444 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



In his last message the President rec- 

 ommended the repeal of the desert-land 

 law, of the commutation clause of the 

 homestead law, and of the timber and 

 stone act. These are the provisions of 

 existing statutes under which absolutely 

 the most valuable propert} 7 now owned 

 by the American people is being sys- 

 tematically absorbed into private own- 

 ership by those who cannot use it, but 

 who propose to sell it at enormous profit 

 to real home-seekers when the nation 

 shall have multiplied its value an hun- 

 dred fold by means of irrigation. 



The nation has land for every man 

 who will make his home upon it in good 

 faith who will break the sod, plant 

 crops, build a house, and settle down to 

 support his family from the soil ; but 

 the nation has no land at least it 

 ought to have none for the man who 

 merely seeks to forestall the actual set- 

 tler and sell out to him at a profit or 

 become a landlord collecting income 

 from his tenants. 



Under the present land laws millions 

 of acres are being taken by those who 

 have no thought of breaking the soil, 

 planting crops, or building homes. 

 They are mere adventurers and specu- 

 lators. 



The desert-land law gives them a 

 chance to obtain for a song, without 

 residence and without cultivation, 320 

 acres of the richest soil on earth- 

 enough for sixteen families. The com- 

 mutation clause of the homestead law 

 gives them a chance to take up 160 

 acres with but the barest pretense of 

 residence, and that for only fourteen 

 months. The timber and stone act 

 enables them to acquire forests and 

 quarries for a bagatelle, and to hold 

 them for speculative advances. 



Frank Stockton left the hero of his 

 famous tale hesitating before two doors. 

 If he opened one it meant life and hap- 

 piness, if the other death ; and the 

 question was never answered " The 

 Lady or the Tiger ? ' ' 



Uncle Sam stands at the door of the 

 arid region. His foot is on the thresh- 

 old, his hand is on the latch. 



Shall it be the home-maker or the 

 speculator ? Shall it be life and happi- 

 ness for millions or a riot and a carnival 



of speculation at the expense of the 

 people. There is but one way to an- 

 swer the question in the interest of the 

 nation's welfare that is to repeal the 

 existing land laws in accordance with 

 the President's recommendation. 



IRELAND'S GREAT LESSON FOR 

 AMERICA. 



Two very big things have already hap- 

 pened in the brief history of the twenti- 

 eth century. Each of these things makes 

 for the greater economic freedom of the 

 race ; each represents a lofty conception 

 of statesmanship. Both were under- 

 taken by English-speaking peoples 

 the one by Great Britain, the other by 

 the United States ; the one the presen- 

 tation to the English Parliament of the 

 Wyndham bill for the restoration of the 

 land to millions of people in Ireland, 

 the other the passage, a year ago, of the 

 National Irrigation Act, which aims to 

 make homes for millions of people in the 

 arid region of the West. 



Between these two great measures 

 there is a singular analog}'. Both of 

 them deal with the foundation princi- 

 ples of civilization. They aim to give 

 man a secure foothold on the soil ; they 

 aim to put him in possession of the 

 primal means of existence ; they recog- 

 nize his right to participate in the own- 

 ership of natural wealth. 



The event in Ireland marks the last 

 gasp of dying feudalism. The event in 

 America marks the entrance upon a 

 new and momentous stage of that policy 

 of material conquest over new areas 

 which is the real secret of prosperity 

 and greatness of the Republic. Both 

 events do infinite credit to the govern- 

 ments which brought them about, and 

 both are hopeful signs of the tendency 

 of the times. 



But those who are familiar with what 

 is going on in the west, strange as it 

 may seem, look with a certain envy on 

 Ireland. She is dealing with a problem 

 almost identical with our own. The 

 only difference is the difference between 

 rebuilding an old house and building a 

 new one; but she has learned a lesson 

 which we must learn in order to realize 

 the full benefit of the policy on which 

 we have entered. This lesson is that 



