Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1909-07-03
MAKE 1T ENOUGH
TO COMPLETE THE WORK
Spend Government Funds BY the Bill
lion Dollars for Conservation.

A~~AA@rO~ Ns~N-~N
Arthur Brisbane, the brilliant edi-
tor Of the New York Evening Jour
nal, has the following leading edi-
torial, headed Five Billions for Ir-
rigatIon-Why Not?" in a recent is
sue of that publication, indorsing
plan outlined by Arthur Hooker, OF
Spokane, secretary of the board of
control Of the nation irrigation con-
gress. to memorabilia congress to is
fsue 3 per cent gold bonds, running
100 years, 10 the amount OF $4,000
900, 900, equally apportioned for
drainage, irrigation, forest protection,
deep waterways and good roads:
Somebody is shocked because the
advocates of irrigation by the ma
tional government suggests SPEEDING
five billions within few vars, put
ting water on dry, desert land. One
brilliant paragraph writer says:
Only five billions! The national
irrigators are too shy. Make it
hundred
Yes, make it hundred billions,
by ali means, II that amount Is re-
quired for irrigation, and If the coun-
try in the centuries ahead can spare
(which 1t can.
No money can be spent more
wisely than the money spent to sup
ply water, fertility and crops to soil
dry and useless without the water.
Five billions seems like a great
deal of money, but 1t isn't very much
| II 1t Is well spent. The nation that
can talk glibly about piling up battle
ships, instruments of death, at ten
millions apiece; the nation that can
give that fortune Of thousand mil
lions to an individual; the nation
that can spend millions for whisky
that ruins the brain and body-can
we'll afford to spend billions on irri-
cation, which is the improvement of
the earth.
THE greatest source of wealth that
we know of is water. The water is
drawn up from the salt ocean, scat
tered over the land by the clouds
The rain pours into the Great Lakes.
And this water, worth many times
ave billions, rushes out into the
ocean, where 1t is lost, taking with it
through the mouth of the Mississippi
and other great rivers the valuable
soil worth many millions more.
Before the waters OF our lakes
and rivers run back to the ocean hui
man ingenuity should take all that
is needed to scatter over the dry
fields. Even the fields that we call
fertile need more water, and ought
to have it.
1.-THE bay crop of this country
should be doubled, without extra la
Dor or expense, If there were water
unlimited for the growing of grass.
Farmers impoverish themselves
paying from thirty to forty dollars a
ton for fertilizer. But the fertilizer
without the water is useless, and with
irrigation the water would not cost
half a cent a ton.
When the government spends its
millions and billions on irrigation it
will be doing the real work Of the
human race on this earth. Our work
here is to develop the earth, make 1t
into a beautiful park, fertile, every
inch irrigated and cultivated park
in which human beings may live to-
gether in peace and plenty, In har-
mony and friendship.
This work is going to be done,
and the advocates of irrigation help
1t along. The day will come when
not dollar will be spent for a rifle,
a bullet, battleship or a lawyer.
Emulation will replace competition
everywhere. Contests between men
will be contests OF mind, each strug-
Cling, not to help himself, but to help
the whole Of humanity by adding to
the wealth and knowledge of the
race.
This rich country, with Its great
lakes. its enormous fortunes, its vast
tracts Of land that need irrigation,
and that win repay irrigation with
ten dollars for one. ought to lead in
the task Of identifying this earth.
"The people of France. after the
war with Germany. were condemned
to pay fine OF five thousand millions
OF francs to Prussia The sum was
raised by the French people, not only
once. but fourteen times over.
France, a small nation, at the end
Of q disastrous war, was ready with
fourteen billions OF dollars to pay a
war debt,