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Show Administration and Irrigation. CONGRESS meets next week, and indications foreshadow a session I devoid of much party acrimony, ! unless the majority develop the usual j partiality for the interests of monopoly , jas against the common people. With I the money question in soak for the time being, the opposition to trusts ap- j pears to be. the only peg left to the; Democrats upon which to hang their hats. President Roosevelt's message, it is said, will exceed the usual length of j documents of this character. We had j hoped that Teddy's training in the literary field had taught him the value of brevity, and that his communication to the congress would be meant also for the lay reader of limited time-: What he has to recommend about reci- 1 procity will be the chief feature in the message, although he may cause : surprise by springing something new j outside of the McKinley politics he is pledged to carry out. Many Repub- I Means would not murmur if he did so; j and surely the Democrats can stand it. ' There is a big surplus in the treas- ' ury and many schemes will be devised ; to get rid of it. The proposed in crease of the navy, if carried into effect, ef-fect, will absorb millions. The chances are that the army may be increased; at any rate the cost of keeping troops . in the field will be greatly augmented. Will legislation be enacted favorable to the west something that will be felt by the people of the intermountain states and territories? It will, if the recommendations of the president and his cabinet are taken up in like spirit by the congress. The reports of the secretaries of the interior and agriculture agri-culture are already published. They show that national aid for the reclamation recla-mation of arid lands will prove of infinitely in-finitely more advantage than money expended in building battleships. Secretary Sec-retary Hitchcock introduces his report in these words: "Briefly stated the results of the examinations ex-aminations of the extent to which arid lands can be reclaimed by irrigation, made by the committees of congress, show that while one-third of the United States is still vacant there are relatively few localities where homes can now be made. This is not because j the soil is barren or infertile, but on j account of the difficulty of securing an I adequate water supply. There is water i to be had, but this water is mainly in large rivers, from which it can be taken only by great structures, or the supply comes in sudden floods and can i not be utilized until great reservoirs ; have been bu It is impossible for. a laboring mau or an association of : settlers to build these great works." Summing up a discussion of western land problems. Secretary Wilson in his annual report presents the following conclusions: First That private enterprise will have to be supplemented by public aid in the construction of certain classes of irrigation works if we are to secure the largest development of western agriculture. Second That reservoirs located in i : ' : - ' the channels of running streams should be public works. Third That the first step toward national na-tional aid for irrigation should be the passage of enlightened water laws by , the states to be benefited. Fourth That the land laws should I be modified by repealing the desert act land by requiring cultivation as well as ! residence on a homestead. Fifth That the non-irrigable grazing lands should be leased in small tracts so as to unite the irrigable and the j pasture lands. |