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Show NOTES OF THE CONGRESS. DIXIE ADVOCATE wiijcntaox bboi, IT. GEORGE FOR RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS m WORK BEING DONE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE IRRIGATION UTAH UTAH STATE NEWS. Eleventh Annual Session ol National Irrigation Congress, Held in Og' The new telephone exchange den, the Greatest in the History of Snringville has been Installed. the Body in Point of Attendance The present prospects are that this and Business Transacted. will be the banner year in Ihe history of the Springville yield of sugar The eleventh annual session of the beets. , National Irrigation congress, held in It is predicted that the electric raillast week, was one of the most Ogden to way from Salt Lake City Sandy in the history of sessions will be completed within the next important in the every way. The organization, twelve months. was the interest attendance larger, The state board of pardons has conwork accomplished and the greater tinued for two months the application more voluminous than at any previof Nick Haworth for commutation of ous session. The attendance of Secsentence to imprisonment. retary of Agriculture Wilson and From four to eleven cases of ty- other men high in the councils of the phoid fever were" reported to the Salt nation gave great encouragement to Lake City board of health each day the faithful workers, who year after during the month up to the 16th. been have year laboring for the adMrs. Aurora Hodge, after admitting vancement of the great arid region, the murder of Wilnam X. Ryan, last and went to show that the irrigators week entered a plea of not guilty in of the country have warm friends the district court in Salt Lake City. among the leaders of the country It is said there is not a vacant store who are willing and eager to help in room in Salt Lake City, and that the reclamation of the thousands of many men are unable to enter busi- acres of waste land now given up to ness because of the lack of building. sage brush and cactus, 'and convert The increase in the enrollment ol these dreary wastes into productive the public schools of Salt Lake City and prolific farm lands for the homeover last year will be between 450 and less. And here in Utah the delegates to 500, the total enrollment! being 11,644. Safe crackers destroyed the safe in the congress were brought to a full the office of the Utah Tanning com- realization of what may be accompany, in Salt Lake City, one night plished by the' judicious use of water, last week, but got nothing for their and made to realize more than ever what may be accomplished by irripains. who founded the Evening Times, published in Salt Lake City during the boom of 1899 and 1900, is dead, after an illness of three months. Peter Mortensen will be sentenced to death on the 26th for the murder of James R. Hay, all efforts of his attorneys to secure a new trial having proved futile. Raymond Talley, a Salt Lake young man, was handling a revolver which he thought was not loaded, and as a result was shot in the leg, inflicting a painful wound. C. Sum Nichols, According to the morning papers, real diamonds have been discovered in Bull Valley 'mountains, 1$Tng mt ' y Colonel Jokn Ferris. A. of Mrs. F. Meckler, one the best known women in Silver City, died very suddenly at her home on the 15th, of heart disease, death coming as she was sitting in p, chair. Arrangements have been perfected mill by, for the erection of a the Interstate Mining company of Gold Basin, and everything looks good for a prosperous season in the La Sal mountain region. During a family quarrel, Mrs. G. W. Muncy of Salt Lake City attacked her husband with a razor, cutting a deep gash on his face, which required twenty stitches to close. Muncy Is not seriously hurt. Edward M. Dalton, the miner who was so seriously injured at the Elephant mine, Gold Mountain, early on the morning" of September 8, died in a Salt Lake hospital last week. Dalton was injured' by a premature blast. An Italian confined, in the Price jail on a charge of attempting to murder a fellow countryman, made a desperate attempt tv take his, own life one ,his hed day last week, against the bars, but was finally made to desist by the deputy sheriff... Several stitches had to be, taken to close tip the cuts made Jn the fellows head. The loss to Utah of the first prize at the fruit exhibit at Ogden last week, owing to the. presence in the fruit of the codling moth, saould be a lesson to the fruit growers of the state and more care and attention should be paid to spraying. John W. Dawson was struck by a street car in the suburbs of Salt Lake City and instantly killed. Dawson attempted to drive across the track in front of a rapid moving car, and the motorman could not stop his car in time to prevent a collision. Two inches of snow fell at on the 13th, the town presenting a peculiar apeparance, the shade trees being in full foliage and covered with snow. Hundreds of acres of grain remain uncut, and the lucerne is yet standing in the fields. The