136 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



proper economy and wise administration, land can 

 be reclaimed or settled more cheaply than in this 

 locality. The average cost of reclamation, accord- 

 ing to the census of 1890, was 88.15 per acre. We be- 

 lieve this system cost more, though it had no business 

 to cost more. But no one claims that the price of $55 

 per acre, which has been asked for this land, would 

 not represent a profit of from 100 to 200 per cent. 

 upon the actual investment. It probably represents a 

 profit of more than 500 per cent, upon what the cost of 

 reclamation ought to have been. And it proposed to 

 supplement even these exorbitant profits with a per- 

 petual rental, so that after the entire investment has 

 been taken but, over and over again, the settlers shall 

 pay eternal interest upon no capital whatever. 



Private This is the spirit in which railroads and 

 ^T^abli?* otner enterprises have been developed 

 Good? in the West. The thing is not done for 

 the benefit of those who make the actual investment 

 in bonds. It is done for the benefit of those who pro- 

 mote enterprises and who invest only their wits. 

 The worst feature of this system is the fact that 

 these unreasonable profits are to be wrung from the 

 toil and sweat of men who make their homes in the 

 virgin wilderness, and who must coin their living 

 from the soil. And this aspect of the matter is made 

 worse by the fact that the lands in question were but 

 recently the property of the nation, open to entry by 

 any citizen, and that under this system the promoter 

 is speculating in public assets. If Mr. Schulze had 

 been satisfied with a reasonable profit, of say fifteen 

 or twenty per cent, upon the actual investment, his 

 lands would have been quickly settled, he would have 

 been alive and prosperous to-day, and would have 

 gone down in the history of Washington as a benefac- 

 tor, instead of as a suicide and defaulter. How long 

 must the people hunger for lands; how long must 

 irrigation enterprises wallow in bankruptcy; how 

 long must the great West wait vainly for settlers to 

 till her soil and raise the superstructure of a great 

 civilization, before the lesson of this suicide's con 

 fession of failure shall be learned? 



Schulze' s When the National Irrigation Com- 



infiueace on mittee opened correspondence with 

 Legislation. . c 



the leading public men or Western 



States, just previous to the assembling of recent legis- 

 latures, word came from Washington that the mag- 

 nificent donation of 1,000,000 acres could not be ac- 

 cepted in that State unless a price of $100 per acre 

 were set upon lands within two miles of towns, and a 

 price of $50 per acre upon lands beyond the two-mile 

 limit. Members of the National Committee promptly 

 replied that the idea was preposterous ; that the ob- 

 ject of the movement was 'not to reclaim more lands 

 which should be beyond the reach of the people, but 

 o reclaim lands which they could obtain; that the 



Carey law offered an opportunity to furnish homes 

 for those most in need of homes; that legislation ought 

 to be enacted which would open these lands at prices 

 which bore a fair relation to the cost of reclamation. 

 It was not expected that capital could be obtained 

 without good security, or without paying a reasonable 

 profit in the shape of interest for the use of the money 

 and commissions to those who negotiate sales of se- 

 curities. The National Committee was again ad- 

 vised that Paul Schulze and his friends had sufficient 

 influence in the legislature of Washington to put 

 such provisions in the bill. And when the bill was 

 passed it was found that the maximum price of these 

 public lands had been fixed at $50 per acre. Montana 

 fixed the maximum price for land and water at $8 per 

 acre, while Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado left the 

 matter to be settled by their public land boards, but 

 the spirit of their legislation was wholly in line with 

 the demands of the National Committee. Washing- 

 ton will soon learn that if she is to obtain any benefit 

 from the Carey law she must defeat the men who put 

 this ridiculous provision into their legislation and meet 

 the competition of other States. The time has come 

 when our Western people should realize that their 

 higher interest is to obtain population, and to give 

 that population a chance to live and to prosper. The 

 real investors neither expect nor receive profits of 500 

 per cent. They are satisfied with good security and 

 six per cent, or seven per cent. Certainly the experi- 

 ence of Paul Schulze proves that the old method is 

 not profitable, either to the promoter or to the country. 

 Now let the Western States open their lands on terms 

 that the homeseeker can meet and observe what 

 effect that policy has upon their development. The 

 writer has been corning in contact with all sorts and 

 conditions of people during the past few months. To 

 him it seems perfectly plain that a mighty tide of 

 population can be rolled into our arid States, and that 

 institutions can be developed which will make these 

 people independent landed proprietors. But people 

 are not going to struggle to get away from landlords 

 in order to put themselves under waterlords. They 

 demand a chance to utilize the public waters and the 

 public lands without paying unreasonable tribute to 

 individuals. To devise means by which this can be 

 done is the problem for Western statesmanship. And 

 it can be quickly solved the moment our people make 

 up their minds that they will not permit private avar- 

 ice to stand in the way of public good. 



The Cabinet splendid advance of the irriga- 



Recognizes tion cause in popular interest and 

 esteem has stirred the official life of 

 Washington and led to unexpected and gratifying 

 action. How much is due to the public notice the 

 mbvement has attracted, and how much to the per- 

 sistent effort of certain good friends of irrigation in 



