44 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



orders good for seed and provisions. Under this plan 

 each settler would have some capital to start with, and 

 probably be at least as well off as the average of 

 those who settled the Mississippi Valley so rapidly 

 and successfully after the war. As to implements, 

 expensive ones will not be required on these small 

 farms and such as are needed can always be obtained 

 on credit in a new country by well-meaning men. 



5. Capital will have to be raised for these enter- 

 prises in the same manner that it is raised for others. 

 The class of securities which can be offered, based 

 on the water rights and ultimately on the land, as 

 settlers will secure the construction company by 

 mortgages until the water rights are paid off, will be 

 gilt-edged. If all the settlers should desert and 

 the lands should then be thrown upon the market 

 securities would still be good. The first capital 

 required would probably be advanced in the west 

 and by contractors. Ultimately it would be realized 

 by the sale of securities. The holders of western 

 railroad stocks and bonds ought to furnish a large 

 market for these new securities, since the reclamation 

 and settlement of these lands is absolutely the only 

 hope of making the railroad property profitable. It 

 is estimated that every new family on the line of a 

 western railroad is worth, in what it ships out and in, 

 $350 per year to the traffic of the line. If it shall be 

 proven that there is a real demand for labor and 

 homes and that men cannot have them because there 

 is not money to develop these works, then the Ameri- 

 can people will indeed be convinced that there is not 

 sufficient circulating medium to meet the needs of 

 the world. 



CLASS OF SETTLERS DESIRED. 



It is not proposed to accept applicants for this new 

 army of labor without discrimination. But poverty 

 is not alone the proof of lack of manhood. The Pil- 

 grim Fathers were not millionaires. Neither were 

 the men who have made the West what it is to-day, 

 nor has any new country been mainly settled by those 

 who were well enough off before they emigrated. As 

 a rule, those who leave the old home go in search of 

 a better chance. Arid America will receive with 

 open arms every man who in good faith seeks to 

 make a place for himself and is willing to pay for it 

 in the gold coin of hard work. For every such man 

 the imperial West holds a home in trust and stands 

 ready to deliver over the title deed upon proof 

 of good intentions. But by a system that will be put- 

 lined at the proper time applicants will be required 

 to furnish information concerning their antecedents 

 and evidence of good faith. In every country there 

 is a class which all communities are anxious to part 

 with and which no community is willing to receive. 

 The gateway of Arid America is broad enough to 

 admit all men who contain the germ of good citizen- 

 ship, but it is too narrow to willingly admit those in 

 whom this germ is lacking. 



II. COLONY HOME CLUBS TO EXTEND POPU 



LAR INFORMATION CONCERNING 



WESTERN AMERICA. 



This department of " The Campaign of National 

 Prosperity" may not at first thought seem as im- 

 portant as other features. But in the end it will be 

 found a factor equal to any other. ****** 

 Every man who joins a Colony Home Club will have 

 a chance to gain a liberal education as to the oppor- 



tunities which the new empire offers to industrious 

 and aspiring men. This system of clubs will be con- 

 ducted something after the manner of the Chautauqua 

 and University Extension systems. They will be 

 popular information clubs. As Chautauqua and Uni- 

 versity Extension were designed to help those who 

 desire to obtain something of the higher education, 

 so the Colony Home Clubs will be designed to help 

 those who desire to improve their conditions of living. 



THE SORT OF MEMBERS DESIRED. 



The basis of citizenship in all countries are the 

 great middle class. All efforts should be directed to 

 secure the prosperity of average people. The very 

 rich will take care of themselves. The very poor will 

 generally swarm in the tenement districts of great 

 cities. Society may ameliorate their condition some- 

 what, may care for them when sick and bury them 

 when they die. It cannot eliminate them as an ele- 

 ment, whatever it may do for them as individuals. 

 But the health of pur institutions will be truly meas- 

 ured by the condition of that vast preponderance of 

 our citizenship which we describe as the ' middle 

 classes,'' because they are between the poor and the 

 rich. It is from this class that Arid America will 

 draw its best blood during the long future. This 

 class of people is mostly employed to-day. But it is 

 not as prosperous as it can be in the generous West. 

 '***** Now, the material which is desired 

 for the Colony Home Clubs, which it is proposed to 

 form wherever there are industrious men who desire 

 to improve their condition, will be found among these 

 middle classes. All such people will have some 

 capital to start with when they and their neighbors 

 shall hereafter organize into colonies bound for the 

 West. 



HOW CLUBS WILL BE ORGANIZED. 



The National Irrigation Committee will appoint 

 organizers wherever there is a demand for them, and 

 those organizers will enter the names of all worthy 

 people who apply. Blanks will be furnished for this 

 purpose at the meetings held in the interest of this 

 cause, and also upon application to the National 

 Committee. Clubs may or may not be regularly or- 

 ganized with local offices, as members prefer. The 

 main thing is to have a list of the largest possible 

 number of people who are willing to consider future 

 immigration to Western America, and to have these 

 lists available in connection with plans for courses of 

 lectures and reading. 



LITERATURE AND LECTURES. 



As rapidly as possible after the organization of 

 these clubs courses of lectures and reading will be 

 developed. These will be furnished members of the 

 club on terms which will enable everybody to take 

 advantage of them. The first effort in this matter will 

 be directed to the provision of cheap pamphlets and 

 books by the best authors. These will deal with such 

 topicsasthe history of the Mormon industrial system^ 

 the story of the Greeley colonists of Colorado, the de- 

 velopment of prosperous colonies in California, and a 

 large variety of information about the growing civil- 

 ization of the West. 



[The third division of the pamphlet deals with the 

 subject, "A Typical Colony to Illustrate the Best 

 Possibilities of Industrial and Social Life under Irri- 

 gation.' 1 This is similar in thought to the editorial 

 statement in THE AGE for December, though fuller in 

 detail. It also describes the experience of colonies- 

 in Utah, Colorado and California.- Ed.] 



