National Irrigation Congress

{{Short description|Agricultural pressure group}} [[File:1893 interior of Los Angeles California Grand Opera House during National Irrigation Congress.jpg|thumb|300px|1893 session of National Irrigation Congress in Los Angeles Opera House]] The '''National Irrigation Congress''' was held periodically in the Western United States beginning in 1891<ref>{{citation |first= Craig |last= Fuller |contribution= Irrigation in Utah |contribution-url= http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IRRIGATION.html |editor-last= Powell |editor-first= Allan Kent |year= 1994 |title= Utah History Encyclopedia |location= Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher= University of Utah Press |isbn= 0874804256 |oclc= 30473917 }}</ref> and ending in 1916, by which time the organization had changed its name to '''International Irrigation Congress.'''<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159876769 "California Invitation," ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 2, 1912, page 15] This article includes the first mention of the new name of the organization.</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160354337 "Abundance of Water," ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 17, 1916, page 11] This article is the last one about this organization under either name.</ref> It was a "powerful pressure group."<ref>[http://nationalaglawcenter.org/publication/comment-acreage-limitation-and-the-applicability-of-the-reclamation-extension-act-of-1914-21-south-dakota-l-rev-737-755-1976/wppa_open/ Phillip W. Studenberg, "Acreage Limitation and the Applicability of the Reclamation Extension Act of 1914," ''South Dakota Law Review,'' 21 S.D.L. Rev. 737 (1976)]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==Nineteenth century==

'''1891''' The first congress was organized in Salt Lake City by William Ellsworth Smythe, the editor of the publication ''Irrigation Age'', Elwood Mead, a Wyoming irrigation engineer, and Senator Francis E. Warren of Wyoming. As a result, irrigation became a substantial national issue.<ref name=Pisani>{{Cite web |url=http://www.law.northwestern.edu/searlecenter/papers/Hill_Bureau.pdf |title=Donald J. Pisani, ''To Reclaim a Divided West: Water, Law, and Public Policy, 1848- 1902,'' Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press (1992), cited in Peter J. Hill, "The Bureau of Reclamation as a Bad Public Good," Northwestern University Law School Searle Center website |access-date=2010-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902211358/http://www.law.northwestern.edu/searlecenter/papers/Hill_Bureau.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The congress passed a resolution urging that public lands controlled by the federal government be turned over to the states and territories "needful of irrigation."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163551449 "Irrigation Congress," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 18, 1891, page 4] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> Between 450 and 600 delegates attended.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163531205 "Arid Lands," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 16, 1891, page 1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163621184 "Irrigation Congress," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 29, 1892, page 4] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

'''1893''' The panic of 1893 undermined financial backing for the congress;<ref name=Lee1975>[http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/75winter/littlelanders.htm Lawrence B. Lee, "The Little Landers Colony of San Ysidro," ''San Diego History Journal,'' winter 1975]</ref> nevertheless, the second conference opened in August 1893 in the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles, California, with an address by John P. Irish of San Francisco and the presence of a number of foreign representatives who had responded to an appeal by the State Department to attend the meeting. They came from France, Russia, Mexico, Ecuador and New South Wales.<ref name=LAT18931011>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163633482 "Irrigation: The International Congress Opens," ''Los Angeles Times'', October 11, 1893, page 4] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> The body also appointed commissioners in every state and territory to survey arid lands and submit the results to the U.S. Congress.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163759962 "The Next Irrigation Congress," ''Los Angeles Times'', April 1, 1894, page 18] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

C.W. Allingham of Los Angeles introduced his "heliomotor," a sun-powered engine that he said could be used to pump irrigation water.<ref>[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1893-10-13/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/ "The Irrigationists," ''The Record-Union,'' Sacramento, October 13, 1893, page 1]</ref> The ''Los Angeles Times'' reported: "He said it might be stated that the idea was a cranky one, but it must be remembered that it was the cranks that made things move. (Laughter.)"<ref name=LAT18931013>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163649432 "Hard at Work," ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 13, 1893, page 4] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

