The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-04-14
THE WHOLE TRUTH

failure been so effectually attacked
Colonel Harvey W. Scott, editor OF
The Portland Oregonian and dean OF
journalism on the Pacific slope, who
has been actively identified with prac-
Eically every uplift movement in the
Northwest during the last 80 years;
says this in urging CONFERENCE.-The CO.
operation and commenting upon the
Importance to the nation of the Ma
t1ional Irrigation Congress which will
nave its seventeenth session in Spo-
kane. August Q to ID. under the pre-
sidcncy of George T.. Barstow of Bar
stow. Texas. adding:
~Jf the people were interested in
events In proportion to their import
arce the irrigation congress next Au-
gust would plunge the whole country
nto wild excitement. one imagines,
however that our national equanim-
Wy will not be greatly perturbed by
r Fl.
Although the subject to be discus
sed relates vitality to human happi-
ness, although the way we finally an
swer the questions which the emin-
mt speakers at the congress will raise
znpG decide whether 500 years from
now the United States shall be Il flour
ishinS empire or a desert solitude,
nevertheless il will not be easy to
arouse more than Il perfunctionary
public interest.
-''Thc great names of the orators, the
comp of civic festivity, the display
II goVcrnm entail science will all be
needed to hold the languid ear of the
indifferent farmer, whom nothing
short Of an earthquake will compel
- think or study. Irrigation would
yaln gold into his tubs if he would
set them out. but he won't until he is
harricd and bounded into doing it.
But the farmer is no worse than
cltncT men. Few of us take more than
q feeble and spasmodic interest in the
things that concern us most deeply.
Consider how speedily an audience
uanishcs whenever a speaker touches
un education. n subject whose import
S. even weightier than irrigation.
ut is only by fits and starts that
we can be induced to think of the
salvation of our immortal souls.
some sporadic Billy Sunday can turn
eur attention to these precious enti-
lies once in a while. but how long
Sees 1t stay fixed? Salome dancing
n frivolous hornpipe makes us for
get time and eternity.
IF man were truly rational be-
Gng the minute he learned that irri-
cation would double the produce of
mis- farm. even in such a favored re-
c;i0n as the Willamette valley, he
would rush to build dams and big
bitches. but he doesn't. He waits
until somebody has pushed and prod
lied him.
Think how long it has taken some
of the rural brethren to begin
spraying their apple trees. They know
hat a few doses of lead arsenate
would save their fruit from ruin and
not u drop did they spray until a pa
ternal government stepped in and
gave them no choice. AS a race we
are just as lazy and shortsighted as
we dare be. and most of us would far
prefer to swing a heavy sledge ham
mer 10 hours rather than think for
zen minutes
Such congresses as the one which
win meet in Spokane next August are
mere valuable for reiterating old
truths than for revealing new ones.
Iteration is all that saves the world
from relapse into barbaric Squalor.
Hearing the truth about irrigation or
anything else once only does us not
The slightest good. We must hear II
a thousand times and in every posi-
1lIe key.
THE Massachusetts savings bank in
5urance scheme was based on the sup
position that when life insurance was
made cheap and easy every person
who needed it would step up and buy
II. No madden dream was ever dream
ed The project has been open many
months. but only two banks are offer
ing insurance, and there is nobody Il
buy To persuade us to insure ouI
lives and save our wives and children
from destitution we need a brazen
tongued agent to ring an alarm in on
ears.
Mankind is like the starving pau
per VINO was on his way to the grave
ward TO be buried alive for his indo
hence. The mercifui judge offered t.
suspend sentence if anybody woul,
feed the condemned. kindly farme
offered meal of corn. Is it shelled
inquired the pauper with languid in
terest. No twas not. Drive on then
said the pauper. We need such ga
thcrinEs as the national irrigation
congress to shell our corn for us.
civilization originated in cour
tries whore men We're forced to irri
gate the land or perish. In Babylon
IN and Egypt were laid the founda
tons Of every science and all the art:
The reason is plain enough. Irriga
zion drives man to think and plan o
the one hand and to cooperate wit
mis- neiehbors on the other. The hat
II OF thinking about one subject lead
him TO exercise his brain on other
and presently he discovers the gref
Gtfnth that ideas are upon the who!