1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



II 



people in our cities and too few in the 

 country. 



A prominent question to-day in the 

 minds of a great many people is a desire 

 for foreign markets ; but we must never 

 forget that the best market is the home 

 market, both for the farmer and the 

 manufacturer. The Mississippi Valley 

 is worth, as a market, for the manu- 

 facturers of the United vStates more than 

 all the rest of the w^orld put together, 

 because those people all have good in- 

 comes and they spend their money. 



I am in favor of having more homes 

 out in the West. Uncle Sam has a great 

 deal of land and a great deal of water 

 out there. That land is arid, and the 

 water which would make it productive 

 is running to waste. I would wet some 

 of those great mountain vallej's and 

 plains, build more homes, and make 

 more markets. 



The population of this country is out 

 of proportion. Only about one-tenth 

 of it is in the western half of the coun- 

 try. It would be a good thing for all 

 sections to more nearly equalize the 

 growing population of the United States. 

 I would dam some of those rivers and 

 streams, and spread the water out over 

 the land in Uncle Sam's valleys and es- 

 tablish new fruit ranches and new farms 

 to grow the new kinds of wheat we are 

 producing, so we could send more flour 

 to Asia ; also new farms to grow sugar 

 beets, so we could grow more of our 

 sugar in this country, and start new 

 mines and make all sorts of new de- 

 mands in these new western communi- 

 ties, and make new markets for all our 

 eastern manufacturers. The eastern 

 manufacturer will sell in the West, but 

 the western farmer will not sell in the 

 Ea.st, except fruits and things like that, 

 which will not compete with the eastern 

 farmer. 



In I goo we sold $840,000,000 worth 

 of farm products to the outside world, 

 and we brought back just half of that. 

 We paid $420,000,000 in 1900 for things 

 we cannot grow in the United States. 

 The Department of Agriculture is at 

 work to get those things grown in the 

 United States, so as to make more homes 



for our own people, gi^'e more work to 

 our own people, make better wages for 

 them, and make more markets for us 

 here at home that will stay with us for- 

 ever. 



We can grow over $200,000,000 worth 

 a year of farm products in the United 

 States more than we are growing now. 

 We will produce that :j^ 200, 000, 000 

 worth of things that grow in the fields 

 that we have heretofore been importing 

 right on our own American farms, and 

 we will increase the American home 

 market as all you can do with foreign 

 countries throughout the world would 

 not increase it. We can do it quicker 

 and better by far if this great arid region 

 out west is reclaimed and made pro- 

 ductive. 



That is the development of the United 

 States that I want to .see. And I want 

 to say to you, gentlemen, that I have all 

 the confidence in the world that you will 

 move along con.servative lines. You 

 mu.st not alarm our eastern brethren by 

 trying to do everything all at once. This 

 great work will take time. It will take 

 many years to wet all that dry land, but 

 we ovight to begin now and go along 

 carefully each year until the great task 

 is done. 



You will not get many dams built or 

 neighborhoods .started before the ea.stern 

 business men will have their traveling 

 men out there to sell goods. They will 

 find it is a grand thing to have people 

 out there to buy from them. It will 

 make such a purcha.sing force there as 

 the world never saw before. Stop for 

 a moment and think what our home 

 market is today. The whole world 

 wants to get into the United States to 

 sell things, but our home market is for 

 ourselves first, to develop it to the fullest 

 extent. 



You need not worry about finding 

 settlers for your arid land after you have 

 reclaimed it. The Iowa farmers have 

 the money now to buy that land and put 

 their boys on it just as fa.st as you can 

 get it ready for them, and they will do 

 it ; and I would nuich rather see them 

 do it than have them go to the British 

 possessions. 



