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Show I Wants Mountain States I to Unite to Get Settlers Following the suggestions of E. B. Field, Jr., vice president and treasurer of the Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph company, a movement will he launched early in May to combine all of the states in the Rocky Mountain district in the work of publicity and develop- ment Congressmen and senators from the western states have been taking a great interest in the work, and it is expected the movement I will have" the official sanction of all the Rocky Mountain delegations I in Washington. H Mr Field will go to Washington next month to attempt to m- I terest not only the members of congress from the west, but also the I representatives of foreign countries, who reside at the capital, in the f vast opportunity for home-making in the Rocky Mountain region. H Mr. Field has been invited to attend a meeting of the western repre- sentatives and senators in Washington, who have been quick to see H the advantage of the plan he has proposed. Following this meeting 9 in Washington in May, there will be a meeting, probably in Denver, H immediately after congress adjourns, at which tl ' movement will be H formally launched. Mr. Field started the movement and he 'ins cre-H cre-H aled great interest. "I feel that the most important work for the popuui- mi ana de-H de-H velopment of the Rocky Mountain states can be doiu in Washing-B Washing-B ton," said Mr. Field. "Some of the opportunities to I, efit the states H of this great region are now ready to be taken adv tage of, and no M time should be lost. For example, there is the ma.vficent oppor-H oppor-H tunity to attract settlers to this western region from tm- anvof men H that will have finished work on the Panama canal a few months from H now. Ten thousand men on an average have been at work there since H the canal was started, all earning good wag' s, and all of them now in a position where they must soon cast alnuit for new locations. H They have money enough and are capable enorh to be a credit to m any country into which they come. It is practically certain the east M will not attract these men. They have seen enough of the new coun-m coun-m try about them to want to locate in a new and at least partially unde-B unde-B velopcd. The opportunity to attract these men to such states as m Colorado, Wvoming. Utah,, Idaho, Xew Mexico and Montana is tod H great to he jst. m "My pioposal on this question is that all the Rocky Mountain M states unite in an effort to bring these ten thousand prosperous, suc- H cess ful and competent settlers within their border. 1 believe an ex- B penditure of $10,000 would do it. B "Already effort are being made by the states on the lower Mis- H sissippi ri er to influence congress to bring the millions of dollars' H "worth of giant machinery now in use on the Panama canal to the H levees along the lowlands of the great river and utilize it to construct H additional levees as means of protection against floods. Singular as it H may seem, they are trying by this plan to secure protection at the B wrong end of the line. The cause of the floods is the unusual quan- H tity of water from the mountain states brought into the rivers by the H melting of the deep snow in the high altitudes. This volume of snow H water in the soringtime amounts to more than all the rainfall that H ever reaches the Mississippi during the spring season, and the proper m remedy for this condition is to keep the flood waters in the Rocky H Mountain states, where they will benefit instead of harm. Unless B some action is taken by the Rocky Mountain states in congress, the H) machinery now in use on the great canal will soon be put to work at H ast public expense on levee work, when its use in constructing irri- H gation reservoirs in the semi-arid regions would serve a double pur- fj "At. the same expense the flood waters from the mountains could I be impounded in reservoirs and prevented from reaching the lower H, Mississippi until midsummer, and a million acres of the richest land H in the world could be turned into homes for prosperous farmers. This H plan has been passed upon favorably by the most skillful and practical H engineers in the country, including those in the government service, H who are solving problems affecting the annual flooding of the low- M lands in the section of the country protected by levees." H Mr. Field's advocacy of a plan for combining the strength of the JJj Rocky Mountain states has attracted attention throughout the west, as well as in Washington, and he has .been asked to visit several of H the western cities and speak before civic bodies interested in this H work of development. He received an invitation last week to deliver Hj an address before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial congress at its U next annual meeting, and lay before that body the details of the west- H ern development plan, which he has been pushing forward by corre- H spondeuce and otherwise for several months. A number of the high H officers of the transcontinental lines of railway, which traverse the M Rockv Mountain region, have also expressed a desire to be given an opportunity to participate in the movement for western development; and publicity along the lines suggested, believing that it will be oj immense practical benefit. |