The river press., 1904-09-28
ROOSEVELT AND IRRIGATION.

~ CAIN phlRu uOCuuucuI 1oSucu ny oho
democratic national committee, in
which it is claimed thu the irrigation
bill passed by a republican congress
and approved by republican presi'
| dent is democratic measure, was the
subject of criticism by Secretary Shaw
in recent speech at Denver. He gave
due credit to Senato Newlands, of
Nevada, who framed the original bill,
but called attention to the fact that
many changes were made by other
mem bers of congress and that Presi-
dent Roosevelt himself suggested sew
eral new and important features. In
the course of his remarks Secretary
Shaw said:
The entire deleg alton from the arid
states, regardless of party, has favor
ed irrigation for more than decade,
and many bills have been introduced
providing for large appropri ations
for the reclamation of arid lands. I
would not rob these gentlemen of any
of the credit to which they are entitled
for protecting the interests Of their
immediate constituents, but [ can not
forget that if any one of these honored
representatives had failed to do his
utmost for irrigation he would have
been retired to private life.
After ten years of this non.partisan
effort by the representatives of arid
states they were no nearer success
than when they began. Here and there
in other states there was found nom.
inal friend, but no influential congress-
man or senator from humid state
was willing to risk his political
fortunes by an aggressive espousal of
irrigation. On the contrary, there
were maryland they were not con.
fined to any one political party--who
looked upon irriga alton as of doubtful
craftsmanship and some openly de-
clared against the use of public rev.
enues in developing western competi-
tion in agriculture.
While both political parties in their
national conventions declared in ia
vor of adequate national legislation
to reclaim arid lands, there was want
ing an advocate against whom the
charge could not be made that his en-
thusiasm was controlled by local in
terests. But when President Roose-
velt submitted his message to con-
gress in December, 1901, conditions
changed. In the course of a lengthy
discussion of the subject he said:
ut is as right for the national gov.
ernment to make the streams and riv-
ers of the arid region useful by en-
gineering works for water storage as
to make useful the rivers and har-
bors of the humid region by engineer
ing works of another kind. The stor-
ing of the floods in reservoirs at the
headw aters of our rivers is but an en-
largement of our present policy of
built on the lower reaches of the same
streams
That message gives Theodore Roose.
welt the distinction Of being the first
to risk his own political fortunes by
espousing the cause of irrigation. 1t
gives him the distinction of being the
first American in high elective office
to combat the somewhat narrow senti-
ment against the loan even of public
revenues for the reclam alton of arid
lands and thus bringing them into
competition with humid lands. 1t
must also be conceded that Theodore
Roosevelt was extremely fortunate in
making his Recommended alton at the
exact moment when sentiment in the
United States respecting irrigation
changed, or he must be given credit
for causing this change of sentiment.