IMMIGRATION INTO THE ARID REGIONS. 



163 



nient of a new mine, the enlargement of 

 operations of an old one, the construction 

 of an irrigation canal, all attract new peo- 

 ple to a new country, and if the employ- 

 ment be of a permanent and remunerative 

 character, then the settlers whom you en- 

 list in it become permanent residents. They 

 soon have families about them, become 

 identified with the country and its interests 

 and assist in bringing others in, and in 

 this connection let me say that few influ- 

 ences are so potent in bringing settlers 

 into a new country as letters written by its 

 own people to their friends "back East" 

 telling how prosperous they are and how 

 good and abundant are the opportunities 

 for others to share in their prosperity if 

 they will come out and take advantage of 

 the openings presented. But an important 

 adjunct, a large part of the basis for all 

 this, is capital to initiate and develop 

 these industries which are to bring and 

 sustain the population that we want. 

 Ninety-five per cent of the population of 

 our country is out of balance. Its geograph- 

 ical subdivision is out of harmony with its 

 centers of population and finance. What 

 you in the arid regions want to secure a 

 fairer population is to pave the way for it 

 by enlisting Eastern capital in the de- 

 velopment of your natural resources. We 

 people of the West have not the necessary 

 capital; we are poor, that is poor in pocket, 

 although rich in our minds when we think 

 of the vast possibilities in our grasp, of 

 the latent wealth of the West which can be 

 made to respond to the application of the 

 idle capital of the East. The respective 

 needs of the East and the West are correl- 

 ative and must be brought together to 

 minister to each others fulfillment. In 

 the Enst is a superabundance of capital 

 eager for investment, a large and rapidly 

 increasing population massed in over- 

 crowded business centers. In the West 

 millions of raw material calling for devel- 

 opment as loudly as anything inanimate 

 can call, and room for all the surplus popu- 

 lation of the world. Capital, if assured 

 of safe investment and a satisfactory re- 

 turn of profit, will quickly flow to the 

 regions which promise these things, and 

 immigration and growth will accompany 

 and follow it. What can we of the West 

 do to accelerate and secure this desired 

 movement of capital and population ? In 

 the first place, the thing of prime impor- 

 tance is for us to show by our legislation 



and by all our utterances, that invest- 

 ments of non-residents will be as ade- 

 quately protected by law in the West as 

 in their own home localities. With that 

 principle as a starting point, we then, in 

 our respective localities, have but to con- 

 vince the owner of idle capital desiring 

 investment that the investments we pre- 

 sent are inherently safe and can fairly be 

 relied upon to produce much better re- 

 turns than those at his command else- 

 where, and to convince the intended im- 

 migrant that we can offer him better 

 opportunities for improving his present 

 condition than can be found elsewhere, in 

 order to secure the capital of the one and 

 the presence of the other. Great aids in 

 this work are state and territorial agricul- 

 tural societies, bureaus of information 

 and other similar boards, whose duty it is 

 to collect and publish in periodical reports 

 reliable statistics covering the agricultural, 

 mineralogical and other great interests of 

 their respective regions. These reports 

 are invaluable, both for direct use with in- 

 tending investors and settlers, and as 

 affording data for advertising matter is- 

 sued by investment companies and others 

 presenting investments, and descriptive of 

 special localities, pamphlets which are dis- 

 seminated through thousands of agencies. 

 In my work of the past twenty-five years 

 in selling and settling lands of the Santa 

 Fe Railway and subsidiary companies, I 

 have made constant use of such reports. 

 Agricultural colleges, with their attendant 

 experimental stations, state and territorial 

 universities and technological institutes 

 which obtain information respecting the 

 resources and advantages of their fields of 

 labor and instruct how best to utilize them, 

 are important agencies in building up the 

 country and attracting settlement, and 

 should have our heartiest support. Each 

 one of their graduates becomes an intelli- 

 gent, and in proportion to his ability, a 

 more or less influential missionary in this 

 work, so that their influence is constantly 

 widening. 



Local boards of trade and commercial 

 clubs are excellent auxiliaries to immigra- 

 tion work, and local newspapers are pow- 

 erful forces in this work. Special editions 

 descriptive of special regions, with good 

 pictorial illustrations of attractive and in- 

 teresting features, nre valuable. Your 

 home people send them to the old home 

 friends, and through various avenues they 



