64 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



February, 



such area of land as will reasonably sup- 

 port a family. 



This measure does not involve a raid 

 upon the Federal Treasury. It does not 

 impose a burden upon the general tax- 

 payers of the country. It simply in- 

 volves the dedication of the lands of the 

 West to the development of the West, 

 and that has been the uniform policy of 

 the country in the administration of its 

 public domain. 



Now, what have been the public-land 

 states of the Union ? Why, all the states 

 except the original thirteen. Those 

 states were, in the early days of the Re- 

 public, in possession of the great North- 

 west Territory, out of which five ad- 

 ditional states were subsequently carved. 

 What was the policy of the people at 

 that time ? Was it to prevent settlement 

 the Northwest Territory, to prevent of 

 entry of the public lands, to prevent the 

 development of those states ? No ; it 

 was to promote settlement and develop- 

 ment. 



The farmers of that time did not raise 

 the cr}' of "competition." They were 

 proud of their country anxious for its 

 development. They knew that this great 

 northwest country would furnish homes 

 for their children and their children's 

 children, and its development would 

 mean the prosperity and the glory of the 

 country, and so they promoted by a 

 liberal policy the settlement of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, and other great states. 



And what did we do when we acquired 

 the great territory of the Mississippi 

 Valley under the lyouisiana purchase, 

 out of which so many magnificent states 

 have been created all of them public- 

 land states, all of them embracing an 

 area of public land capable of cultiva- 

 tion, many times greater than the acre- 

 age which, under the most favorable 

 conditions, can be reclaimed in the arid 

 West? 



The policy there was to promote settle- 

 ment and development. The homestead 

 act became the law of the country. The 

 lands were given to settlers. Public 

 lands were not then regarded as a pecun- 

 iary asset of the government out of 

 which every dollar should be wrung for 

 the public Treasury. On the contrary, 

 they were regarded as a great trust, to 



be administered for the present and 

 future generations. 



Earl}^ in our land history these lands 

 were sold, but they were sold at such 

 reasonable prices as not to involve any 

 burden upon the settlers. And finally 

 the policy was evolved of dedicating the 

 entire region to homesteads. A man 

 by living upon the land for five 3^ears 

 and cultivating it and making it his 

 home could obtain title without pay- 

 ment, and he could secure a commuta- 

 tion of the homestead, as it was called, 

 by the payment of $1.25 an acre at the 

 end of fourteen months. 



The policy of the government has 

 been to administer this domain as a great 

 trust for the settlement and development 

 of this countr5^ 



The great State of Iowa, with 35,000, 

 000 acres, equal to one-half of the total 

 area which can by any possibility be re- 

 claimed bjMrrigation, was opened up to 

 settlement in competition with the other 

 states. I repeat that 35,000,000 acres 

 is one-half of the total area \<'hich can 

 by any possibility be reclaimed in the 

 arid West, for, while there are 600,000, 

 000 acres of public lands in the arid 

 region, the calculation of all the ex- 

 perienced and scientific men w^ho have 

 investigated the subject is that there is 

 no water available for more than 70,000, 

 000 acres, and that it will take genera- 

 tions to accomplish the work of reclaim- 

 ing this area, thus adjusting the settle- 

 ment to the pressing needs of ever-in- 

 creasing population. 



Iowa comprises one-half of the entire 

 reclaimable area of the arid region, and 

 it is watered from the heavens. This 

 land was opened up to settlement in 

 competition with the 13 original states, 

 in competition with the five states that 

 were carved out of the Northwest Ter- 

 ritory, in competition with sister states 

 in the South and West, and yet com- 

 plaint is made because we ask this 

 country to inaugurate an automatic 

 system which will lead to the slow but 

 ultimate reclamation of only double the 

 number of acres in Iowa in a period of 

 fifty perhaps one hundred years. 



If the acreage in Iowa had no disas- 

 trous competitive effect upon the coun- 

 try, but if, as we all agree, on the con- 



