The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-04-28
WR|TESOF WATER
AND RESULT

gions nowhere IL Ii so productive
and nowhere else have the problems
4 OF poverty, Isolation and failure been
so effeetually attacked"
Colonel Harvey ". Scott, editor OF
! the Portland Oregonlan and dean OF
journalism on the Pacific slope, who
has been actively identified with prae.
tieally every movement In the north
west during the last 3 years. says
this in urging continent wide CO.
operation and commenting upon the
importance of the national irrigation
congress- which will have Its seven
teenth session In Spokane, August 9
To 4. under the presidency of George
+. Barstow of Barstow. Texas
adding:
III the people were interested in
events in proportion TO their Inn
portanee the irrigation congress next
August would plunge the whole coun-
try into wild excitement. One Inn
AGNES. however, that our national
equanimty Will not be greatly per-
turbed by It.
Although the subject To he dis
eussed relates vitality to human hap
piness, although the way we finally
answer the questions which the en-
inent speakers at the congress will
raise may decide whether 800 years
| from now the United States shall be
a flourishing empire or desert soil
tnde. nevertheless IL will not be easy
To arouse more than perfuneiory
public interest.
The great names of the orators
the pop of civic festivity. the display
of government science will all be
needed TO hold the languid ear of the
/ Indifferent farmer. whom nothing
short of an earthquake will compel
i To think or study Irrigation would
rain gold into his tubs IL he would set
them out. but he won't until he is
harried and bounded into doing II.
But the farmer Is no worse than
other men. Few of us take more
than a feeble and spasmodic interest
in the things that concern us most
deeply. Consider how speedily an
audience vanishes whenever a speak
er touches on education. subject
t, whose import is even weightier than
irrigation.
lit is only by fits and starts that
we can be induced 10 think of the
salvation of our immortal souls.
Some sporadic Billy Sunday can
turn our attention TO these precious
entities once in while. but how long
does IL stay fixed? Salome dancing
friyoms hornpipe makes us forget
time aud eternity.
IF man were a truly rational be-
ing the minute he learned that irriga-
ton would double the produce of his
farm. even in such a favored region
as the Willamette valley. he would
rush 10 build dams and dig bitches,
but he doesn't He waits until some
body has pushed and prodded him.
Think how long il has taken some
of the rural brethren to begin spray
ing their apple trees. They know
that few doses OF lead arsenate
would save their fruit from ruin and
line their pockets with dollars. but
not drop did they spray until n
paternal government stepped in and
gave them no choice. As race We
are Just as lazy and shortsighted as
We dare be. and most of us would far
perfer 10 swing heavy sledge ham
mer 10 hours rather than think for
10 minutes.
such congresses as the one which
will meet in Spokane next August are
more valuable for reiterating old
truth than for revealing new bar
barrie sqnalor. Hearing the truth
about irrigation or anything else once
does us not the slightest good. We
must hear il thousand times and
In every possible key.
The Massachusetts savings hank
insurance scheme was based ON sup
position that when life Insurance was
made cheap and easy every person
who needed IL would step up and buy
IL. Ne madden dream Was ever
dreamed The project has been open
many months. but only two banks are
Offering insurance. and there Is no
body 10 buy. To persuade us 20 IN
sure our lives and save our wives and
children from restitution We need a
hrasen tongued agent 10 ring an
alarm in our ears.
Mankind is like the starving
nauper who was on his Way 10 the
graveyard "a be buried alive for his
Incidence. The msreiful Judge offer
ID 10 suspend sentence Il anybody
would feel the condemned. \ kindly
farmer offered meal Of corn. Is
Il shelleas' inquired the paaper. with
languid interest No Il Was not
Drive on then. said che paaper. We
nsed such gatherings as the national
irrigation congress To shell oar corn
for Us.
Civilization originated in countries
where men we're torced to irrtzst the
L ~
Eggypt were laid the foundations OF
every science and al the arts The
reason Is plain enough. Irrigation
drives man to thiuk and plan on the
enc hand and 20 cooperate With his
uSighbors On the other The habit 81
thinking about one subject leads him
10 exercise his brain ON others. and
presently he discovers the great truth