Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-09-16
Contest forNext irrigation Convention Narrowed
Down to Boise and the Texas City.
WILL NOT JOIN WITH OTHER CONGRESS
taeh0od For New McKee, Arizona and Oklahoma Favored
Eloquent Address by Commander Rooth-Tuckerof
the Salvation Army


cd of colonization of vast irrigableI
districts of the west and the legal as
pect of the whole question Of srriga
tion and existing land laws were the
subjects scheduled to come before the
national irrigation congress at today's
sessions. The first named subjecSl
was expected to take the entire time
Of the morning session and at the af-
ternoon session the desert land act
will be discussed The fight for con
gress for 1904 Is becoming lively and
has narrowed down to Boise and El
Paso.
Immediately after the congress was1
called to order Senator Carey of Wy
oming, chairman Of the committee ap-
pointed last year to consider the ad-
visibility of consolidation with the
Trans-Mississippi congress reported
against such action and his report was
unanimously adopted. Ten minutes
were set aside for the reading and In
PRODUCTION Of resolutions. Included
among other things statehood for New
Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma was
favored by resolutions
A iesaii:ins introduced BY Geo II
Maxwell. chairman Of National IIr..
CATION association, favoring recon-
mendation contained in President
Rocsevelts telegram Of yesterday fur
preservation of forests. favoringf i'm
mediate repeal of desert lantf act,
timber and stone act. and the colnmu-
tat,on clause of the homestead act.
Resolutions were very explicit and
were heartily applauded by delegates.
Commander Booth Tucker Of the
Salvation Army spoke on Colonial
tion in the West The delegates
gave him three cheers when he CON
cluded A recess until the afternoon
was taken
Commander Booth-Tucker spoke in
part as follows:
What our American poor ask for
is not charity but opportunity. Let
this congress then throw wide open
before our working classes, that door
Of opportunity. Let 1t place within
the reach of the landless man. our
manless lands. Less it speak with
voice which cannot be misunderstood,
and let it thunder at the doors of our
national capital and of our state leg
islatures, till colonization is made
as much an imperative and practical
question Of the hour as by its brilliant
and persistent efforts irrigation has
already become. The association Of
these two powerful factors, irrigation
and colonization, in the welfare Of our
nation, will be well night irresistible,
and with these mighty levers this con-
gress will lift from the nations path
way, the dead weight of poverty, crea-
3 leu lHleTutCiit StfuSSico peNWoSh NoP
itaf and labor and threaten to ship
wreck our future prosperity.
at matters not whether the ques.
tion be viewed from the standpoint of
the sociologist devising way Of deliv
erance from the perplexing prablems
Of poverty, the philanthropist desiring
to permanently better his felieWInen.
the millionaire wishing to leave an
everlasting monument to his name,
the statesman desiring to build up the
future welfare Of his nation. the poll.
tician seeking for a desirable plank
In his party's platform, the manufac-
turer welcoming vast outlet for his
productions in the creation OF home
market, the newspaper with Its finger
upon the throbbing pulses of humanity
the land owner hoping to enhance the
value OF his land. the capitalist reqnir-
ing a safe and profitable investment,
the workingman laboring to carve out
for himself and family reasonable
living. or the religious leader aiming
at the happiness Of his flock on earth
and their eternal welfare hereafter,
colonization presents % each and all
common ground on which ali may
meet none can differ. and OUT entire
6ation, from the white house to the
dug-out. from the mansion g the ~
lie. viii unite in rising up and calling
blessed that congress, that body Of
wise men from the west. that nation.
that society, that statesman, that IN