The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-12-15
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE.
Continued from Page %


ton by private enterprise or with pri
vate capital is impracticable;
"2. In the history of the world nc
nation has ever entered upon an un
dertaking of more stupendous magni
tude, or one potent with greater as
surance of benefit to the people of the
whole country. The reclamation OF
such vast areas of arid public land
and it's settlement will relieve the con
gestion of the population in our great
cities, and exert profound influence
to check the trend of population to the
cities and turn it back to the land
and thus safeguard against one of the
greatest dangers that now confronts
us in the maintenance of the perma
nency and stability of our social and
political institutions;
"3. The conservation of water by
| the forests is not less essential to irri
cation development than the impound
| ing of waters by the reservoirs.
81. The National Irrigation associ
alton, which includes in it's member
ship large number in this city repre-
senting the various kinds of business
has for it's objects the carrying into
effect of the national irrigation acr
and the establishment of a permanent
policy by the federal government, I'M
der which all the remaining public
lands shall be held and administered
as a trust for the benefit of the whole
people of the United States, and that
no grants of the title to any OF the
public lands shall hereafter be made
to any but actual settlers and home
builders on the land; also
"5. The preservation of the forests
and reforestation of denuded forest
areas as sources of water supply the
conservation of existing supplies by
approved methods of irrigation and
distribution, and the increase of the
water resources of the arid region by
the investigation and development OF
underground supplies; also
"6. The adoption of such laws in
all the arid and semi-arid states and
territories which shall insure the right
to the use of water for irrigation, shall
vest in the user, and become appurte-
nant to the land irrigated, and bene-
fetal use be the basis and the measure
and limit of the right"
The future of the west, under such
policy, is such a magnificent vision
that it is hard for the imagination to
grasp it,
There are few who realize that there
are those still living who actually
lived in old Fort Dearborn, right in
the old log fort, when it was surround
ed by a few struggling buildings and
encircled by the marshes around the
mouth of the Chicago river. II one
of those children had climbed to the
parapet of the old log fort, and look
ing out over the low swampy ground
which surrounded it, had told OF
prophetic vision of city OF two mill
ion people that would be reared on
that site within the lifetime OF that
child and her playmate, it would nave
been laughed at as childish dream.
And yet. standing today on the top
of the two tallest buildings in the city
of Chicago and looking out over that
great city of more than two million
souls the fact must force itself into
the mind that we are only at the
Threshold of our development, and
when we reach the condition OF close
cultivation of the land by dense pop
ulation that has already been reached
in other parts of the world, instead
of a nation of eighty million people
| we will have a nation of more than
eight hundred million. Japan, with
her methods of intensive cultivation OF
irrigated land, sustains more than
thirty million farming people upon 10,
600 square miles of landau area OF
| about 10000 900 acres-less than hall
| 14.4 %
The one state of Montana contains
an area as large as the entire Jap
anese empire, and if developed under
the policy of the National Irriagatior
association, the irrigated lands o.