question of whether a colored person is entitled to share on equal terms with his white brother a public convenience is to be tested in Salt Lake City, the case being where a soda water man refused to serve refreshments to a negro preacher . iwWashipg-nf'uidlsfover- y 100-stam- p Pan-guitc- h gation. A striking example of what may be accomplished by man diverting the waste waters of the land to his own use was presented by the Idaho delegation in the form of a large sage brush and a plate of apples grown on ground which had previously been covered by sage brush, but is now made prolific by the use of water which would otherwise go to waste. Thirty states were represented at the convention, and five governors were in attendance, besides many other men prominent in the public affairs of the nation! The new officers of the Congress are: President, W. A. Clark, of Mon- 06 mutation clause of the homestead act, have in many instances in their administration been found to result in speculation and in monopoly of the public domain to the exclusion of actual home building, therefore be it Resolved, That we request the congress of the United States to make such modifications in said laws as will sa- -e the remaining public lands for actual settlors who will found homes and live uDon said lands. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. Resolutions were adopted by the congress favoring the immediate admission to statehood of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. Urging the immediate and absolute repeal of the desert land act. and the commutation clause of the homestead act, as recommended in the report of the senate committee on public lands in the last session of con- gress. Recommending the appointment of a commission by the president of the United States to investigate and report such further amendments or modifications of the land laws of the United States as may be desirable to promote the actual settlement and development of a prosperous population on the public domain, the better utilization of the grazing land and the preservation of the forests by right use. Urging appropriations for forept preservation, because of the fact that the forests are to a large extent the sources of the water supply throughout the entire arid region and their destruction will mean the destruction of agriculture in these regions. That the forests reserve law should be so modified as to permit the exportation of forest reserve timber from the state in which such timber is cut whenever it shall be established to the satisfaction of the secretary in charge of forest reserve that the supply of timber in any reserve is clearly in excess of the local demand, and That the congress of the United States should immediately repeal the lien land provision of the forest reservation act, and enact a law whereby private land within forest reservations or the improvements --thereon may be djtn nation. That water sheds which have been denuded of their forest growth by fire or otherwise should be reforested by the national government and thereafter be preserved by stringent laws from injury or destruction from grazing by livestock, and the forest reserves should be enlarged to include the water sheds of all streams furnishing water to communities dependent on the water supply therefrom for water for irrigation. That the secretary of agriculture be urgently requested to make some forestry experiments in the 'vicinity of Salt Lake City, conducive to a further development and preservation of said watersheds and the protection of the water supply. Urging that the national government should proceed with all practicable expedition to complete the surveys and make the necessary plans and estimates for the construction of the great reservoirs and canals necessary to regulate for navigation and for the utilization for irrigation and power ' - hurtliff, oT Utah; second vide presi- dent, W. C.. Johnson, of Colorado; third vice president, John Hall, of Texas: secretary, H. B. Maxson, of Nevada. Senator Clark and Mr. Max-sowere to their positions. Executive Committee Arizona, D. A. Fowler; Arkansas, J. A. Van n Et-te- California, C. B. Booth; Colorado, C. E. Wantland; Idaho, F. R. Reed; Illinois, F. C. Capping; Iowa, H. C. Wallace; Louisiana, Tom Richardson; Kansas, C. A. Schneider; Minnesota, Thomas Shaw; Missouri, J. W. Gregory; Montana, Herbert Strain; Nevada, P. A. McCarren; Nebraska, F. V. Meagley; New York. Freeman G. Palmer; New Mexico, G. A. Richardson; North Dakota, D. E. Willard; Oregon, Malcolm A. Moody; Oklahoma, Joseph B. Thoburn; PennSouth sylvania, . James M. Lightner; Dakota, Wesley A. Stewart; , Texas, J. A. Smith; Utah, Fred J. Kiesel; Virginia, W. H. Beal; Washington, O. A. Fletcher; Wisconsin, Clark Capen; Wyoming, Clarence T. Johnston. The next session of the congress of the enormous of flood volume will be held in El Paso, Texas, that water that now runs to waste in such town having defeated Boise for the great rivers as the Columbia, Sacrahoflors by a vote of 205 to 147. The mento, the Colorado, the Rio Grande, El Paso