'''1894''' The congress in Omaha, Nebraska,<ref name=LAT18940324>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163708325 "Irrigationists Assemble at Omaha," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 24, 1894, page 1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> was highlighted by adoption of a plan to settle 250 families in a planned community called New Plymouth in Idaho. "Farmers were ... restricted to living no more than two miles away from their crops, and the sale of alcohol was banned ... to keep the farmers sober and well-mannered at all times."<ref>[http://www.ultimateidaho.com/sec3/newplymouth.html "New Plymouth," UltimateIdaho.com website]</ref>

John Wesley Powell, director of the United States Geological Survey, "talked of the storm-water storage plan. He thought that this was still an experiment. In Utah and California, where it had been tried, it had been successful."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163708325 "Anti-Drought," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 22, 1894, page 1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.'' The ''Times'' reported that "Buffalo Bill" spoke at the convention, but it did not say which of the two claimants to the title, Bill Cody or Bill Comstock, gave the speech.</ref>

'''1895''' thumb|300px|Arid regions of the United States as published in the ''Los Angeles Times,'' 1893 A congress held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1895 adopted a resolution that stated in part: <blockquote>We declare that it should be the policy of [the United States] Congress to frame laws which will enable the people to obtain possession of the arid public lands upon terms which bear a fair relation to the cost of reclamation, and that this cost should be regulated by public authority. ... We earnestly ask for the creation of a National Irrigation Commission ... to be composed of men familiar with the condition of the arid region and including a representative of skilled engineers. We would have this commission empowered to use the facilities of the Department of the Interior or Agriculture and of War.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/09/20/102472987.pdf "Resolutions Call for an Appropriation to Continue Work in Progress," ''New York Times,'' September 30, 1895] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref></blockquote>

'''1896''' At the fifth congress in Phoenix, Arizona, A.G. Wolfenbarger of Nebraska described the West as "a country destined to become at some future time the very Garden of the Gods, the home of intelligence, learning, riches, philanthropy, everything that can measure the power and greatness of a great nation ... millions of people are waiting to be led out into these great plains waiting to welcome them to a home that will make them absolutely independent."<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-10-mn-3346-story.html Ted Bartimus, Associated Press, in "Colorado River: For the Source of Life in the West, Demand Is Overtaking Supply," ''Los Angeles Times'']</ref>

'''1897''' The congress of 1897 in Lincoln, Nebraska, which attracted representatives from thirteen states, was opened with an address by E.R. Moses, chairman of the national executive committee, who said:

<blockquote>We irrigationists are satisfied that [the U.S.] Congress will have to adopt our plan of preventing the overflow of large streams by the storage of waters near the [[Source (river or stream)|[river] heads]] in such a manner as to feed the stream at times of low water, and at other times to be used in irrigation, navigation, and manufacturing industries ... and large tracts of arid land can be reclaimed by these waters and opened for settlement.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/09/29/102543579.pdf "Irrigation Congress Meets," ''New York Times,'' September 29, 1897] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref></blockquote>

thumb|100px|upright|William Jennings Bryan Defeated Democratic candidate for the U.S. Presidency William Jennings Bryan told the delegates he was opposed "to turning over large bodies of land to corporations controlling water rights, unless safeguards were thrown around the transaction to protect small holders of irrigable land."<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/09/30/102063008.pdf "The Irrigation Congress," ''New York Times,'' September 30, 1897] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

'''1898''' The 1898 congress in Cheyenne, Wyoming, called for the federal government to allocate "no less than $100,000 for hydrographic surveys for the measurement of streams and the survey of reservoir sites" and urged the formation of a forestry bureau.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/09/04/102076428.pdf "National Irrigation Congress," ''New York Times,'' September 4, 1898] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref> But a Colorado legislator reportedly likened the America West "to a graveyard, littered with defunct irrigation corporations."<ref>[http://www.solar783.com/solar783/desert.pdf Marc Reisner, "Cadillac Desert"]</ref>

