Arizona republican., 1909-08-13

been, is and always will be a most important factor in the development of the states of the Pacific coast. Eff teen years ago California was a vast wheat field, oregon and Washington were covered with primevaI forests, Idaho was the grazing ground for cat tie and sheep, Nevada was an alkaline desert with mountains of mines, Utah was developed only in favored spots and Arizona was a sunbaked land, where even the Hazards sought the sparse cactus vegetation.
 These six states and one territory, which is soon to become a state, com pose the Pacific littoraI of the United States and embraces a territory that is destined to play a most important part in the future history of the world. It is an empire which has no equal on the face of the globe in equal space for fertility and promise.
 "California, the mother of irrigation in the United States, has utilized her streams to bring life to the slumber- ing soil. CT wheat fields. which fif- teen years ago covered all the best land in the state and brought to its pNlltiS dli OA liOIl Fovs- OOO, ,00O to S55,000,000 from a million and a half tons of grain, have been changed by trickling irrigation streams and now produce a grand total of agri- cultural products valued at $250,000, 900 annually.
 Vast tracts formerly given tO grain fields with a population of jack rab- bits and coyotes are now dotted with farm houses surrounded by orchards. vineyards and alfalfa fields, support ing hundreds of families of happy and prosperous farmers.
 Irrigation has not only provided for a certain remedy for the former commercial uncertainty of crops. but now crops can be estimated with such accuracy that the agriculturalist, bank CT and transportation company can make their calculations for meeting the requirements of the seasons.
 Irrigation is doing much more than developing California on this Pacific coast. It is developing an empire which is predestinedso play a premier part in the history Of the world. AL ready Washington. oregon, Idaho. Ne vada and Arizona are achieving re- suits that bring them into closer sister hood with California and Utah, the pioneers of irrigation. Vast areas for merly given over to grazing and later to production of grain are now sending to the worlds marts fruits that excite the admiration of all who see them.
 Irrigation means development and development on the Pacific slope da, ig. f hand when this supremacy will be rec ognfzed and when the eyes of all na tions will be turned to the land bor dering on the Pacific.
 These six states and one territory are unique because s-y have charac- teristics found nowhere else in the United States. They have conditions requiring peculiar treatment They have community of interest requiring concert of action on the part of the entire population.
 With interests identical, with ad- vantages equal and with opportunities that meet all conditions, the states of California, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and the territory of Arizona are in position to form an offensive and defensive alliance against the world, if such course should be necessary.
 Fortunately. however, there is no necessity of forming an offensive al liancc. for the Pacific littoral Is part of that great nation in which each integral part is of importance. But there is necessity of forming a defen- sive alliance Not defensive in the sense Of DIilitarism, but defensive of those rights which belong to us be- cause of our being part of the United States.
 "It Is this idea that has developed the plan of forming an alliace which shall be known as the United Pacific states. and whose ogject shall be the furtherance or all those matters which will rebound to the benefit of the en- tire territory. Such a combination of forces will be an enormous power for good, and at the same time it will bring about a cooperation and a spirit of brotherhood that will break down all barriers of sectiOnalism and make us one people working for the good of the whole.
 Irrigation gives us the example of what such an alliance would mean for the United Pacific states Here we have an object in common. It is some thing that is as important for one part of the section as for any other. In this great convention the vast major ity of delegates comes from the Pa cific states. They have gathered here because they recognized the commu- nifty of interests.
 This same spirit should be fos- tered in all those things which tend to make a country great. Our lawmakers in Washington should go as unit for all things benefiting either the whole or the individual parts of the United Pacific states.
 Let each state become thoroughly organized. and then let these central organizations of the states join in d central organization for the United Pacific states, and all such matters such as irrigation, development, legis- lation and prosperity, will become easy of solution, and our empire will achieve that destiny foreordained for it by Nature when she placed the bar rier of mountains between us and the rest of the nation and the sea between us and the countries of the orient"
 The politics of the congress appears to be at an end with the choice by the permanent organization cOmmitt- tee with B. A Fowler of Phoenix, Ariz., as president. and Arthur Hooker of Spokane as secretary for the per-