Bisbee daily review., 1902-02-21
FOOLISH OPPOSITION TO NATIONAL IRRIGATION

There is too stubborn opposition in the House on the proposed national ir. rigation bill. Representative Sibley, of Pennsylvainia, is credited with say ing that he was unchanged in his op- position to the Hansborough-Newland irrigation bill and that he felt it to be his duty to work and speak against it. He said: ''I am a farmer myself and know the difficulties with which the farmers have to contend, the long hours they have to work and the de- preciation of the value of their lands, at least in the Eastern States. which has confronted them. Of course l realize that the time will come when it will be proper ana expedient for the federal goverement te lend a hand to- ward the irrigation of the arid lands of the west if it can be done without its operating to the advantage Of few large land owners rather than to the advantage of small farmers and would be settlers, but the time is not yet ripe. The farmers of the East have seen hard times and have battled fear ful odds and now that they begin to see daylight there comes to Congress men who would add vast acres to the pres ent area of tillable land and increase the competition which in the past has been 80 keen as to make farming the most lsborious and least profitable of the professions. These gentlemen from the West are or. the right track but they are away ahead of time. The time will come when the manufactur- ing interests of this country will have vastly increased, the home market will have increased proportionately and there will be ample demand to con- sume at good prices all of the farmers products. Then I will be glad to see. what knew as boy, the great Amer ican desert made one great aourishing field
 The argument of Mr. Siblev is one of the strongest that could be made in favor of the practicability and advis- ability of national reclamation of the arid lands. It is admission that the great deserts of the west would make homes for the people, who would make them productive to such an ex- tent as to embsrrsss the farmers of the old agricultural sections of the coun- try. The assumption that the cultiva- tion of the western deserts would lower the price of farm products in the old states or interfere in any way with the markets is not founded on a careful study of existing conditions. The Unit ed States is exporting every year mil lions upon millions of farm products to foreign countries. This export trade consumes from the great grain, cotton and sugar states of the east and from California, Carolina, Colorado and Kansas, and now supplies practically all the deficiency in farm products in the arid states. and territories, still these states are not alarmed over the nati- onal irrigation proposition. It may be interesting to know that in 1890 our
 
 exports of corn amounted to s6S,977,- AS; wheat, sl04, 269. .l6s; wheat flour. s73, ,Oes, s7O; beef products, 34,0s7, ,6l4: hog products, s115, 179,343. If the arid lands are cultivated it is certain that no product will find a market west Of the Mississippi river; it is certainly true that no farm products east of the Mississippi has ever been marketed in the arid western states, or eve twill be. Then it is plain that this Pennsylvania farmer is needlessly alarmed. The cultivation of the arid west by means of national irrigation will make home. for the homeless, prosperity for the penniless, and w,ll in no way hurt eastern farmers who never sold any thing here It will swell the exports of farm products and make our nation richer and more commanding in th' commercial world, and that without [ dollar of expenditure on the part o ths government that will not be re
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