Jerome County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1919-1920, 1919-07-24

at the heels Of the party. AZ last,
they were all fusslly seated. De la
Vega was given the place Of honor.
Marshall. Babcock put ON his left,
MacLean on the right.
BabcOck raised his staccato gayel.
A hush fell on the house His words
were clipped and sharp.
"You have left your blowing to come
here. You are anxious TO hear what
we have to say TO you. You cannot
afford to be indifferent to it, You ac-
knowledge, by your presence, de-
pendence. a correlation which you
would like to deny. Irrigation means
cooperation, suffering together, strug-
Cling together, succeeding together.
You prefer the old individual way,
each man for himself / tell you 1t
won't do. You belong in other coun-
tries, the countries Of Old-fashioned
rain. You want to hear what we have
to say TO you, the company who saved
the valley, the company you are suing.
But you have also suits against Mex
leo. There is gentleman here who
has a message from Mexico about
! those suits. | have the honor, gentle
men, to introduce, Senior de la Vega"
Ladies'" bowed the Mexican. Seen
! tlemen, Mr. Chairman. 1t is with an
appreciation of the honor that l ac-
cepted for today the invitation of Mr..
Marshall TO speak before you, to speak
to you; / must tell you first my
thought as l sat there and looked at
you, the youth, the flower of the Amer
lean people. A few years ago. we
were calling this the great Colorado
desert; now, the world calls it the
dollhouse Of America. This theatel
is built over the bones of gold-seekers
who dared death In this dreaded
desert to find what was buried il
those mountains beyond. The man
! say, who crossed this desert, tool
the hazard Of death. 1t was a coun
tryman of mine who piloted, fifteer
years ago, little band of men, across
the desert. Perhaps he camped OF
this very spot. II is not impossible
II is here. perhaps. that he got his
inspiration. He saw a wonderful ter
ritOry he dreamed TO quicken it witt
the useless waters of the Colorado
You will all agree that it was Gull
lermo Estrada who dreamed the dream
that has come true; that it wal
through him that some of your coun
trymen secured their privilege to re
claim this land. Later. when one of you
] countrymen found he could not fulfil
his promise to you, the promise to de
liver water to your ranches, he cam
to my nation and get permission to Gu
into the river on our territory. Mos
gladly did Porfirio Diaz grant tina
privilege. For that, today, you ar
suing him. This. l am told is you
complaint"
His abrupt pause betrayed a con
fused murmur of voices. De la Vega
polite ear tried to differentiate tn
phrases. There was a tumble of sound
De la Vega looked inquiringly at Bah
cock. who waved him on.
1T has nothing to do with the his
tory, but / would like to say in passin
that so assured were your people O
, our friendly feeling toward you tha
! they did not wait to receive permi:
sion from Mexico TO make the Gu
Your people were in a hurry. You
crops were in danger. First the lac
, of water. then too much water dan
aged your valley. A few acres"
A voice from the crowd cried gu
+, "a few acres? Thousands of acres.
n Instantly others were on their fee
thousands of acres. Ruin" One ma
:, IS ahouting himself apoplectic.