The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-05-27

/ but rather on behalf of the children
whom we passed on the way. am in
terested in children, have six myself,
and am glad to see all throughout this
country the way in which you are pro-
viding for the real greatness, the real
welfare of the Nation in the future by
the training that you are giving to the
/ children, the care that you are taking
with your schools, the ordinary public
schools, the high schools, the normal
schools, and the academies of every
kind, because nothing that can be done
by this generation will in the end avail
anything if the next generation is not
jof the quality to take advantage OF it.
"Coming to this valley in this region,
which you have made blossom like the
rose, am invteably impelled to think
of one of the great-of the greatest in
strument to bring about that fertility
| irrigation. And it seems to me that the
last congress, when it passed the ma
tional irrigation act marked the begin
ming of policy more important to this
country, more important to this coun-
try's internal development than any
other since the Homestead Law was
first put upon the national statute books.
OF course, it always takes time in the
first place to get public opinion up to the
point of enacting such a LAWN the
next place to get the law fairly going,
fairly under way, in order that the bene-
fits that are to accrue from it shall ac-
crue. But beginning has been made,
the law has been put upon the statute
books, and certain works in a sense ex-
perimental have been started, and by
the aid of the national government, CO.
operating with the state govern
ments, and with individuals, we shall
see to the so-called arid and semi-arid
regions, development during the next
fifty years literally unparalleled. ZAP
plause).
"You know ladies and gentlemen the
old proverb, that all any place needs is
good society and water. You have got
the good society and you have got the
water, only it is not always distributed
as it ought to be. And now what is
necessary is to distribute that water
both in space and in time-that is to get
1t out of the irrigating bitches and ulti;
mately to have the great storage reser-
voirs which will enable us to use the
waters which go to waste at season
when you do not need them and store
them so they can be used at season
when you do need them.
"When you come into new country,
when you develop new country, there
is always period during which people
have to adjust themselves to the new
needs, and it was some time before the.
that the same reasons that make it
proper for the national government to
undertake the improvement of the rivers
along their lower courses in the humid
upon the national government to do its
part towards securing the right use of
those rivers in their upper courses in the
arid regions. The government has now
entered upon that policy, and very great
results will come from it. But cannot
too often say, my friends, and right here
in this community think it is almost
unnecessary for me to ray it, that when
all is said and done, when everything
that government can do has been accom-
plished, it remains true that the chief
factor in the success Of any community
must be the average citizenship of that
community. Just exactly as in a war,
as in the civil war, in our own lesser
wars, the Spanish American war, after
you had the weapon, and the uniform
and the training, the chief factor was