OCR Text |
Show i 0ONationalIrrigation (Ingress' fair vn ? r lake cry. SALT LAKE THE MECCA OF THE IRRIGATORS I eral selections 'by the augmented choir, orchestra and organ, the feature fea-ture of which were the rendition o, McClellan's 'Ode to Irrigation," rehearsals re-hearsals for which have been in progress pro-gress many weeks. The iNational Irrigation Congress held its first session in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1891, and the pres ent, session is something in the nature of a home-coming week for many oi the delegates. Delegations from various states and cities "began to arrive late Saturday and continuing through Sunday. Each incoming train brought additional delegates and the hotels were soon filled almost to capacity. Among th larger delegations to arrive Sunday was the party from El Paso and other Texas points, which traveled in a spe cial car. They were headed by Representative Rep-resentative W. R. Smith, chairman of the house committee on irrigation. Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, Ne-vada, president of the irrigation congress, con-gress, arrived" Saturday night. Governor Gov-ernor Oddie of Nevada arrived Sunday, Sun-day, and Governor Hawley of Idaho and Governor Carey of Wyoming came in Monday morning. Among the officers of-ficers of the congress who was not able to attend, is R. Iusinger of Spokane, Spo-kane, Wash., first vice president, who is reported to be ill. Salt Lake City The capital of the Btate of Utah, which owes more to irrigation ir-rigation than any other state in the union, is the Mecca of thousands of visitors. The occasion is the National Irrigation Congress, the opening session ses-sion of which was held Monday morning, morn-ing, September 30. The city is in gala attire, was flags and 'bunting in profusion, while myriads of electric lights turn night into day. Twelve thousand persons, a thousand of them delegates from all over America Amer-ica and even from foreign countries, thronged the Tabernacle Monday morning morn-ing for the opening session of the twentieth National Irrigation Congress. The program for the official opening open-ing comprised many musical numbers I by the grand orchestra, Tabernacle organ and the augmented choir. Speeches were made by Senator New-lands New-lands of Nevada, president of the congress, con-gress, and by George A. Barstow of Texas, former president. Brief addresses ad-dresses were also made by the Queen of Irrigation and George A. Snow, chairman of the Utah board or control. con-trol. The queen and her maids of honor were escorted to the Tabernacle from the Commercial club by Governor William Spry and his staff, Colonel James A. Irons and staff, Mayor Samuel Sam-uel C. Park, the city commissioners j and the board of governors and members mem-bers of the Commercial club. As suggested in the official speech of President Francis G. Newlands, United States senator f rom Nevaas., and echoed in the preliminary discussions discus-sions of the delegates, the twentieth Irrigation congress will include in its deliberations the most extensive plan for control of America's water supply in the broadest sense ever contemplated contem-plated by a public body. . Revision of lands laws and homestead home-stead acts to check the tremendous drain of capital and citizenship now resulting from the emigration movement move-ment to Canada, is another vital question ques-tion to be considered by the congress. Never in the history of Salt Lake has there been presented a more brilliant bril-liant scene than that which marked the - grand parade and electrical pageant of the National Irrigation Congress Con-gress Monday night. Not only was the pageant gorgeous and satisty.ine to the spectators who thronged the streets, but the story of irrigation was realistically depicted. The industries resulting from irrigation were splendidly splen-didly unfolded to view. There were more than 300,000 varieties va-rieties of decorations used in the entire en-tire column,- and over five tons of real fruit, vegetables and various products and exhibits. The electrical wiring used was- more than 6,000 feet in length. All scenes were hand painted, every flower used was either grown or made here and more than 200 pounds of nails were used to fix various articles arti-cles in place. The cost of the entire parade and pageant is estimated at more than $20,000, and about 4,000 persons participated par-ticipated in the great march. As the attemance of delegates and persons of nolo probably exceeds that of any session of the congress held heretofore, the ceremonial and entertainment enter-tainment features were on a more pretentious pre-tentious scale than ever before attempted. at-tempted. The musical program includes sev- |