WANTED: A RURAL POLICY 93 



only then will the dairy farmers get permanent 

 relief. 



LAND FOR RETURNING SOLDIERS 



The most recent and most serious illustration of our 

 lack of a rural policy relates to providing lands for re- 

 turning soldiers. Last summer the Secretary of the 

 Interior addressed an earnest letter to the President, 

 urging a plan of land development by which we should 

 know the possibilities of reclaiming arid, wet and cut- 

 over lands, and a scheme of enabling the returning sol- 

 dier to take a parcel of land, pay for it over a long term 

 and make it his home. The amount of the land that 

 could thus be brought into cultivation, it is estimated, 

 would be all the way from one hundred million acres 

 to perhaps three or four times that amount. Provision 

 was to be made by which these farmers would be as- 

 sisted by technical experts in building up their farms. 



One cannot question the sincerity of the Secretary 

 nor the desirability of insuring satisfactory employ- 

 ment for returning soldiers. But the plan is open to 

 many and serious objections. It is doubtful if any large 

 number of returning soldiers, not already tied up with 

 the soil, will want to go to the land permanently. We 

 now have about five hundred million acres of im- 

 proved land in this country. The addition of 60% or 

 even of 20% to this area within a few years would be 

 a most serious menace to the present farmers who al- 

 ready suffer from competition. Of course if the food 

 needs of the world require the use of this extra land, 

 well and good. The project as announced by the Sec- 

 retary is primarily an engineering program. Appar- 

 ently no consideration had been given to what crops 

 could be grown on this land, the need of those crops, 



