Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1902-07-30
MAXWELL ON
IRRIGATION
CONTINUED from FIRST page.)

man In a thousand in hiontana today,
the conception of what II NEAR TO the
people OF this state II this great pro-
ject were carried out. lou may go
to the places where they have actu-
ally made surveys: | came yesterday
and the day before up through Milk
River valley. That territory is prac-
tically all tributary to your city. |
made inquiry this evening as TO the
growth Of this town; | was told that
from a city of 1000 people ten years
ago today 1t is a city of 5000. Now,
my friends, you must recognize the
fact that there Is a limit to your
growth unless you put the possibility
of the development Of a great agri.
cultural production under your COM
munity and under your state. Min
ing is good in its way, but nothing
will develop your mining industries
more than the development of your
agriculture.
The number of sheep and cattle
that Montana will carry in the nat
ural condition of the country | ven
ture to say Is very, very great today,
hut that today there is a great vol
ume of the stock business in this
state on an uncertain basis, carried
on upon the open range. when IL these
vast hundreds of thousands of acres
that could be brought under irriga-
ton and made to furnish a permanent
supply of food for your stock through
the most severe winters. that You
would place that business upon a
permanent basis and remove IL from
the largely speculative character
which it must have so long as you de-
pend more or less upon the seasons,
Now, let us assume that you are in
favor of building up the state, Of
building up its population, of build
ing up it's wealth. Montana today
has a population of 100000 or 300, 600
i haven't the exact figures. Mon
tana is the exact area of Illinois, In
diana and Ohio, and you have the
natural resources-nature has given
them to you-if you choose to devel-
op and utilize them to make this state
as great in population and wealth as
those three states that | have named,
and where you have two or three hun
dred thousand people they have five
to seven millions: where you have
less than a million cattle they have
seven or eight million; in the state
of Iowa alone there are over four
million cattle. Why? Because the
fertile land there is made productive
H.. ..at,rn'. raip fol anH in Nnttr cfnta
you have a great problem of engineer
ing finance to solve, before you can
utilize these waters that now go to
waste.
In other words. in this state you
are face to face with the same prob
lem which the human ace has faced
In the older regions of the earth and
by which they have been bettered.
And the man who walks today over
the burning sands of northern Al.
RIGA. stands on the desert there face
to face with the condition that will
come to the western half of the Unit
ed States if the American people do
not rise to the necessities that face
this generation and the next and pre-
serve your forests and reserve your
source OF water supply anu plant your
population upon something ore
permanent than the shifting grazing
possibilities of the country as 1t ex-
lists To-Day. coupled with the POSSIBLE
ity of destroying the source of the
annual supply you have by the cut
ting down and destroying of the for
ests as has been going on in the last
generation here in the west, almost
until lately without check or him
drance.
Deserts Changed.
There Is no concealing the fact that
as we go back through the history
of this world. the desert is gaining on
us. Northern Africa and the fertile
plains OF Masopotamia and Persia
and all that great region. which was
once as fertile as any of the garden
spots of the earth. is today nothing
but death and d~esolatiOn and the des-
erts. You may go from Montana to
Arizona. and you pass through a C
ton of country when hangs by a hair
between the possibility of being one
OF the most fertile regions of the earth
and going back to a desolation as alb
solute as that which has fallen upon
the once fertile spot where Carthage
stood. say to you, my friends, when
Senator Gibson says this is the most
important problem before your people,
| say to you il Is the most important
problem before the people of the
whole United States, ! care not wheth-
er il is Maine or California. Minneso-
Ia or Louisiana. II Is the question
whether we shall build up a great
fertile. populous, rich. national char
acter in the western half OF these
United States or whether we shall
skim the cream and gradually let 1t
go to ruin, and drive our people back
to the portion of the country where
nature sends the rainfall.
Let no man think that the picture
is overdrawn. | say to you that the
thinking men, who have watched the
forests burn in the mountains OF Col
orado and Southern California, real
lie that when these mountain fires
SNttD lubot lpltoNS o"us ~ "'N'N ~
far better IL they were burning large
blocks OF buildings in the cities which
draw their life from the sources OF
water supply that come from those
forests. Why? Because you can re-
build the buildings in your cities, but
you cannot replace those forests in a
hundred years.
Now. my friends. here is the prob
lem which you have in Montana TO-
day: II you preserve those forests,
If you store back the floods, II you
bring in the population and settle up
your land, you will have a population
running into the millions in this
state within a generation; and If you
don't do it, | fail to see upon what
you are going to build a much great
err basis for your increased popula-
ton and wealth than you have today.
Should Great Falls be a city OF 10000
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