'''1899''' A battle developed at the 1899 Wichita, Kansas, meeting of another Western body — the Trans-Mississippi Congress — over the stand by the National Irrigation Congress favoring federal "storage reservoirs" and the "leasing of the public grazing lands by the states without cession and those who advocated the public lands to the States and Territories." After much debate, the Trans-Mississippi group endorsed the policy of the Irrigation Congress.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/06/03/105968825.pdf "Trans-Mississippi Desires," ''New York Times,'' June 3, 1899] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

left|thumb|upright|100px|Hiram M. Chittenden '''1900''' The 1900 meeting of the Irrigation Congress in Chicago, Illinois, featured a paper read by Captain Hiram M. Chittenden of the Army Corps of Engineers contending that the best way to get the U.S. Congress to act on irrigation was to "divorce the storage reservoir problem from that of irrigation in general, that the former is properly within the field of the General Government, and is in a fair way to secure favorable action by Congress, provided that it is well understood that no attempt will be made to involve the Government in irrigation work."<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/11/23/102638186.pdf "Irrigation Congress Meets," ''New York Times,'' November 23, 1900] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

==Twentieth century==

thumb|100px|right|William A. Clark '''1903''' The eleventh congress was held in Ogden, Utah, in September 1903, with Senator William A. Clark of Montana as chairman. The agenda included "Practical irrigation and forestry lessons; reports of experts; application of provisions of the Reclamation act; State progress under the National act; views on settlement of legal complications, and the theme of colonization."<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/07/26/105056033.pdf "National Irrigation Congress at Ogden," ''New York Times,'' July 26, 1903] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref><ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/09/16/102022274.pdf "Mr. Roosevelt Lauds the Irrigation Law," ''New York Times,'' September 16, 1903] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

Commander Frederick Booth-Tucker of the Salvation Army made the principal address, arguing on behalf of the a plan to "colonize the irrigated lands of the West with poor people from the cities." He said some 3,000 acres of land had been settled in such a way in Colorado, California and Ohio.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/09/17/101313118.pdf "To Colonize City Poor," ''New York Times,'' September 17, 1903] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

'''1905''' The 1905 meeting of the congress, held in Portland, Oregon, in conjunction with the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, attracted 1,200 delegates. A plan to hold "sectional meetings" was deemed a failure because most of the delegates preferred to attend the fair instead, a ''New York Times'' reporter said.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/08/24/101248511.pdf "Prefer Fair to Conference," ''New York Times,'' August 24, 1905] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

'''1906''' The congress, held in Boise, Idaho,<ref>Connellsville Courier, Sept 7, 1906, p. 10</ref> took a stand against any "legislative concessions in favor of Philippine sugar," a nation recently conquered by the United States, so that sugar-beet production "may be fully developed in the arid regions of America."<ref name=NYT19060907>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/09/07/101796091.pdf "Opposes Philippine Sugar," ''New York Times,'' September 7, 1906] ''Access this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref> The delegates also rescinded a resolution that the 11th conference had adopted in 1903 endorsing Zea Maize as the "national floral emblem."<ref>[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92070144/1906-09-15/ed-1/seq-3.pdf "Resolutions Adopted by the Fourteenth Irrigation Conference," ''Imperial Valley Press,'' September 15, 1906, cited at the Chronicling America website]</ref>

upright|thumb|left|100px|Luther Burbank '''1907''' The congress was opened in Sacramento, California, in September, held in conjunction with a colorful Interstate Exposition of Irrigated Land and Forest Products. The "four great objects of the congress" were "To save the forests, store the floods, reclaim the deserts, and make homes on the land."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159177962 "Great Congress Meets Monday, Associated Press in the ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 1907, page 11] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> Agronomist Luther Burbank, the "Wizard of the Plant Industry," told the delegates he had developed a "thornless cactus" that would "become the great fodder of arid regions."<ref name=LAT19070906>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159162384 "Wizard's Wisdom," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 6, 1907, page I-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

