ting off forest reserves, he had really
started what would logically lead to an
irrigation policy. The speaker gave many
illustra tons of the close relations of
forests and water supplies, citing the
request of the millowners of Johnstown,
Pa, to have a forester go there from the
department to cooperate in the develop
ment of such plans as would prevent any
recurrence of the disaster which once
overlook that valley. His speech eX-
hibited clear thinking along scientific
lines, and was very convincing.
George H Maxwell who followed
made an irrigation stump speech" along
lines in which he particularly excels He
contrasted the areas of arid America with
the areas of European countries and
matched their possibilities side by side.
Mr. Maxwell is an effective speaker, and
has long been recognized as the orators
cal champion of the irrigation cause.
What do the representatives of the hui
mid land states think of the irrigation
proposals? Directly opposite Mr.. New
lands throughout the evening sat John
Dalzel, of Pennsylvania, a house leader
VINO expressed his dissent in q pubiiShed
interview at the time from that part of
the presidents message treating this sub
ject. He asked some questions, indicat-
ing skeptical state Of mind as to the
governments constitutional power to go
into this enterprise, but made no formal
remarks. Mr. Underwood, of Alabama,
one of the Democratic leaders, and per-
haps the only man present from the
South, also asked a question or two re-
garding the obligation of the public lands
to the school funds in the various states.
Senator Quarles, of Wisconsin, men,
her of the senate committee on irrigation,
said that he could not understand where
the federal government got it's power to
impound rivers, which had always been
held to belong to the people under the
trusteeship of the several states. He
had also objected, in the past, to the
methods of the irrigationists in trying
to make their project a rider upon unre-
lated bills Mr. Sperry, of New Haven,
Conn, said that he felt that the POSSIBLE
tiles of development through irrigation
were such that the country could not af-
ford to disregard them, although confess