The copper era., 1904-11-24
President Roosevelt to the Irrigation
 Congress.
WASHINGTON, D. C.. Nov.

It IS q pleasure to send my greeting
 to you, both as president of the
 United States and as a man who ha:
 lived Tn the west and is eager for its
 prosperity. Whatever any man or
 body of men may believe as to any
 question in political controversy. We
 may all unite in the great duty oi
 internal improvements: the duty ot
 making every foot of soil, every stream, and every other resource of
 natural or human origin, contribute
 to the very utmost to the permanent 1 prosperity of our country.
 I congratulate you because you are
 no longer striving for what once seemed d distant hope: you are no
 longer engaged in d campaign of
 education for the passage of d recla-
 nation act. On the contrary, your l first great object is achieved. You | have yet to consider what has been
 done and what is being done under that act by the reclamation service,
 to consider means to give it it's larg- ! est and widest results and to discuss | the broad problems of irrigation | methods and practices.
 It was through your efforts and men like you that the people of the United i States as nation undertook to attack | the desert. and to do away with it not only so far as there is water now for that purpose, but to the fullest extent for which water may be devel- oped hereafter. Such an attack can be successful only when based on ac- curate knowledge.
 When the reclamation act was passed, the essential facts as to stream flow had been ascertained in many parts of the United States, and the scientific basis for national reclama- tion, which otherwise would have taken years to accumulate, was al- ready in large part at hand. The fact that so much progress has already been made by the reclama- tiOn service is a striking example of the advantage of scientific investiga- tion by the general government. It may be true that to the man whose interest is limited by immediate re- suits, the admirable work of the Proclamation service at times seems slow, but We are building for a great future, and it is far more important that the works built should be per manent and successful than that they should be completed in haste. There will be no unwise hurry: neither will there be any unnecessary delay. Most of the great problems of organization and methods have now been solved and progress in construction and set clement is being made with increas- ing rapidity.
 The passage of the reclamation law was great step toward realizing the best use of all public lands. For many of these lands their best use is to produce water for irrigation. But always and in every place, the best use of public lands is their use by the man who has come to stay. There are. unfortunately, in every part of our country few men whose inter- ests are purely temporary: who are eager to skim the cream and go. Instead of using the natural reser- voirs upon which national irrigation depends, to the permanent loss of every agency which makes for the true development and lasting great ness of the irrigable states such in- tereSts cannot be allowed to control.
 Now that your first great object has been accomplished in the passage of the reclamation law you should make yourselves the guardian of the future, and the unrelenting and watchful any of the great resources in forestry, grazing and mineral wealth, the foun- dation stones of d newer and greater west. For irrigation and every other interest which you represent, the period of eXclusivcneSS is past. The stock interests are no longer inde- pendent of the mining interests, nor either of them independent of the irrigator. A closer Intervening than ever before is at hand, among all the great interests of the whole country. One cannot prosper without others. So the future growth and greatness of the other western interests will depend, in the first degree, upon the development of irrigation, and the development of irrigation will depend upon the protection and wise use of the existing forests and the creation of new ones and the proper control of the grazing. Your work for the good of one interest is for the good of all. THEODORE ROOSEVELT