The La Jara chronicle., 1904-10-28
Together They Will Do Titanic Work in Develop
ing the Great West.
TRANSMISSION OF POWER TO FACTORIES
Roosevet's National Irrigation Act to Create a
'New Heaven and New Earth for
American Freeholders Half
Has Not Been Told.


dream or a something indefinitely pro-
jer1ed, it would he idle to speculate on
foreshndowed results. But the work is
already in its initial stages. 1t contem-
plates an expenditure OF at least SiJp.-
UOOoO ultimately-an enormous sum
Of money-but by a wise provision of law
1t will come. not from taxing the people.
hut from sales of lands still u part of
the public domain. IL will be understood
that the total expense of each irrigation
system constructed by the government
will be refunded to Uncle Sam by those
who actually occupy the irrigated lands.
Meanwhile. as the years 90 by. the gen
cral fund for reclaiminG arid lands will
Increase rapidly from the sale OF public
Iluds throughout the thirteen States and
three Territories affected by the Ma
tiouni act. So it will be that the fund
viii grow larger as il by geometrical
progression. after the tenth year. when
the first moneys expended by the govern
ment shall have been returned to it, by
the farmers. who own and occupy the
land under bitches built by the govern
meat.
Speaker Reed. Vision.
Hon. Thomas Il. Reed, in speech at
rittsburg in 1891. said: Mighty as has
heeu our past. our resources have just
heen touched upon. and there is wealth
beyond the Mississippi which in the not
far distant future will astonish even the
dwellers on the shores of Lake Michi-
gan. From. the time my eyes first rested
"u the great uncultivated plains which lie
between the Mississippi aud the Pacific
Ocean, my awakening dreams have been
filled with visions of the incalculable
wealth which the touch OF living water
will bring to life from those vOiceless
deserts
There wealth only can produce
wealth. and man, sinEly and alone, might
aS well try to subdue the Himalayas as
to cope with these wastes, but the hand
Of united and associated man is already
reaching forth to grasp the great results.
The same power which wastes millions
"r the Mississippi can lie utilized TO make
the deserts blossom with the homes of
uen for whom. and for all Of us. the now
hlighted soil will bring forth the fruits
OF the Garden of Eden"
Lord MacauIay's Prediction.
Lord Macaulay. writing to an Amer
icnu friend. once said: Your fate be-
hcye to be certain, though it is deferred
by physical cause. AS long as you have
a boundless extent of fertile and unoc-
tupied land, your laboring population
wih he far more at ease than the labor
lug population OF the Old World. But
,he time will come when New England
will be as thickly populated as the Old
World. Wages will be as low, and will
fiuctuate as much with you as with us.
lou will have your Birminghams and
Manchesters, and in these Birminghams
and Mnnchesters hundreds of thousands
OF artisans will assuredly be some time
out of work, then your institutions will
fairly be brought to the test"
When Lord Macaulay wrote the above
direful prophesy he did not know of
the boundless West, an. the great poss-
hiiities that are to come to its populn-
tion through irrigation. lie did not know
that Roosevelt would appear on the
scene at the proper time and cause the
lifc-GivinG water to be applied to the
pHrched plains and thus produce one OF
the greatest transformations of any age
or any time.
In these columns. on former occasions,
IL has been shown that the irrigated West
will not only he the garden spot of the
world, but that it will afford the surplus
fruit and vegetable produce. coupled with
cereals and other staple articles of com
merce, which, exported to foreign mar
kets are destined to establish Americas
world commercial prestige.
unmensured Electrical Energy.
The contemplation of such marvellous
results would be incomplete without Civ
ing due consideration to the generation
of electrical energy and its lons-dstant
transmission and local adoption TO me
chauical and industrial ends. This as u
direct result of reclaiming Arid Amer
lea"
The electrical transmission OF power
90 considerable distances has accomplish
ed not only results not contemplated in
itS original inception. but also others of
widespread importance and value. In
diced, the secondary results are quite as
Important as those arising from the pri-
mary successful operation of such trans
mission lines.
Wherever a water power exists, or
where the situation enables power to be
chcaply produced. there has lain dormant
a source of actual wealth which has
awaited the application of electricity.
The effective results obtai ed when
powers have been developed and applied
by this means have been almost iuvari-
ably alike. New industries have started,
new towns and villages have grown up,
aud new centers of production have
arisen and given employment to labor
and afforded a market for raw materials.
From the combination of the two there
has arisen in each case new source of
manufactured products, representing all
addition to the permanent wealth Of the
country.
Life In Water, Power in Electricity.
Even. however, beyond these industrial
effects which have been noted in the
case OF power transmission establish
ments in certain portions of the United
States. other results quite unexpected
aud equally as beneficial have arisen. In
the arid regions of the West, where only
irrigation is needed to cause the soil to
become highly productive. the installation
of plants for the distribution of water
10 the dry soil has often caused a de