Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-07-02
The West and Irrigation

ed at the meeting OF Women's Clubs
at Salt Lake last week by Miss Eth
lyn Chaser, secretary of the Idaho
Reclamation Association:
Women of Our Country:
Even those of you who best know
our cities of the East, will yet, | be-
lieve, agree with me that this is a
wonderful city; a city of imposing
eiltices, magnificent distances, in
spring perspectives. These great
hotels, that splendid capitol, every
industry, every sign of progress you
see, every bit of food you eat-all
these things would be impossible
without irrigation. Men cannot eat
scenery.
You would not be here today were
it not for reclamation. There would
be few railroads, no automobile
roads, no Hotel Utahs, and playtimes
in national parks, no sunny south
ern California" for you. 1t is not
because the Indian is gone; it is
not because the grizzly bears have
been killed, that we are here today.
1t is because of the humble farms
that broider these valleys; farms
made possible only by reclamation.
And do not forget that the desolate
sagebrush levels stretching so wearl-
ly are just the same soil as the de-
lightSome green fields which glad
den y and heart and provide this
food. The only difference is the in
telligent application of irrigation
water.
You are just N step beyond the
/ threshold of thirteen great states,
in which vast areas of land as fer
tile as any in the world never knew
c~rop-raising. To 20 uwho live where
all crops are raised by natural rain
fall, such a condition is well nigh
incomprehensible But in the broad
breasts of Western mountains
God stores up the white fountains OF
life for this country. When summer
suns release these streams, il un-
checked, they rush in wasted tor
rents to the sea; but, held in reser-
yoirs and fed to the thirsty land as
needed for crops these waters would
be capable of producing food for
multltudes and laying the founda-
tions for countless healthful, happy
homes.
The hand that drifts these SHOWS
upon the mountains has also hollow
ed the great reservoir sites hat puny
hands of men could never fashion.
When the government project at
American Falls, Idaho-the great
Reed dam-is completed, it will ere
ate a lake having a shortline of over
125 miles. Such reservoirs cannot
be made by human hands as we
build standpipes and bath tubs. 1t
is a supreme engineering feat to
build even the dams; but among
these range high enough to feed
the valleys by gravity flow, marvel
Gus basins have been made for us
by God himself.
Most of the easier projects pos
sible to handle with private capital
have already been constructed, yet
we have touched only the edges OF
our irrigation possibilities. In south
ern Idaho alone there are five mil
lion more acvres capable of irriga-
cation, and thirteen states have the
same problem in only a slightly les
ser degree.
1t is the unthinking, the unin-
formed, who would speak of the pos
sibilities of overproductlon, Oul
population is growing so fast we can
hardly keep up with food supplies
for home consumption, and it viii
be a sad day for America when we
sease to be an export nation. Be-
sides, the products OF this climate
are largely different from what yot
raise elsewhere. The family sugar
bowl is always hungry for u beets
and with butter already coming from
overseas in ship cargo lots, you neet
our alfalfa in dairy products as wei
as meat.
But what of grain? Will not
these new wheat fields hurt the far
mers of the Middle West? Friends
we ourselves use now $50, 600 600 Of
the 100000, 900 bushels of wheat
raised in the United States, which
means that we have only one loaf IN
five left for the worlds market bas.
ket. You women know it is a crime
to talk of overproduction when hal
the world is starving and children
in every city of III W U. S. are
suffering by thousands for lack o.
food. The problem of ~congested
markets lies along other lines than
overproduction.
Do we grasp what it means wher
that %stupendous gambling den, the
Chicago wheat pit sells in one yeai
5000, 000, 200 bushels of wheat
more than three times the worlds
output? 1t means that the 100000
600 bushels of wheat which enters
Chicago are sold 81 times, filching
$50, 100000 from both grower and
consumer-one big reason why the
farmer never gets enough for his
wheat. Meanwhile, the city mother
pays too much for her loaf.
We must have different marketing
arrangements, better distribution,
increased transportation facilities.
These are knotty questions, and they
will make our heads ache before we
get done with them, but they must
be solved.
To me it is not the least strange
that should be interested in
reclamation. We are all natural
born reclamationists, although we
may neve have heard the word. Ev-
cry woman who has made a delici-
Gus salad out of bits too good to
throw away, is a reclamationist. Ev-
cry woman who has made a useful
garment out of a cast-cff is a recla-
matiOnist. PERHAPS the first hiStOri-