124 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of supplies of every nature, with no transportation facilities except 

 the ox teams with which they entered the Great American Desert. 

 There was no avenue of escape from absolute destitution and ultimate 

 starvation except through a union of labor in producing the neces- 

 saries of life and colonial distribution of the stores then at hand. In 

 such a predicament there could be no individual isolation or class dis- 

 tinction, but the interdependence of social and moral life added to its 

 duties the union of financial and temporal transactions. The land 

 was divided and ditches constructed to carry and deliver water to 

 every parcel or lot, regardless of money considerations. Gold and 

 silver had no value not even the bullion worth, because those pre- 

 cious metals could not be used for any purpose whatever in purchas- 

 ing supplies where none existed, or furnishing ornamental goods 

 where there was no demand for personal adornment. Labor was 

 made the basis for computing all business affairs and the physical 

 powers of the carpenter, blacksmith, farmer and laborer, with his 

 teams of oxen or horses constituted his available capital for personal 

 and community investments. 



Utah has over 300 irrigation canals, furnishing water for a half 

 million acres, actually cultivated by 12,414 farmers, ninety per cent, 

 of whom are independent of mortgages and free from land indebted- 

 ness. This has been accomplished through practical co-operation of 

 men having no other capital than the labor of their hands and teams. 

 The lands have been taken under different general laws, good and 

 perfect titles obtained and the deserts surrounding the colonial settle- 

 ments have been converted into profitable fields of alfalfa and cereals. 

 Water taken from natural mountain streams and conveyed through 

 co-operative ditches to the collective fields of distribution is an ap 

 purtenance to the land it reclaims and not an article of barter or com- 

 mercial traffic. This prevents speculative individuals from hawking 

 either land or water and thus maintains a stable ownership of real 

 home makers who regard their lands as the most valuable intrinsic 

 possessions obtainable. There have been but few land transfers 

 under this system and the tendency is toward a continuation of the 

 rule of perpetual ownership. 



The Union Colony, at Greeley, Colorado, was founded in 1870 

 under co-operative plans and a most uninviting desert was entered 

 and subdued by a union of individual efforts. That now noted city of 

 famous potatoes and prosperous colonists has been built up by a strict 

 adherence to the principles of productive and distributive co-operation. 

 Men are not asked to sacrifice individuality or personal opinions in 

 religious, social or political matters to co-operate in business transac- 

 tions, but on the contrary stand as peers of humanity, examples of 

 independence because of having the commercial assistance of the 

 entire united community. One man may ma-ke a success of individval 



