THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



231 



farmers. If Mr. Lubin's issue were up for settlement 

 to-day no one would have reason to fear it if the 

 people decreed its trial. Every interest in this 

 country will be benefited by decent prices for wheat 

 and cotton, but the two great policies before referred 

 to are now on trial. And after them will come the 

 money question. Mr. Lubin's idea is interesting and 

 he sustains it by ingenious argument, but as a politi- 

 cal issue it is remote. 



The A discussion of these ideas brings us 

 Couiitry rat h er closer to politics than it is the 

 All Right, habit of this department to approach. 

 Before leaving the subject we desire to say that the 

 present flood of radical speech and literature does 

 not alarm western men. They see in the present 

 unrest the dawn of a better day. Out of the present 

 dissatisfaction of the masses will come purer laws, 

 stronger leaders, nobler institutions. Better the 

 clamor of the flowing stream than the stench of the 

 stagnant pool! 



Co-Operative John G. Steffee, of Wichita, Kansas, 

 Ir oifth n advances in the colony department of 

 Plains. this number of THE AGE a plan for 

 co-operative irrigation on the Great Plains which 

 seems to be as promising as it surely is unique. It is 

 the most practicable suggestion we have yet seen 

 for distributing prosperity throughout the semi-arid 

 region with something like an even hand. There 

 are many things about the irrigation possibilities of 

 the plains yet unknown, but two important facts are 

 known, as follows: first, the country between the 97th 

 meridian and the Rocky mountains will not ordi- 

 narily produce sufficient crops without artificial 

 watering; second, there is not enough water to insure 

 crops upon any large proportion of it, and yet it has 

 nearly all been taken up by settlers, none of whom 

 want to surrender their lands if it be possible to con- 

 trive a way to hold them. Mr. Steffee recognizes 

 these facts and proposes a scheme to meet these con- 

 ditions. Briefly, it is a plan of co-operative irriga- 

 tion, whereby a quarter-section shall be irrigated in 

 the center of a dry-farming district and cut up into 

 little farms of from one to ten acres for the use of 

 different families. Here they will have their homes, 

 if they desire, and here they will raise vegetables and 

 fruit for their own uses and a surplus for market, 

 perhaps. In the meantime, they will operate their 

 big farms in the old way, getting a crop of wheat or 

 corn when the rainfall permits, as it often does. The 

 irrigated ground will insure them a living. Farmers 

 may unite their capital or labor in developing water 

 and building canals for the land used for the co- 

 operative farming. The plan looks entirely feasible 

 and we hope to see some enterprising locality make 

 .a thorough trial of it immediately. 



LINCOLN FOWLER, 



Author of Article on "Ancient and Modern Arizona' 

 Number. 



in May 



Mr Fowl- art ' c ^ e published in these pages in 



er's Ari- May on "Ancient and Modern Arizona " 

 icle. constituted one of the finest contributions 

 to recent irrigation literature. It covered a very 

 wide range historically, topically and territorially and 

 did it in comparatively small space. It was the work 

 of Lincoln Fowler, the quality of whose writing surely 

 ranks him among the best literary men in the Terri- 

 tory. He is a resident of Phoenix and has enjoyed 

 years of experience there as irrigator and rancher. 

 Mr. Fowler has profound faith in the future of 

 Arizona. He believes its deserts are destined to 

 blossom with the homes of men. He' expects to see 

 that country soon begin to attract the earnest atten- 

 tion of homeseekers, as it already has that of large 

 capitalists. 



Chairman Babbitt of the Idaho Irriga- 

 Idaho's ,, . . 



Commission tion Commission reports that the people 



at Work. o f j^g State are deeply interested in the 

 work of that body. The trenchant discussion of Idaho 

 water and land problems, delivered by F. J. Mills of 

 Pocatello before the commission at its Boise meeting 

 in March, has now been published in pamphlet form. 

 It is of more than local interest, since much of the 

 address applies with equal force to many other parts 

 of the arid region. Mr. Mills declares it to be the 

 paramount duty of Idaho's people to make prepara- 

 tions to receive their share of the surplus population 

 of the older sections. He savs the Snake River val- 