'''1908''' For the 12-day conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, beginning September 29, the federal government appropriated $50,000 to underwrite an exposition exhibiting the products of agriculture. Territorial Governor George Curry moved his office from the state capital at Santa Fe so he could be on hand to greet the 4,000 people who eventually arrived. New Mexicans used the event to drum up support for statehood, which was granted four years later, in 1912. A reporter reviewing the event said that: <blockquote>The toniclike effect of the entire affair buoyed spirits of Albuquerque's many boosters and reinforced in them the conviction that their city, in the century stretching ahead, was marked for bright and wondrous things.<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-180145317.html Marc Simmons, "Trail Dust: New Mexico Used Irrigation Spectacle of 1908 to Advance Statehood, ''Santa Fe New Mexican,'' April 23, 2005]{{dead link|date=February 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref></blockquote>

'''1909''' Gifford Pinchot, who had been appointed by President William McKinley to head the government's Division of Forestry in 1898 and who had run the U.S. Forest Service since it had taken over management of forest reserves from the United States General Land Office in 1905, became convinced that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger intended to "stop the conservation movement". In August, speaking at the annual meeting of the National Irrigation Congress in Spokane, Washington, Pinchot accused Ballinger of siding with private trusts in his handling of water power issues.<ref>Char Miller, ''Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism,'' Island Press (2001)] {{ISBN|1-55963-822-2}}</ref>

In his opening speech at the congress, chairman George E. Barstow urged the government to find work for (overseas) immigrants "out West", to provide them with transportation and to lend them money to establish homes.<ref name=NYT19090814>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/08/14/101037924.pdf "Jobs for Immigrants," ''New York Times,'' August 14, 1909] ''Access to this link requires a subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref>

'''1910''' The 1910 conference in Pueblo, Colorado, was highlighted by a dispute over whether water policy should be in the hands of the federal government or, as sought by congress chairman Frank C. Goudy of Denver, "larger private and State holdings in irrigation projects."<ref name=LAT19100928/> The congress endorsed federal control of interstate water "by a substantial majority."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159593160 "Much Debate Over Policies," Associated Press in ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 29, 1910] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

thumb|left|100px|Gifford Pinchot '''1911''' At the Chicago, Illinois meeting, a move was afoot to change the name of the organization to National Reclamation Congress and "make the reclaiming of the swamp and lowlands of the South the primary object and the irrigation of the Southwest and the West a secondary matter."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159607315 "Hope to Bring Congress Here," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 2, 1911, page II-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> The attempt was not carried out. At one session, Gifford Pinchot, "President Roosevelt's right-hand man and former chief of the government forestry service" was verbally attacked "and his widely heralded policy of conservation was declared to be 'fantastic.'" The congress split into two factions over the matter.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159802442 "Gifford Pinchot is Arraigned," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 9, 1911, page I-5] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> thumb|152x152px|`Abdu'l-Bahá '''1912''' The session in Salt Lake City, Utah had on the agenda such items as "Irrigation of the Great West," "Storing of the Floods" and "Heeding the Call of the Landless Man for the Manless Land."<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159726215 "Irrigation Congress," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 8, 1912, page I-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> The congress saw a change in name to '''International Irrigation Congress''' and ended with a resolution favoring control of water resources by the federal government, and not by the states. Henry S. Graves, United States forester, who gave the principal address, favored the latter proposal.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159838762 "Phoenix Gets Next Congress," Associated Press in ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 4, 1912, page I-3] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

