102 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and why the Government should crimp every legitimate 

 private project. Until this sort of work is stopped 

 this service may expect trouble which may land some 

 of its leading spirits back to the class in which they 



rightfully belong. 



The publishers of daily and weekly papers 

 To Country throughout the West are requested to cor- 

 Publishers. respond with us on the matter of offer- 

 ing THE IRRIGATION AGE on a clubbing 

 arrangement to their readers. We will quote a low 

 rate to all who care to offer this magazine in con- 

 nection with their own. It is our impression that a 

 large number of people throughout the country are 

 anxious to learn about irrigation development in the 

 West and would pay for a combination like this more 

 readily than for a single paper. 



It may be that our readers have seen a 

 Are Country notice in various papers in regard to a 

 Publishers magazine supplement which is being pub- 

 EasilyFooledJlished in New York and furnished to local 

 papers throughout the western country, 

 free of charge. This supplement is gotten up like the 

 ordinary ready print productions, the difference being 

 that it is a complete paper in itself, containing some 

 articles of general interest, stories, illustrations, etc., 

 and the publishers are supposed to be deriving a large 

 revenue from the advertisements. It is understood that 

 their service already includes something like one thou- 

 sand papers and the circulation, giving each paper an 

 average of say, one thousand copies, would be quite 

 considerable. 



There has been a question raised by several of the 

 leading magazines as to just what was behind this 

 movement and for a time it was conjectured that a 

 catalogue house or some number of catalogue houses 

 might be supporting it for the purpose of eventually 

 running in matter favorable to the parcels post. This 

 move would, however, not be taken until the papers 

 accepting this service became accustomed to the sup- 

 plement and were less vigilant in examining the con- 

 tents features. Another suggestion was that some of 

 the large manufacturing trusts were behind the propo- 

 sition as it is definitely known that the promoters of 

 the scheme have two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 

 lars with which to carry on the plan during the first 

 year's campaign. We are now convinced, after careful 

 investigation, that the main purpose of this supple- 

 ment is to boost governmental appropriations for irri- 

 gation purposes, which will naturally result in millions 

 of dollars' benefit to the ones on the inside who have 

 or will secure land under proposed irrigation projects. 



The active head of this organization is known as 

 the representative of large corporate interests who are 

 working for the repeal of certain land laws, which, 

 if carried into effect, will make at least one hundred 



and twenty millions of dollars for the parties inter- 

 ested, so it may readily be seen that they can well 

 afford to invest something like two or three hundred 

 thousand dollars to educate the public to their way of 

 thinking. There are also connected with this individ- 

 ual many public officials who have considerable pull. 

 Country publishers throughout the West should be very 

 cautious in accepting something which is offered to 

 them for nothing. Publishers of this class are usually 

 very bright, intelligent men, but with all their shrewd- 

 ness are at times led by schemers to commit their jour- 

 nal in favor of deals which the publication would not 

 for a moment editorially indorse. A general view of 

 the situation and conditions lead us to believe that 

 this organization is attempting to hoodwink the repu- 

 table country publisher and thereby gain a large sum 

 of money by the repeal of these laws under the claim 

 that they are assisting in the carrying out of a plan 

 which will materially benefit the homeseeker, when in 

 point of fact, nothing could be done which would be 

 more detrimental to the man who is looking for a 

 cheap home in the West; which would be of more in- 

 jury than the repeal of the laws indicated. What we 

 need is the proper enforcement of the present laws. 

 If this is duly carried out nothing more is necessary. 

 Let the country publisher bear this fact in mind 

 the power which is capable of causing the repeal of any 

 of our present land laws is also strong enough to intro- 

 duce and pass any substitute it may off^r. 



One of the attributes of graft is to attach 

 Country Pub- itself or its unsavory cause to meritorious 

 lishersDuped. endeavor and shift its disrepute to the 



shoulders of creditable purpose. It is 

 obvious that recently an immense slush fund has been 

 created by certain corporate interests to antagonize 

 impending legislation and work toward the end of 

 repeal of certain laws, and the instruments selected 

 to conduct this "campaign of education" is under the 

 pretense of friendliness to federal irrigation, so skil- 

 fully interwoven purposes, that the benefits of the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Act itself is imperiled. It may pos- 

 sibly be interesting to the publishers of country news- 

 papers throughout the West, who have received offers 

 lately of free plate matter and in many instances have 

 been offered, free of charge, special so-called "Maga- 

 zine Supplements," for which they have been paying 

 a moderate sum in the past, that the men who are 

 making these offers have a tremendous scheme to carry 

 through which will benefit a few large land holders 

 and other large corporations to the extent of from 

 one hundred to three hundred million dollars, and it 

 is the aim of the people who are offering this class of 

 free reading matter to use the columns of the country 

 newspapers who are duped by these fulsome offerings 

 to carry out the plan of the repeal of the following laws : 



