1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



509 



no field where benevolence could accom- 

 plish so much as in assisting the recla- 

 mation 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 efficienc}' of our work a 

 hundredfold. 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 col- 

 onization is by no means wholh' solved 

 by putting the water on the land. For- 

 eign governments have dealt with this 

 matter on humanitarian lines. Over 

 eight}' 5^ears 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 the}^ changed their minds or left 

 the country. New Zealand has a plan 

 by which the government acts as an em- 

 ployment agency, puts men at work in 

 building public utilities, and finally de- 

 posits 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 def- 

 inite plan, I merely throw out the hint 

 that here is a fertile field for private 

 benevolence. 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 inde- 

 pendence of life on the irrigated farm. 



WHAT IRRIGATIOX HAS DONE FOR 

 UTAH. 



If you a.sk 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 compara- 

 tively 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 communities. It is an amazing 

 statement, but the United States census 

 vouches for its veracity, that of their 

 twenty thousand farms nineteen thou- 

 sand 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 mere 

 hearsay. 



They will continue to live on the fat 

 of the land as long as water runs down 

 hill. Working for themselves, owning 

 their homes, and living in the midst of 

 congenial neighbors, what have they to 

 fear ? Now think of arid America, with 

 its hundred million acres of irrigable 

 land, as densely populated as those Utah 

 valleys ; think of the people who com- 

 bine the social advantages of town life 

 with the industrial independence of the 

 country ; think of them with their 

 daily newspapers, their telegraphs and 

 telephones, and their rapid means of 

 transportation for products and peo- 

 ple; and then realize that under the 

 plans we propose the humblest citizen 

 of this great Republic can pass at will 

 from the discouraging conditions of 

 town life if for him they happen to 

 be discouraging to the inspiring and 

 hopeful opportunities of this new prom- 

 ised land. 



It is when I think of the matter in 

 this way that my enthusia.sm is kindled 

 until mind and heart are ablaze. I 

 thank God that I have lived to see the 

 great policy of national irrigation actu- 

 allv inaugurated. 



