Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1906-08-25
IRRIGATION CONGRESS
Ancient Schemes of Egyptians and ASiatiCs Pale Into lnSiunifiCanCe in Comparison With Modern
 Works
By profes.or Edgar L. Larkin.

h interest to all who live between the Roe ky Mountains and the Pacific ocean will hold daily sessions in Boise, Idaho, from September toS. Governors of several states will speak also a number of Unit ed States senators and congressman. Officers of the Nationa, Reclamation Service, one of the most important bu- reaus of the government, will also be present and show how the work is pro- gressing throughout "our mighty West" use the word mighty" purposely, for l have actually met persons having no conception of our mighty West nor it's mighty possibilities.
 I attended the thirteenth session of the congress, in Portland, last August. Somewhere along in the middle of the week began to hear about the outlines of most magnificent Western Empire, "bigger than Rome," in our glorious West. The new empire, really greater than the Assyrian, Egyptian, Grecian and Roman, will have it's "rock of foun- dation" in irrigation.
 These great congresses are held for two purposes-frst, to make the govern ment in Washington hear about the West; second, to make the people hear of it. These two things are all we ask, for the more senators, congressman and presidents we can get to hear about the West, the larger the appropriations for projects, as they are called.
 The Asiatics and Egyptians had vast schemes of irrigation for several thous- ands of years. And the people are just finding out that water makes plants grow. Plants make grains, fruits and vegetables. These make money. And these things, now known to be true, have all been heard of by the delegates to the congresses. And now a vast sys- tenn of irrigation is being planned, be- side which all schemes of antiquity fade and faint away.
 The reader may not be aware that a number of colossal irrigation schemes are now being worked out in several pla- ces in the arid west. Thus the Malheur and Klamath projects in Oregon, that will greatly benefit Northern California also, are greater works than the Pyra- mid of Sulphi's in Egypt. The irrigat- ing plants will help millions, while the pyramid is useless.
 No columns in the Examiner" could be filled with technical details alone, of the Klamath triumph of hydraulic en- gineering. The Truckee- Carson project in Nevada is simply wonderful, and it is great to see what engineers can do with only twothings-mathematics and shov- els. Oh, yes! They used picks and shovels, but one look at the mathemat- ics would scare the reader. For rivers are turned this way and that, and are united. They do what they please with them and with lakes.
 One reason why the fourteenth con- gress was set in Idaho was to see if they could not get the people to hear about the immense plans and schemes now under way up there. For only one glimpse of the mighty works, secured by an "Easterner," will so startle him that he will tell his neighbors when he gets home, and write whole lot of postal cards to his congressman to vote heavy sums for the neglected west" The antics of United States senators and congressman up in Washington, D. O., are simply ludicrous and absurd at times. Thus they will throw away $6,000, ,00O in building battleship-an engine of suf- fering and death. No argument can make them see that the same money in- vested in flows of blessed, running, bub- bling, life-giving water, will bring life to whole areas of arid lands. And here is how they act in January and FebIua- ". They will argue week after week over one-eighth of a cent change in the tariff. The ears of humanity listen to every senseless word spoken in the "mar- ble halls' as though the fate of the hu- man species rested in the balance. Six months for two mills change in tariff 1!