WHY TIMES ARE OUT OF JOINT. 



WESTERN INITIATIVE ESSENTIAL. 



The responsibility for progress rests upon the men 

 of the West. The initiative must come from them, 

 though other sections, as well as other countries be- 

 yond seas, will largely furnish the capital and popula- 

 tion required. Popular ignorance of the opportunity 

 for conquest in the West is simply appalling. The 

 average eastern man is nearly as incredulous as 

 were King Ferdinand and his fool courtiers when 

 Columbus first broached his project of discovery. 

 Eastern people know more about the interior of 

 Africa than about the greater and better half of their 

 own country. Chicago is the frontier of their imagi- 

 nation. They think Chicago is "out West." If they 

 know nothing of Greater America, beyond a vague 

 conception that it exists somewhere, is it surprising 

 that they know nothing of irrigation and have not the 

 faintest shadow of a conception of its economic 

 possibilities? 



Now, there is nothing strange about the dense 

 ignorance of the eastern mind. The blame is rathei 

 to be laid to western men. Those who have 

 knowledge should enlighten those who have not. 

 Provincialism is not a crime, but a misfortune. It 

 should not be punished with abuse, but relieved with 

 knowledge. The present year ought to witness im- 

 portant progress in this direction. 



IRRIGATION ABOVE MINING. 



There is one thing more amazing than eastern 

 ignorance of irrigation. This is western indifference 

 to it. The public opinion ot States like Colorado, 

 Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Montana, has limited its 

 vision to the one question of silver coinage. On this 

 subject these States are as mad as were Virginia and 

 South Carolina about slavery forty years ago. We do 

 not mean to intimate that their cause is not just, but 

 we say it is insanity to think and talk and pray for 

 nothing but free silver coinage. If that were the sin- 

 gle string to the western bow it would be comprehensi- 

 ble. But it is not the single string. It is not even the 

 best string. Irrigation is vastly more important. 

 The mining of silver makes a few men rich and they 

 give employment to a few thousand laborers in the 

 intervals between strikes, lockouts and shutdowns. 

 Occasionally the man who has acquired wealth in the 

 mine puts up a fine building or residence in a western 

 city. But usually he spends his money elsewhere. 

 Nevada is a fair specimen of what mining, single- 

 handed and alone, will do to make a great State. 

 Utah, Southern California and certain portions of 

 Colorado faintly suggest what the sovereignty of pro- 

 prietorship, represented by thousands of small farms, 

 will ultimately accomplish in making great States. 



PUT YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER. 



The first thing for western men to do is to make 

 their States ready for the coming millions. The 



foundation of society is law. That foundation must 

 be greatly strengthened and extended to permit the 

 growth of great social structures in the West. Every 

 State should have an engineering department to 

 study and exploit its irrigation possibilities and to 

 administer its irrigation systems. It is monstrous to 

 permit private individuals to use the streams without 

 public supervision and control. It is a crime for a 

 State to have no official knowledge of the resources on 

 which its prosperity must rest for all time. , And 

 there is the Carey law." It gives each State one mil- 

 lion acres to deal with. With an average farm unit 

 of forty acres, and an average family of five persons, 

 each State can make homes for 125,000 people under 

 this law. The law now applies to eight States. It 

 thus makes possible the creation of homes for 1,000,- 

 000 people on the farms alone. Probably as many 

 more would find employment in towns and villages 

 as the result of this movement. Will the several 

 States wake up to the duty and the opportunity? It 

 is for the legislatures of these eight States to answer. 

 Their sessions are brief. The great work of raising 

 capital and enlisting settlers must be done after the 

 legislatures adjourn. But nothing is possible without 

 legislation. This must be provided now, or not for 

 two years. Two years is a long time when industry 

 and society are in the peculiar condition of to-day. 

 If the legislatures provide the foundation of law, pub- 

 lic spirit will very likely erect a superstructure in the 

 months to come. 



A CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION. 



But while the West puts its house in order, a cam- 

 paign of education must be inaugurated throughout 

 the eastern States and ultimately in foreign countries. 

 For this great work no capital is available, and yet it 

 must and shall be done. How? By the same quali- 

 ties of faith, pluck and unconquerable enthusiasm 

 that have borne forward to victory every cause and 

 idea which ever made history. This is our day of 

 small things. This is the hour when individual sacri- 

 fice and effort can alone be arrayed against the diffi- 

 culties that encumber the pathway. But we shall 

 soon pass beyond this stage. As we go forward re- 

 enforcements will come from all quarters as they 

 came to Sam Adams and to Lloyd Garrison when they 

 led crusades for liberty. Our cause is as sacred as 

 theirs. Sam Adams fought for political independ- 

 ence. We fight for industrial independence, which 

 is even nearer to the common hearthstone. Garrison 

 fought for liberty for black men. We fight for liberty 

 for white men. Failure is impossible. If I am not 

 much mistaken, the events of the next twelve months 

 will begin to realize these hopes. But whether it be 

 soon or late, the day will come when a mighty host 

 will follow where the men of western America shall 

 lead. And they will lead in making institutions which 



