258 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



pro\aded in the California measure. Public lands 

 and reclamation projects will be used for the pur- 

 pose. It has been suggested that the money de- 

 posited in the postal savings-banks should be used, 

 and as the payments by settlers come in from year 

 to year, that the fund be rotated, and that new 

 colonies be opened in different parts of the country 

 to serve as experiment stations for States or private 

 persons that are willing to carry out similar projects. 

 The State-aided farm colony plan does not fully 

 meet the agricultural problem. It does not solve 

 the difficulties of marketing or of transportation. 

 It does not provide cold-storage warehouses or 

 terminals. Nor does it insure cheap land, which is 

 essential to successful agriculture. It does, how- 

 ever, lend the aid of science to agriculture. It does 

 provide education and direction by experts. It 

 offers very cheap credit. Most important of all, 

 ownership awakens ambition and hope. It insures 

 permanency of tenure. It aims to re-establish con- 

 ditions similar to those which peopled America with 

 immigrants in the days when land was to be had for 

 the asking, and places agriculture on a firmer founda- 

 tion of security than that which now prevails. 



