The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-04
VICE PRES. FAIRBANKS
 AT IRRIGATION CONGRESS
ONE THOUSAND DELEGATES FROM HALF THE STATES
 PRESENT..
Fourteenth Annual sessiOn--Addressed by Vice President Fairbanks-Letter Read From President Roosevelt.

by Vice President Fairbanks--Letter
 Read From President Roosevelt.
 Boise, Idaho, Sept, S.-More than 1000 delegates, representing half of the states of the Union, were present to- day when the National Irrigation con- gress assembled for its fourteenth an- nual session. Vice President Fairbanks received a hearty welcome, the audience standing and applauding for fully a minute.
 The convention was reused to ap- plause when Governor Gooding referred to President Roosevelt that 1t was at St. Anthony, in the state of Idaho, where President Roosevelt six years ago made his first promise to the west to give his support to the movement for the enactment of a national reclama- ton law. The great irrigation works in Idaho now nearing completion, he said, were the fruition of the promise made by President Roosevelt.
 United States Senator Frederick T.. Dubois, of Idaho, voiced Idahos well come to Vice-President Fairbanks, and referred to Vice. President Fairbanks as a possible presidential candidate. Sen- ator Dubois declared that If fate should decree that the vice-president should be the next president the people of Idaho would feel assured that they had a most ardent supporter in the presiden- tial office, for MT. Fairbanks, Senator Dubois said, had been one of the most consistent advocates of legislation for the reclamation of the arid regions.
 Clifford H. Pinchot, of Washington, chief of the forestry division of the de- partment of agriculture, who was an- nounced as the bearer of q letter of greeting to the congress from President Roosevelt, was introduced MT. Pin chot stated that he appeared merely as the presidents messenger boy. Presi- dent Roosevelt's letter was as follows: To the Officers and Members of the IT,
 rigation Congress, Boise, Idaho:
 Operations under the reclamation act, which I signed on June IT, 1902, have been carried on ergetically during the four years since that date. The recla- mation service consisting of over 400 skilled engineers and experts in various lines, has been organized, and 1t is now handling the work with rapidity and effectiveness. Construction is already well advanced on twenty three great enterprises in the arid states and terri tories Over 100000 acres of land have been laid out for irrigation, and of this 200 900 acres are now under ditch; SOC miles of canals and ditches and S0,o0C feet of tunnel have been completed and 18, 900 cubic yards of earth and B., 000O00 cubic yards of rock have been moved. Detailed topographic surveys have been extended over 10000 square miles of country within which the re- clamation work is located, and 2o,00C miles of level lines have been run Three hundred buildings, including of fees and sleeping quarters for work men, have been erected by the reclama- ton service, and about an equal num- Der by the contractors. Over 10000 men and about 5000 horses are at present employed,
 The period of general surveys and examinations for projects is past. Eff
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