SHALL UNCLE SAM DRAIN THE 



SWAMPS? 



nPHE jocular statement was made 

 '■ recently by one of the best qual- 

 ified observers of Congressional legis- 

 lation, in speaking of the chances for 

 enactment of the various measures ad- 

 vocated by the President, looking to 

 the conservation and utilization of the 

 Nation's internal resources, that a Na- 

 tional drainage enactment of some 

 sort was practically assured, since the 

 majority in both branches of Congress 

 had introduced swamp bills. While 



mated at this session ; but for an issue 

 which has heretofore scarcely been 

 spoken of, certainly remarkable pro- 

 gress has already been made, and the 

 National Drainage Bill now pending, 

 a very comprehensive, home-making 

 measure, appropriating about $6,000,- 

 000, is well along on the Senate calen- 

 dar and likely to pass that body at an 

 early date. It is grounded on the 

 same vital principle as that upon 

 which the Irrigation Act is based. 



One cf the present inhabitants of the land to be reclaimed — In the 



Florida Everglades 



the gentleman has withheld his ''re- 

 marks" for a possible slight revision 

 of the figures, it is nevertheless a fact, 

 as shown by the Congressional Rec- 

 ord, that for a new legislative issue, a 

 large number of bills have been intro- 

 duced providing for the drainage of 

 swamp and overflow lands by the Fed- 

 eral Government, and much interest 

 has been shown by various Senators 

 and Representatives in the subject. 



It is hardly to be expected that 

 drainage legislation will be consum- 



This principle, embodied nearly a dec- 

 ade since in the first irrigation reclam- 

 ation bill, introduced by Senator New- 

 lands of Nevada, provides a happy sol- 

 ution, for the time being, of the prob- 

 lem of getting annual sums from Con- 

 gress for internal improvem_ent ; name- 

 ly, an automatic appropriation into a 

 "reclamation fund" of the money re- 

 ceived by the Government from the 

 sales of public lands. The Drainage 

 Bill appropriates the proceeds of such 

 sales from 1902 to date and hereafter, 



