The Irrigation Promise
Democratic congressional candidate C. W. Masterson rallies voters in Kennewick, attacking the incumbent's record on federal irrigation and drought relief.
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.
C. W. Masterson of Walla Walla, Democratic nominee for Congress from this district, addressed the Wilson Independent League in the Commercial Club rooms Tuesday evening. He defended the administration of President Wilson and commended the Democratic Congress for the enactment of federal banking and labor laws. In addressing the district's needs, Masterson centered his argument on irrigation, claiming that Congressman LaFollette had failed to secure necessary federal reclamation of the arid lands in the district. Masterson stated, 'If I am elected and if at the end of two years I cannot show a greater service rendered to the people of my district than Mr. LaFollette can show for the six years he has held the office, I shall not have the nerve to come before the people and ask for re-election.'
“The one great problem with which the people of this district are concerned... is irrigation.”
Water rights and federal irrigation projects remain the single most volatile political issue in Eastern Washington. Masterson's critique of an incumbent failing to 'bring home the bacon' is a standard, recurring feature of Central Washington electoral politics for over a century.
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