delegates came with a deter- the Arkansas and the Missouri and mination of securing the next con- their tributaries, and that as soon as vention, bringing with them the fa- surveyed and ready for construction, mous Mexican band, and each mem- and approved by the secretary of the ber working ' with all his might for interior, these great engineering the honor of entertaining the dele- works should be built just as rapidly gates to the next session of the congress, and they came out victorious. The big fight of the convention was not settled until the last session on Friday. It was over the resolution favoring the repeal of the timber and stone act, the desert land act and the commutation clause of the homestead law. George H. Maxwell of California led, the fight for repeal, while J. M. Carey of Wyoming, assisted by Congressmen Shafroth and Brooks of Colorado and others, including Governor Heber M. Wells of Utah, worked to keep the present laws on the statute books. forces finally won The by securing the passage of the following amendment; the vote being 213 ayes to 148 nays: Whereas, The timber and stone act, the desert land law and the com- anti-repe- as actual settlers will take the lands and build homes on them and repay to the government the cost of the construction of the works, and a loan to the reclamation fund in the treasury of the United States should be made each year by congressional appropriation for the full amount which the secretary of the interior may annually recommend to congress as the amount which should be made available for disbursement for construction during the ensuing year, all such loans to the reclamation fund to be repaid to the fund in ten annual installments as provided by the national irrigation act. That it is the sense of this congress that the storage of waters in the extensive catchment basins of the western rivers for the prevention of floods and for' power and irrigation is both CONGRESS Workers for the Material Advance. ment of the Arid Regions of the West Are Shown by Utahns What Can be Accomplished by Use of Water Upon Sage Brush Land. possible and practical, and that the government should supplement its present policy of levee construction by a comprehensive reservoir system throughout the arid region, not only for the purpose of conserving the water for irrigation, but also for the preservation of life and property in the lower reaches. The waters thus conserved would be of inestimable value and a blessing to the people district. We in the arid and semi-aribelieve that irrigation and flood prevention are two ideas to be developed together. The reservoirs to be built should include not only large reservoirs, but also all smaller reservoirs, for which feasible locations exist, and throughout the great plain region the construction of such small reservoirs by damming the coulees and draws should be encouraged by both the state and national governments. Advising the construction of reservoirs in order to save the waters of the Platte river in Nebraska in order to reclaim arid tracts in Wyoming and Governor Prince of Mexico acted as president during part of Thursdays session. Secretary Wilson made a visit to the Model irrigation farm and wa3 much surprised by the many clevef . devices he saw on exhibition there. Many of them, he said, were quite unknown to him before, but he ap- preciated their value immediately and urged that they be patented. A neat compliment was paid to Governor Sparks of Nevada by the Texas delegation on Wednesday morning, when the Mexican band, with the entire Texas delegation, went to the Pacific hotel and serenaded Mrs. Sparks, w7ho was arriving on the morning train. The governor made a happy and appreciative response, thanking the serenaders for their courtesy to his wife and himself. The governor was formerly a resident of Texas. d Scipio Craig, editor of the Citro-grappublished in Redlands, Cal., was the representative of the oldest h, irrigation ditch represented at the Mr. Craig owns a ranch near Redlands that is watered from Mill Creek zanja, or Mill Creek canal, if the old Spanish term is dispensed with. The ditch which conveys to the Craig ranch was built congress. the-wate- r not later than 1796 by Indians under the direction of the Spanish padres, who established the missions in that community. At the experiment farm near Salt Colorado. Lake, said Secretary Wilson, prelimThat the secretary of the interior inary to his main address, the expert take immediate steps to secure to the in charge tells me that he has taken Indians their allotments of ' land on out 2,400 tons of alkali from forty such reservations in the arid region, and that their surplus lands be purchased at fair prices and then thrown open for settlement under the homestead act, so that they may be reclaimed and made a productive part of our country. That this eleventh National Irrigation congress urges upon its members and the residents of the various states now enjoying the practical benefits of irrigation and the necessity of a proper representation of all the various products