The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-07

will be far reaching in its effects. 1t is
not too much to say that without
PRESIDENT Roosevelt's aid the reclama-
ton of the arid west would have been
indefinitely postponed"
A decided sensation was sprung dur
ing the morning in the action of the
executive ,committe voting to recon-
mend that the meetings of the congress
be merged with those of the Trans Mis-
slss1ppi congress next year. THE execu-
tive committee must in order to be par
ilamentary, make this suggestion
through the committee on permanent
organization which will report to the
congress during the day. When the first
breath or news regarding the proposed
consolidation reached the congress, dele
cations from the several states held
hurried caucuses. The Utah delegation
of forty members, the largest outside
or Colorado, came to speedy conclu-
SION and decided emphatically against
the merger. Chairman Keisel stated
the position of his state as follows:
Utah was the first state to take UP
the matter of irrigation and is therefore
better acquainted with the subject than
any other state in the union The irri-
cation congress was formed for a spe-
cific purpose and this purpose should
be adhered to religiously. We say go it
alone and do not let the tail wag the
dog"
MRS. M'CLURG'S ADDRESS.
The only address of the congress de-
livered by a woman was given this
morning by Mrs. Albert mcclure of this
city who, responding for Mrs. Denison.
president of the General Federation of
Women's clubs, gave 'sGreetingsH
| In the course of her remarks. after
extending the greetings of the fedora
ton. Mrs McClurg said, referring to the
meeting of the General Federation of
WOmenS clubs in Los Angeles last Nav:
THE Colorado women. later joined by
those of California, introduced at the
biennial convention of the General Fed
GRAFTON of Women's clubs at Los An
geleS in May, resolution endorsing and
requesting government aid for irriga-
tior. This resolution was adopted IN
animousiy. When I first preached this
proposed resolution in the Colorado
committee room. one woman demurred,
saying that politics had no place in the
| federation of women's clubs. Mrs. Sarah
Platt Decker our foremost Colorado
club woman, reioined: Madame Chair
man, irrigation is not politics. In the
west it is religion
Irrigation has always been the re-
ligion of the arid Landslide faith which
sees on the desert the springing grass
blades. The early powerful civilization
of which recorded history remains, were
fOstered and developed on breezy arid
plateaus with artificial systems of irri-
CATION Such was that which carved
the mighty bas-reliefs of Ninevah or
reared the Hanging Gardens of Baby
long or which raised ancient Egypt from
rich land with teeming population and
all the kindly fruits of the earth-under
the beneficent influence OF Father
Sihor.
1.-THE western world was to. furnish
yet more magnificent proofs of the
transcendent value of irrigation as the
foundation of nation building. It was
the lot of Spain, says DR.. Draper, to de-
stroy three civilizations superior to her
Own-namely, that of the Moors that of
the AZtecs and that of the Peruvians
These last two emDires stand unparal-
leled in the power and beauty conferred
by as perfect systems of irrigation as
the world has seen. Tenochititlan, like
Venice, whose cleaning white buildings
dominated four azure lakes: a city built
upon the waves: and Peru. the land
teeming with agricultural wealth from
the coast valleys to the terraced sleeps
of the Sierras. owed their beauty and
power to the ordered ministration of
conducted water"