The Tucson citizen., 1902-03-28
THE IRRIGATION QUESTION.

the East in general. and the railroad
corporations and the cattle barons OF
the West in particular. are lighting
national irrigation, it can only be at
tributed to ignorance in one instance
and to extreme selfishness in the other.
We can all understand why the cattle
barons should oppose the measure.
They want to retain the public do
main for their own use and benefit ex-
clusiyely. Why the railroads doing
business in the West should oppose
irrigation We cannot understand. 1r-
rigation would increase population,
and the greater the population the
greater the volume of business that the
railroads would inevitably be called
upon to transact.
BY proper irrigation homes can be
provided for 10.000,000 of people on
lands now uninhabited and uninhabit-
able. At the rate of increase of popula-
tion sustained the last ten years 1T
win not be long until there will be
urgent demand for more room. More
room can only be provided in the
United States by the reclamation of
arid lands AS population increases,
of course. the number of inhabitants
per square mile of territory will be-
come greater. In time there will be
congestion of population, as there is
now in some European countries. and
as there is at this time in certain sec
tions OF the United States.
The addition to our habitable ter
ritory of land capable of sustaining a
population of l0,0oo00 is a matter of
the utmost Importance to all the peo-
pie. And right here it may be said that
there is no place so desirable for
homes for the people of the United
States as its own territory. on the
American continent. Tropical islands
are not to be compared with the
States anu Territories of the United
law and order without the demoraliZ-
ing presence OF large bodies of sol
d.ery; civil government prevails and
not the rigors of military law. The
settlement of our home lands makes
us greater in every respect as a nation,
the scattering of desirable citizens
among distant islands weaKens us as
a people and as a nation.
Already our great cities are over
crowded and the tendency TO rush from
the country to the city is not balanced
by tendency of city peopIa to go to
the country. New homes in the West
will help check the food flowing into
the cities from the farms and will
start the stream of migration from
the city to the country. These new
homes can only be provided by the
reclamation of the arid lands of tie
West, and reclamation to be follows
ed by settlement can only be accom-
plished by government control of the
waters coming from the mountains,
the conservation of waste waters, and
the reservation of the lands to be re-
claimed for acutal settlers.
The people of the arid west believe
that satisfactory national irrigation
policy would benefit the bread winners
of the United States. The advocates of
irrigation are anxious to compare the
results of this truly Democratic meas
ure with the results of a generation
OF high tariff protection. The latter has
put into lne hands Of the trusts the
largesc portion of the circulating
medium, the control OF manufactures
the control of the legislative and exc
cutive functions, elevated the political
boss to supreme power, and cause
the political history of some of the
most populous States to become a
stencil in the nostrils Of patriotic men.
But the plain common people of the
East. who have borne the burden and
heat of production. what of them
They have some rights. A million of
them should be helped to obtain homes
every year II the claims Of the ad-
vocates of protection are to be sustain
ed. Under the protective-subsidy
system, the average workingman of
the East cannot make better provision
for the care and education of his
children, nor can he look forward
to the enjoyment If the fruits OF life
time of toll more certainly than he
could before the Civil War. Killing
competition. which has been fl1e chief