COLONIAL CLUBS FOR ARID AMERICA. 



THE system of Colonial Clubs, briefly outlined in 

 the February issue of THE IRRIGATION AGE, 

 will be launched from Boston early in March, 

 and from Chicago during the same month. It is 

 hoped that these clubs will rapidly extend through- 

 out Eastern States. If they prove popular in one 

 place, they will in another, and it may be predicted 

 that their membership will rapidly mount high into 

 the thousands. 



The Colonial Clubs will doubtless be composed of 

 all sorts and conditions of people. The idea should 

 appeal to everybody who is willing to consider a 

 chance for bettering his condition by entering into the 

 new life of the Greater West. There are many indi- 

 cations to lead us to believe that this class of people 

 includes millions of American citizens. It embraces 

 not only working men who have been crowded down 

 and, to a considerable extent, crowded out, under the 

 crushing weight of modern industrial conditions, with 



Then there will be pamphlets on various aspects of 

 the industrial and social life of Utah, on the colonies 

 of Southern California, and other localities of the 

 arid region. The climate of Arid America, together 

 with impartial descriptions of the different States and 

 Territories, with their boundless resources, will be 

 fully set forth. A score of the best writers of the 

 arid region will be invited to cooperate with the 

 Boston Committee and the National Irrigation Com- 

 mittee in the prepartion of this literature. Probably 

 the same literature will be adopted everywhere, and 

 one board of editors will suffice. This board will be 

 sufficiently eminent to furnish an absolutee guarantee 

 as to the character of the statements put forth. :;' 



Next fall the Fourth National Irrigation Congress 

 may be asked to furnish a dozen lecturers from the 

 various States to meet the members of Colonial Clubs 

 at central points. 



The Colonial Club system can only work upon 



THE SAN FRANCISCO MOUNTAINS IN ARIZONA. 



its constant growth of labor-saving machinery; but 

 it embraces also the small merchants, who are being 

 swallowed by the department stores in great cities; 

 the myriads of young men who are liable to be swept 

 into the ranks of helpless classes; the many who, 

 having toiled for years as employes, and having 

 accumulated some little means by economy, yet see no 

 future except continued toil without adequate pro- 

 vision for old age; it includes, also, especially in 

 New England, many who have formerly had a living 

 income from investments, but whose investments 

 have depreciated until they can no longer support 

 them, though enough is left to furnish capital for a 

 start in the colonial life of the West. 



The Colonial Clubs will work along the lines of the 

 Chatauqua system, aiming to educate the people 

 through a comprehensive scheme of literature, and, 

 ultimately, of lectures. Members will pay the bare 

 cost of providing the books and phamphlets. The 

 initial feature will be the campaign circular issued by 

 the Chairman of the National Committee. This will 

 be followed by a condensation of Senator David 

 Boyd's History of the Union Colony of Colorado. 



82 



broad lines. It aims at popular education upon a 

 subject of which the American people are to-day in 

 denser darkness than about the interior of Africa. It 

 aims to unfold to their vision the empire where na- 

 tional destiny is to be wrought out in the new century. 

 Such a work as this must be above all suspicion of 

 personal or local interest. It must be organized and 

 carried out as a matter of the highest public spirit. 

 The Chairman of the National Committee invites cor- 

 respondence and cooperation in this spirit. 



The practical result of this educational work will 

 be the spontaneous formation, in time, of hundreds 

 of colonies for Arid America. They will be guided in 

 their location by the differing tastes and financial 

 means of different groups. Doubtless many of them 

 will choose private lands, because their owners can 

 offer superior inducements in the way of assisting to 

 create attractive and prosperous communities; but 

 probably the majority of people will flow upon the 

 public lands, and the Carey law will be speedily 

 put to the test. Readers ot THE IRRIGATION AGE 

 will be kept informed as to the progress of the move- 

 ment for Colonial Clubs. 



