THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and most influential of Massachusetts men ; Frederick 

 H. Nazro, Albert White Vorse, James N. North, S. 

 Gannett Wells, Henry F. Miller, Charles F. Birtwell, 

 Everett O. Fisk, Henry Peterson, Miss Sarah C. Paine 

 and Mrs. J. S. Copley Greene. Mr. B. P. Shawhan, 

 of Idaho, was also present to assist in presenting the 

 Western side of the case. Probably it would be 

 impossible to select from all New England a group 

 of persons of similar number who wield a more 

 potent influence. And when it is said that they gave 

 a most hearty endorsement to the plans presented it 

 may be safely predicted that the complete conquest 

 of New England sentiment is soon to be realized. 

 The practical outcome of the conference was the 

 decision to hold a mass meeting early in March, to 

 be addressed by the chairman of the National Com- 

 mittee, and to inaugurate a well-defined movement. 

 The committee named to issue the call for the meet- 

 ing is as follows: Dr. Hale, chairman; Messrs. Edwin 

 Ginn, Robert Treat Paine, Frank B. Sanborn, Dr. A. 

 A. Miner and A. W. Vorse. It was proposed to follow 

 the Boston meeting with a similar one in New York 

 and Chicago, and ultimately in other prominent cities. 

 The lines of thought presented at the 

 Th Thought* Boston meeting in behalf of the men of 

 Presented. t ^ e West may be summarized as follows : 



1. The East is burdened with a greater population 

 than can be decently supported under existing 

 industrial systems, and is consequently confronted 

 with a large and increasing element of men who are 

 without remunerative employment during the whole 

 or a portion of the time. This has resulted partly 

 from the growth of labor-saving machinery, which in 

 Massachusetts alone does the work of one hundred 

 million men. The situation is grave and menacing, 

 and demands the most active and thoughtful consid- 

 eration. 



2. In Western America there is room to plant a 

 new nation, as large as the total population of the 

 United States. These people can be sustained upon 

 an industrial system which guarantees high average 

 independence and admits of better social and civic 

 institutions than have ever been known before out- 

 side of the best New England towns. 



3. The conclusive proof of the capabilities of 

 Western America is found in the economic history of 

 the people of Utah. This was described at length. 



4. To meet the criticism that what had been ac- 

 complished in Utah was due to the peculiar influence 

 of a church organization, the development of the 

 Greeley Colony of Colorado was carefully traced 

 trom the date of the issue of the call in the New York 

 Tribune, and the first meeting of intending colonists 

 in Cooper Institute, down to the present day. This 

 was supplemented with the history of the colonies in 

 Southern California. 



5.J There are two classes in the East from whom 

 recruits may be drawn for the new colonial life of the 

 West. It is necessary to illustrate by practical ex- 

 amples what can be accomplished for the benefit of 

 these classes.. And this must be supplemented by the 

 broadest educational work. 



6. The first class consists of people who are able 

 to help themselves. For instance, there are young 

 men whose parents can assist in starting a home in 

 the West, and keeping them from getting stranded in 

 the wellnigh hopeless industrial ruts of the East. 

 There are thousands of men of middle age who have 

 toiled for years for other people, and see no prospect 

 except continued toil with discharge in old age, when 

 they are most in need of employment. Many of this 

 class have small savings and investments, not suf- 

 ficient to support them, but enough to furnish capital 

 to make a good home on an irrigated farm. There 

 are other people who formerly had a fair income 

 from investments, which have suffered a sharp de- 

 preciation, depriving them of a living income, and 

 yet leaving sufficient capital for the new life. These 

 are some of the elements in the class of Able to Help 

 Themselves. It is proposed to make a typical colony 

 which will serve as a luminous example of what can be 

 done for industrious people withacapital of $1,000 and 

 upward. This colony is now in process of formation. 



1. There is still a larger class of people for whom 

 homes can be made only through the co-operation of 

 capital they do not possess. There is a great abund- 

 ance of idle capital in New England and the East, 

 and those who own it have a very important stake in 

 the outcome of the present era of unrest. Nothing 

 substantial can be accomplished by charity, since 

 Charity is a free horse and gets very tired after a little 

 exercise. But Legitimate Invesment is a tireless 

 worker, and will move the world's enterprises so long 

 as it is adequately secured and fairly paid. A way 

 must be devised by which the arid public lands can 

 be opened to settlement on terms that will be entirely 

 satisfactory to both the labor and the capital required 

 for the process. This is a difficult problem, but it 

 must be solved, or something will go to smash in this 

 country. And it must be solved by a method capable 

 of indefinite expansion. Many good brains are at 

 work on this problem, which is still in the nebulous 

 stage. The suggestion most favorably considered at 

 the Boston conference was this: Supposing there were 

 five hundred families who could show a record for 

 character, industry and good intentions. Let it be 

 ascertained what it would cost to transport them to 

 one of the new States, to construct canals, to establish 

 modest homes, and to sustain them until they reached 

 a productive stage, the idea being to colonize them 

 permanently on ten thousand acres of land opened 

 by the Carey law. The items of cost in such an enter- 



