The Palouse Irrigation Fight
Franklin County citizens organize to pressure the President for the construction of stalled irrigation works.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
President Roosevelt will be asked by the National Irrigation Association to decide between the abandonment or the carrying out of the Palouse irrigation project by the government. C. Eugene Bortle, secretary of the northwest section, returned to Spokane yesterday from Walla Walla, where he had a long conference with Senator Levi Ankeny. This new move to secure the project is the result of that conference. The petition to President Roosevelt is prepared and will be circulated in Franklin County next week for signatures. Mass meetings addressed by Mr. Bortle and C. L. Smith have been called at Pasco, Eltopia, Connell, Washtuchna, and Kahlotus. The government has expended a large sum of money investigating this project, and a board of engineers, including Messrs. Savage, Quinton and Noble, previously declared it feasible. Local citizens are now questioning the negative findings of assistant chief engineer A. P. Davis, arguing that irrigation will render the land highly productive and demanding the construction proceed without further delay.
“We do not believe we are exceeding the propriety in the matter if we ask to be shown the figures on which Mr. Davis bases his opinion.”
The struggle over the Palouse irrigation project reflects the early 20th-century obsession with 'reclaiming' the desert for agriculture, a process that permanently transformed Washington’s landscape and continues to define the state's water politics today.
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