370 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



There never was a time in the history of the world when private 

 benevolence was so common or so generous as it is today. Philan- 

 thropists are pouring out their means to build colleges, hospitals and 

 libraries. This is a worthy work which we cannot too highly com- 

 mend. But I want to avail myself of this opportunity to say that 

 there is no field where benevolence could accomplish so much as in 

 assisting the reclamation and settlement of our great arid region. 

 First, the propaganda which this Congress has carried on for many 

 years might well be endowed with a fund which would enable us to 

 increase the scope and efficiency of our work a hundred fold. Then, 

 we must doubtless devise a means by which the poorest families may 

 be helped to get homes on the soil. Government land at actual cost 

 does not wholly solve the problem . There are railroad fares to be 

 met, homes to be built, lands to be improved, and mouths to be fed 

 before the land comes into bearing. Thus the problem of colonization 

 js by no means wholly solved by putting the water on the land. For- 

 eign governments have dealt with this matter on humanitarian lines. 

 Over eighty years ago, when the streets of Holland were filled with 

 idle veterans returned from the. Napoleonic wars, a wise Dutch general 

 planned a series of labor colonies which absorbed all those who were 

 willing to work. Those who. did not care to work were chastised until 

 they changed their minds'orjleft the country. [New Zealand has a plan 

 by which the government acts as an employment agency, puts men at 

 work in building public utilities, and finally deposits them on the land. 

 I believe we shall soon be called upon to deal with this phase of our 

 social question. Without attempting to suggest any definite plan, I 

 merely throw out the hint that here is a fertile field for private benev- 

 olence. I do not see how a man could have a nobler monument than a 

 colony of happy families, or even one family, enjoying the security 

 and independence of lifejon'the^irrigated farm. 



If you ask me for an example of what might be accomplished in 

 this line I point you to the irrigated valleys of Utah. These were 

 settled by comparitively poor men, many of whom were assisted by a 

 powerful organization. They.^live on small farms. They enjoy 

 economic independence by the simple method of producing the variety 

 of things which they consume. They live chiefly in villages and so 

 have social advantages not usually within reach of farming commun- 

 ities. It is an amazing, statement, ^but the United States Census 

 vouches for its verity, that of their twenty thousand farms nineteen 

 thousand are wholly free of incumbrance.^ I love to think of those 

 green oases among the Utah Mountains. If dark hours shall ever 

 come to the Republic, the dwellers in those lovely villages will know 

 nothing of it except by hearsay. 



They will continue to live on the fat of the land as long as water 



