Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1902-10-06
IRRIGATION CON-
GRESS OPENED
President Roosevelt Sent a Message Of Con-
gratulations and Cordial Sympathy
TO be Read.
PRESIDENT WELSH ARRIVED
National Irrigation Win Provide Territory for a Hundred
Million People and the Congress Must Continue
the Work so Successfully Carried
Forward Thus Far

Colorado Springs, Colo, Oct. 9Th
10th National irrigation congress op
ened at o'clock this afternoon unde
circumstances especially auspicous
Great Significance is lent to what VIII
be done this year through the fact tina
the irrigation movement has been takel
out of the sphere of merely propagan
da and given national Importance
through the action of the last congress.
in passing a bill authorizing the pro
ceeds from the sale of state lands to bt
used for irrigation purposes in the sew.
eral states. President Thomas F
Walsh of the congress, arrived in this
city yesterday and found everything ir
readiness for three days convention
The delegates poured in by every train
and indications, early in the morning
were that this years congress would be
the most satisfactory ever held. Pres
ident Roosevelt sent a message of con-
graduation and of cordial sympathy
yesterday to be read before the conven-
tion.
Inc message reads:
Washington, D. c., Oct 6.-Accept
my hearty good wishes. Nothing has
been done in which 1 have taken great
er interest during my administration
than the inauguration of nationally
aiding irrigation. Theo. Roosevelt
The morning trains brought
large delegations from Minnesota, Ne
braska, Utah, Oregon, California, and
Arizona. The New Mexico delegation
reached the city yesterday, Ex-Gov. L..
B. Prince, vice president of the con-
gress, being among those here. The
personnel of this congress is regarded
by all those in attendance as decidedly
higher in character than that of any
previous irrigation gathering. Thomas
r. Walsh, president of the congress,
said this morning: IT look for the most
successful gathering in the history of
the irrigation movement" The con-
gress opened with an invocation by DR..
Edward Braislin, pastor OF the First
Baptist church of Colorado Springs.
Addresses of welcome by Governor Or
man, President D. B. Farley of the
Colorado Springs Chamber of Com
merce, Mayor John Robinson of Colo
RADIO Springs, and I. N. Stevens, editor
Of the Colorado Springs Gazette for the
press, were responded to by President
Walsh, on behalf of the irrigation con-
gress and the American Forestry asso-
citation, which joins in this convention.
Thomas F. Walsh, president Of the
National irrigation congress, in his ad-
dress, took Humanitarian aspect of
national irrigation" as his subject. He
praised Roosevelt for the message to
congress on Irrigation, saying that
it marked a new epoch in the history of
western America. Referring to the i'm
portance to the country as a whole,
national irrigation, Walsh said, would
some time provide territory for
hundred million people. There is no
field where benevolence can accomplish
so much as in the reclamation of the
great arid region. In closing he said
the labors of this congress were not
completed by the government taking UP
the subject, on the contrary it must
dedicate itself anew to it's advancement,
1t must continue to use its influence in
keeping it on national plane; in loca-
ting the first reservoirs to be built
where conditions are perfect; in seeing
the farms created go to actual settlers,
and in supervising the work in other
ways.
Addresses were made by Senator Pat
terson, Representatives Bell and Shaf-
roth of Colorado, and G. B. Boothe Of
Los Angeles, former president Of the
congress. The appointment of the COM
mittees closed the afternoon program.