Theodore Roosevelt actually said...

"And Congress, the National Legislature, has not of recent years put upon the statute books any law as wise, as beneficent as the National irrigation act of a year ago."

"The most unsafe adviser to follow is the man who would advise us to do wrong in order that we may benefit by it."

"We are bound in honor to try to remedy injustice; but if we are wise we will seek to remedy it in practical ways."

"You need first of all to distribute the water in space through the irrigating ditches, and then to preserve it in time by storage in reservoirs."