of irrigated soil in their various state exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase exposition to be held in St. Louis in 1904. Protesting against the enactment of legislation which .will tend to tfie hi i Cilierafl MeVelopnlbntbl! American sugar industry by extending further concessions' to the employers of cheap Asiatic labor; opposing the introduction of contract coolie labor wherever the American flag floats, and advising that legislative agitation or attacks on the sugar interests of this country should cease, to the end that this great industry may develop in common with all our other great industries. Pledging the support of the congress to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Giving an unqualified endorsement to the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition at Portland and advising that a government appropriation of not less than f 1, 000, 000 be made in aid of the exposition. - IDAHO WINS CLARK CUP. Is Awarded Trophy for the Most Per- fect Fruit. Idaho won first prize, the $500 loving cup offered by United States Senator W. A. Clark, for the best collection of fresh fruits at the Irrigation congress. Utah was a close second, but lost first prize of the prevalence of codlin moths in the specimens submitted. The cup for the best barley, given by the Pabst Brewing company, was won by the Manhattan Malting company of Manhattan. Mont. McNeff Bros, of North Yakima, Wash., won the cup offered by the Anheuser-BuscBrewing company for the best display of hops. Utah won the $500 silver loving cup offered by President Havemeyer of the American Sugar Refining company, the trophy going to A. Rodes, of Garland, while the second prize was won by the Utah Sugar company of Garland. Austin Brothers of Idaho, secured third prize. The Idahoans exhibited seventy varieties of aples, mostly of shipping kinds. These came from the Payette and Boise valleys, the Blackfoot asylum and Weiser. There were seventeen varieties of peaches, mostly from Payette and Boise. The grapes, six varieties, came from Payette and Boise. Lewiston, where some of the finest grapes in the state are grown, was not represented, because of the difficulty In shipping so as to reach Ogden in time. One striking feature was the disThe play labeled Before and After. Before is a great sagebrush plant some six inches in diameter at the base. The After is a plate of huge some of them weighing apples, twenty-fou- r ounces each. h Rex-bur- . v g, acres already and says the ground will be ready for cultivation next This farm referred to is northyear. west of Salt Lake City and across the Jordan river. Work was begun on it a little over a year ago. Extracts From o Wilsons Secretary Speech. on Thursday, his During speech of Secretary Agriculture Wilson said: The principal object of this con- gress in the past has been the securing of government aia in the building of Irrigation works so that the greatest possible area of the arid lands of the west might be brought under cultivation. That object has been attained, but the most optimistic Trieud of irrigation admits tthat when all the available sources of water shall have been put to use, either by public or private works, only a small fraction of the arid lands can be reclaimed. In such a situation there are two things which may be done to increase the area which can be reclaimed: One is to increase the water a. Supply; the other is to make better use of what we have. The work of the agricultural department, as authorized by congress, is along the latter line. Some of the possibilities along this line which have been suggested by our work up to the present time will be here presented, together with a general statement of what we are doing to realize them. The east has one great advantage of the west in irrigation it has a much larger water supply, owing to' the heavier rainfall. The question of a water supply is, therefore, of much, less relative importance than it is in. the west. In the east the main question is the agricultural one: Will irrigation pay? This, of course, includes the study of methods which will make it most profitable. Our work in the east has gone far enough to show that in raising small fruits and vegetables, at least, irrigation pays well. The husbanding of our waters that go to waste where the snow, melts in the mountains, through government agency, is a new departure for which we may thank President Roosevelt. All other influences combined would have failed to secure the legislation. It was a wise movement. It will result in making homes for millions more It people. will markets for manufacturers and business for commerce. It will help make to balance off the growth of our cities. It will result in producing the hundred million dollars worth of sugar we now buy abroad. It will do all this and much more, and still leave large areas that cannot be irrigated. A. J. McKinnon, a former sheriff of Washington county, Oregon, was shot and instantly killed at Guerne-yillCal., by an escaped lunatic from the Ukiah asylum named Jerraud! Jerraud has escaped. e, . |