The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1920-11-26
IDAHO DOES NOT
FULLY REALIZE
WHAT IS AHEAD
Fred Reed Enthusiastic
Over. Prospects for De-
velopment of Southern
Idaho thru Reclamation

TIeu N. Neeu, managing secretary o
the Idaho Reclamation association
was to have given at the Tuesday eve
ming melting of the Commercial Sec
retaries association in session here
his address was read. Covering :
broad field the address is pregnan
with the ideals and aspirations of tn,
reclamation enthusiasts of the grea
west. His address follows:
II wonder if we who live in the IT.
rigated sections of Idaho truly appre
ciate the value of the blessings brought
about by irrigation? Take, for in
stance, the toYn of Twin Falls, which
today is wonderful young city filled
with splendid law-abiding people
Those who adhere to legitimate roles
of business are normally successful
and beautiful little homes by the
hundreds age growing up, as it were
in year.
1T was only 16 years ago that that
was an uninhabited desert Now,
what made that town? 1t was made
by the support of the surrounding
country, which as it developed, Gre
ated value, on which was built the
business of thepresent time. If there
had been no reclamation, there would
have been no Twin Falls. The same
applies to Caldwell and to all, the
towns in Idaho whose growth is due
to the reclamation of arid acres and
the placing of them in cultivation,
thereby fixing values and creating
factors that made it possible for texsas,
to grow and prosper.
How Idaho Has Grown.
when you sit down and calmly
think the situation ovef,-we are in
clined to find fault with things being
slow, and wonder if we really count
our blessings. Why, 16 years ago
you could begin at Minidoka and
count all the people on the new tracts,
Il refer to the Minidoka and the
Twin Falls, and include the towns of
Oakley, Albion, Malta, Conant, then
go west to where Bull stands, then
north to Gooding and back to Sho-
shone; north to Haley and Ketchum,
back to Shoshone and over to Mini
doka- where you begin, and you could
not county five thousand people. To-
day it is a conservative estimate to
say that fully $4,000 people can be
counted in the territory above named.
This applies to other irrigated sec
tons, including Nampa, Caldwell,
Parma, Weiser, Meridian, Eagle,
Boise and many others. just look
around, and see the growth; electric
lights, telephones, sewerage, wonder
full schools, churches, fraternal orders,
and just calmly think for a while
what has occurred in the last 20
years. Practically an empire has been
created in that period.
Irrigation Basis of Prosperity.
Again, when you are inclined
to find fault with Idaho, you must
recollect that the entire popula-
ton of the state of Idaho does not
equal by 100000 people the city of
Los Angeles, - and yet Idaho
maintains all of the institutions
that the great state of California
supports. Now when you think
about that, you can see why taxes
are necessarily high now in Idaho.
when it is all said and done, recla-
nation by irrigation has been the fun
damental principle and the foundation
for all the growth that we have ex-
perienccd in southern Idaho. We are
young state, comparatively. The
difference between Idaho and the
Older eastern states is, that, being
comparatively new in all this great
work, our resources are all constantly
employed. We are not able to stand
a financial strain without it being
startingly noticeable.
The older states and their citizens
have reserve on which to draw. You
will realize how necessary it is to
develop our resources further, when
you come to consider that Idaho has
about $4,000 square miles and only
about 100000 people, and that most
OF our state stands on end, and if it
was ironed out level it would be as
big as Texas.
Therefore, we should all reflect
and do some solid thinking along