Greeting to the National Reclamation Association Convention.

My dear Mr. Warden:

I am happy to have this opportunity to address through you the sixth annual convention of the National Reclamation Association.

The federal government now is engaged in the west in its greatest program of construction of irrigation works. More than a score of dams, ranging in size from the great Grand Coulee dam on the Columbia River in Washington to comparatively small earthen structures, are being erected to conserve and make useful the waters of western streams, large and small. These are scattered throughout the arid and semi-arid states.

Many of these problems will serve as additional protection from the onslaughts of nature for lands already developed. The persistent and tragic droughts which during recent years have afflicted all the west in varying degrees have made it imperative that what can be done, consistent with good economic and engineering practices, shall be done to provide more reliable water supplies for the irrigated areas upon which the west so largely is dependent.

In some instances, federal irrigation projects now under construction will bring new acreages into cultivation. These areas are not large, but they will serve, when they are ready for settlement, to bolster further the economic structures of the western states. During the past year demand for new farming opportunities under irrigation canals in the west has exceeded a hundredfold the offerings which the bureau of reclamation has been in position to make. This demand arises, in part from the fact that the drought has dislodged part of the population in certain districts and in part because, except on newly irrigated land, there are few opportunities for the young men and young women of the west to make farm homes.

Well planned and expertly engineered, a new federal irrigation project is a good investment for the government. Under the reclamation law the cost of its construction must be repaid to the federal treasury. Once completed, the project continuously is productive of new wealth, enriching our communities, our states and our nation.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. O. S. Warden,

President, National Reclamation Association,

Great Falls, Montana.