In attendance was `Abdu'l-Bahá, eldest son and chosen successor of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, during his historic journey to the west to spread the Bahá'í teachings. He was invited to be seated on the stage as an honorary guest.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-10-01|title=The Biggest Week in the History of Salt Lake City|url=https://239days.com/2012/10/01/biggest-week-history-salt-lake-city/|access-date=2021-08-09|website=239 Days in America|language=en-US}}</ref>

'''1914''' The regular meeting of the Irrigation Congress was scheduled for Calgary, Alberta, Canada, October 5 through 9<ref>{{cite book|last=Ward|first=Tom|title=Cowtown : an album of early Calgary|year=1975|publisher=City of Calgary Electric System, McClelland and Stewart West|location=Calgary|isbn=0-7712-1012-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/cowtownalbumofea0000ward/page/316 316]|url=https://archive.org/details/cowtownalbumofea0000ward/page/316|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160054775 "Nebraskans Are Jolly Picnickers," ''Los Angeles Times,'' August 24, 1914, page II-6] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> with more than 8,000 people attending the closing session.<ref>{{cite news|title=Irrigation Congress Adjourned Yesterday for Another Year|url=http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/newspapr/np_page2.asp?code=n4cp0464.jpg|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130620041630/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/newspapr/np_page2.asp?code=n4cp0464.jpg|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 June 2013|accessdate=18 June 2013|newspaper=The Calgary Herald|date=9 October 1914}}</ref> (In April a Trans-Missouri Irrigation Conference,<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159955004 "Irrigation Congress Indorses Newlands Bill," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 11, 1914, page I-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> not affiliated with the ongoing organization, had been held in Denver, Colorado, at the call of Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane, who had "issued a broad invitation to all persons interested in irrigation," with the meetings "open to all.")<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159960306 "To Put Reclamation of a Business Basis," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 10, 1914, page I-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> '''1915''' The congress was held at four locations in Northern California September 12 through 20: Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento and San Francisco.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160160214 "Irrigation Congress," ''Los Angeles Times,'' July 16, 1915, page II-8] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

'''1916''' thumb|125px|right|Elephant Butte Dam under construction The twenty-third and last irrigation congress, in El Paso, Texas, was highlighted by the dedication of the new Elephant Butte Dam in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, on October 15. One evening featured a debate on whether irrigation should be a governmental or private enterprise, with Will R. King, chief counsel for the U.S. Reclamation Service, arguing for the former and Judge Carroll R. Graves of Seattle, Washington, saying that "private exploitation would give better results."<ref name=LAT19161017>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160354337 "Abundance of Water," ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 17, 1916, page I-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> At the same congress, William E. Smythe, of San Francisco, known as the "father" of the congress, proposed that a temple be erected as a memorial to the work of the irrigation pioneers.<ref name="LAT19161017" />

==People associated with the congress==

thumb|100px|{{center|Brady}} * Fred Lind Alles, secretary of the congress's national executive committee between 1893 and 1895.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jjlangel/Alles/Alles_FL_01.htm |title=Biography, RootsWeb |access-date=2010-12-19 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630211425/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jjlangel/Alles/Alles_FL_01.htm |archive-date=2012-06-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * James H. Brady, Idaho governor, vice president of the congress from 1896 to 1898<ref>[http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/nwda-search/fstyle.aspx?doc=oihar2brady.xml&t=a&k1=&k2=&k3=&t1=0&t2=0&t3=0&o1=0&o2=0&s=0&i=6 Guide to the Governor James Brady Records, 1906–1911]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and a member of its executive committee from 1900 until 1904<ref>[http://www.idahogenealogy.com/bannock/leaders_bannock_county.htm Arthur C. Sanders, ''The History of Bannock County, Idaho,'' Pocatello, Idaho (1915), quoted at IdahoGenealogy.com]</ref> and vice president again from 1904 to 1908<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000753 ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress'']</ref> * George Eames Barstow, financier, chairman of the congress's Pan-American committee<ref>[http://genealogytrails.com/tex/bigbend/ward/ward_county_biographies.html Texas Handbook Online, quoted at Ward County Biographies, Genealogy Trails History Group]</ref> and president of the congress in 1908–09<ref name=LAT19090202>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159320608 "May Go Haying in Automobile," ''Los Angeles Times,'' February 2, 1909, page 14] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> * Richard Fenner Burges, president of the International Irrigation Congress in 1915<ref>[http://www.elpasotexas.gov/library/ourlibraries/branches/richard_burges_biography.asp ''Handbook of Texas Online,'' El Paso Public Library]</ref><!-- WP:NFCC violation: {{center|Burges}}|thumb|right|100px --> * Joseph M. Carey of Cheyenne, Wyoming, congress president in 1897<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/163834733 "Officers and Addresses," Associated Press in ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 30, 1897, page 2] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

