The Florence tribune., 1901-02-16

dam is to be constructed is cut or
 canyon through the solid rock.
 A dam not exceeding 200 feet in
 width can be placed there, with rock
 sides and rock bottom-an eternal rock foundation and eternal rock support
 on either side-and carried to any
 height desired; and the lay of the
 country behind it is such that it will
 furnish a vast reservoir flooded by
 this one little narrow dam. There is
 not 3 more favorable location for an
 irrigation experiment. than that.
 I If this were only an irrigation experi-
 ment, disconnected from the Indian
 sitsation, why sh ould we not try it?
 It is proposed to appropriate millions
 of dollars to make the American
 flag as familiar on the sea as it is on
 our land. But it is an experiment, and
 it is an experiment that l am willing
 to favor, for if it will accomplish what
 is claimed, 1t will bring great an d
 lasting good to all of the people of the
 United States in every part and in
 every vocation of life. We expend
 millions of money along the Mississippi
 River on the theory of deepening and
 improving navigable stream and
 protecting it, but after all, so far as
 navigation is concerned, the Missis-
 sippi River is now only historic. The
 railway, the locomotive have super
 seded the steamboat. The Mississippi
 River is no longer great highway of
 communication and of traffic. We ex- I pend our ten millions year simply to
 protect the people living in the valleys
 through which that mighty river flows from the danger of the overflow, and
 am willing to see it done, because it
 benefits a vast area of our country whose welfare is vital to the prosperity of the people of the whole country.
 Mir. President, we spend millions
 and millions of dollars every year in , excavating salt creeks along the sea- coast of the United States so that deep water navigation may reach every lit
 tle hamlet on the New England shore. [ am in favor of it. If it be an experi-
 ment, it is an experiment for the inter l est of the people of the whole coun- try. l live in the West, where no steamer can ever come; live in the West, where there is no necessity for
 har bor Notifications; live in the west,
 where we build no ships to sail the
 seas; and yet I am in favor of the
 most liberal appropriations for all these purposes, for they are great } national enterprises, experiments, if !. you please, which, if successful, will , bring benefit and wealth and commerce
 and prosperity and glory to the whole
 people.
 | Yet it does sometimes seem to me
 that in some respects we in the west ! are little broader about these things than others of the East. It does seem : to me that we who live on the prairie
 and in the shadow of the mountains 7 are little more generous toward the people of the coast than they 5 are toward us. It does seem to ne sometimes. Mir. President, that the man who lives by the sea and 9 all his life long hears nothing but the q roar of the surf upon the seashore- 7 the man who lives in climate SC damp that he has to hunt for sunshiny days-is apt to become somewhat of . l mossback; and I have sometimes 3 thought that the moss along the New s England shore not only grows on tht t backs of the houses, but on the backl ' of some of the men.
 t So, MT. President, as 8 representa- t tive of the West, class this Legislation V as you will, I do protest against yo,
 fighting little appropriation of thi e sort to experiment at the most availa
 hle point where there is the bes v chance to get results, on the question n of national irrigation Float you T steamers up your salt creeks, keeI | your Mississippi in the bed that yor t are building up by the construction o e your dikes, give subsidies to the mer 7e chant marine, but for heaveD's sake l. just give us little chance. Whils l. you are working at the bunghole C [, the National Treasury, let us use gin IT let. It does seem to me that when yo le pour out treasure for other sections ( " the country it comes with rush, bu as when yon pour it out for us you pou or it out as slowly as the flow of molasse re in the cellar where the thermometer ut 40 degrees below zero.
 II Mir. President, your committee woul ly have been justified in proposing tn n amendment. covering simply the pu 'd pose of contracting dam and rese ns voir for the irrigation of Indian Ian, lit on the Gila River. If we had stopps y. right there, we would have been ful
 justified. Are we to be criticised b se cause we also call the attention IS Congress to the fact that this dam al
 I