Water, not land, is the primary value in the
Western country, and its conservation and use to irrigate land is the
first condition of prosperity. The use of our streams for irrigation and
for domestic and manufacturing uses is comparatively well developed.
Their use for power is less developed, while their use for
transportation has only begun. The conservation of the inland waterways
of the United States for these great purposes constitutes, perhaps, the
largest single task which now confronts the Nation. The maintenance and
increase of agriculture, the supply of clear water for domestic and
manufacturing uses, the development of electrical power, transportation,
and lighting, and the creation of a system of inland transportation by
water whereby to regulate freight-rates by rail and to move the bulkier
commodities cheaply from place to place, is a task upon the successful
accomplishment of which the future of the Nation depends in a peculiar
degree. We are accustomed, and rightly accustomed, to take pride in the
vigorous and healthful growth of the United States, and in its vast
promise for the future. Yet we are making no preparation to realize what
we so easily foresee and glibly predict.
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