thumb|100px|{{center|Chamberlain}} * Governor George E. Chamberlain of Oregon, congress president in 1906<ref name=NYT19060907/> * Israel L. Diesem, president of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, who "attended nearly half of the annual sessions of the National Irrigation Congress since its inception"<ref>[http://www.skyways.org/genweb/archives/1912/d3/diesem_israel_l.html '' Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc.'' (1912), quoted in skyways.org]</ref> * B.A. Fowler<ref name=LAT19100928>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159550414 "Irrigationists Encouraged," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 28, 1910, page I-4] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> of Phoenix, Arizona, president in 1909–1910<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/08/14/101037856.pdf (No headline) ''New York Times,'' August 14, 1909] ''Access to this link may require subscription to the newspaper or its website.''</ref> * Frank C. Goudy of Denver, Colorado, president 1907–1908<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159164042 "Keeps on Good Side of National Congress," ''Los Angeles Times'', September 8, 1907, page I-2] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> * F. Robert Insinger of Spokane, Washington, chairman of the board of the congress held in that city in 1910<ref>[http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=pf_output.cfm&file_id=8732 "Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition in Seattle Celebrates Spokane Day on June 25, 1909," HistoryLink.org]</ref> * Herbert Burdell Maxson of Nevada and California, who served for eight years as congress secretary.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/161948853 "Services Today for Engineer," ''Los Angeles Times,'' January 29, 1927, page 18] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

thumb|100px|{{center|Pardee}} * James H. McClintock, Arizona member of the executive committee and secretary<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/az/state/colonel_james_h.htm |title="Arizona: The Youngest State," at USGenNet.org |access-date=2010-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907074953/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/az/state/colonel_james_h.htm |archive-date=2009-09-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, president in 1911–12<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159667256 "In Salt Lake Next," Associated Press in ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 10, 1911, page I-9] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref> * California Governor George C. Pardee, two-term president of the congress<ref>[http://www.cagenweb.com/archives/Biography/AlamedaCounty/PardeeHonGeorgeC.htm ''Past and Present of Alameda County California,'' Volume II, Chicago (1914), pages 429–431, in USGenWeb project]</ref> * Nevada Senator William Stewart, who helped start the organization <ref>[http://history.unlv.edu/faculty/moehring/hist_217/populism.html Eugene Moehring, "Nevada's Mining Depression, 1890–1900," University of Nevada and Las Vegas History Department]</ref> * New Mexico State Senator George W. Swink, active in promoting the sugar-beet industry.<ref>[http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CO-OLD-NEWS/2006-08/1156198106 "Father of Sugar Beet Industry Dies," ''Albuquerque Morning Journal,'' September 27, 1910, quoted at RootsWeb]</ref> * Ralph E. Twitchell, a mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who helped organize the first irrigation congress.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/161783811 "Former Mayor of Santa Fe Called," ''Los Angeles Times,'' August 27, 1925, page A-1] ''Access to this link requires the use of a library card.''</ref>

==References==

{{Reflist|2}}

Category:Irrigation in the United States