The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1905-10-11

A common and natural error
of those interested in the grea
work of irrigation is the belize
that there is little further neeC
of popular instruction on the
subject. The practical step:
have been taken. The first
great campaign of education
which those who took part IN il
remember so well, the struggle
TO awaken and stir to activity the
national sense of need and OF
opportunity have been carried
to successful close.
The Irrigation Act stands up
on the statute books of the ma
ton and not a hand would be
raised today to strike it thence.
Subject only to such amendment
as may render it more effective,
it outlines a national policy that
is to bless and fructify through
generations.
The splendid fund has been
accumulated and additions to it
are being made through the wise
provisions forts replenishment.
The engineer corps are in the
field, surveys are being made,
dams are rising, bitches are be-
ing opened, and already the
wilderness is becoming a store
house of natural treasure. What
need, then, that the friends of
irrigation should take note of
the hour, should continue their
efforts, should meet as they
have done here today TO take
counsel together, as il there
were still a hostile or ignorant
public sentiment to conquer and
road to be hewn to the nation
al desire?
Work Still to be Done.
The work still to be done, it's
necessity as we'll as it's benef-
cence when all of rs who are
gathered here shall have passed
beyond is the Hnintermitted pre-
sentation of the value of irriga-
ton, of the need of it, of IFS un-
explored possibilities, of it's re-
lation to national growth and
individual life. until this shall
have been made a permanent
part of the common stock of
knowledge; not the possession
Of a band Of enthusiasts or pick
ed body Of scientists and special
lists, but as generally disSeminat-
ed as the familiar blowing and
seaping that have been done by
men since immemoriaI time.
Of all the active or suggested
activities of our time, of all the
WIDE aims that workers and
lovers of their kind have in view,
none will take the precedence of
the reclamation of those vast
spaces of our country now CLOSED
TO productive activity. None is
better worthy of the labor and
the resources set at its disposal.
Severely Practical Era.
We are already entered upon
an era of the severely practical.
The speculative rage has
wrought a certain measure Of
observation-disclosures. Industries and
ideas are being established upon
rational basis for industrial
propagandas and economic theo-
ries. A glowing prospectus is
no longer sufficient enticement
for q liberal investment. nor are
people mad to rush upon the
sword point of poverty or dis
grace for some abstract theory.
What the friends of irrigation
propose is something more def
nite and not less impressive than
that which has carried the great
explorers, discoveries, advent
arers of the world through innu-
merable perils. The discovery
of America could by no means
have meant as much to the
world Of the century of Colum-
bus as the addition to our herit-
age of homes and means of main
tenance for 10000, 900 of people
not now endowed with an acre
of soil. Yet that woMd be a
mean and insufficient measure of
what may easily be accomplish