THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



G9 



though the combination would fail to defeat Senator 

 Hansbrough's bill, and that a competent engineer will 

 be appointed to superintend the Government's plans 

 and see that the vast sums of money for this purpose 

 are wisely expended. , 



The interests that are so frantically de- 

 Are the manding the repeal of the commutation 

 Repealers clause of the homestead, the desert land 

 Fair ? and the timber and stone Jand laws for 



the benefit of "future generations" base 

 their demands mainly upon the alleged frauds that have 

 been committed against the government in the past. 

 They assert that unscrupulous individuals and corpora- 

 tions have gobbled large tracts of valuable Government 

 timber and mineral lands through hired agents who 

 made bogus entries upon then} and afterwards turned 

 over their holdings to the land grabbers who employed 

 them. On account of these frauds the repealers de- 

 mand that the Government withdraw from entry mil- 

 lions of acres of lands that are available for settlers 

 under terms which, in the wisdom of Congress, are 

 fair, equitable and easy to carry out. 



There is no doubt that many frauds have been 

 perpetrated by unscrupulous corporations and individ- 

 uals, although the repealers have never yet given any 

 definite figures as to the extent of these frauds. They 

 have contented themselves with statements that are gen- 

 eral and broad in character, and do not attempt to give 

 any definite information on that subject. But, ad- 

 mitting that frauds have been committed in this man- 

 ner, is there any good reason why the honest settler of 

 today should suffer through the negligence of Govern- 

 ment employees in allowing these frauds to be perpe- 

 trated? And is it not a fact that many of the un- 

 scrupulous corporations having secured titles to tracts 

 of land in this manner are now endeavoring to arrange 

 a scheme by which they can still further profit by forc- 

 ing settlers to tmy these lands from them? This can 

 only be accomplished by taking out of the reach of the 

 settler the Government land that is not occupied. If 

 the commutation clause of the Homestead Act and 

 other laws are repealed the only way that the honest 

 settler can obtain lands from the Government is by the 

 general Homestead Act, which requires five years' actual 

 residence on the wild lands. 



With the desert land and the stone and timber 

 lands withdrawn from settlement, the settler would have 

 to make his choice between living five years on a piece 

 of land before he could obtain title to it and the pur- 

 chase of land outright. As the railroad companies and a 

 few large land combinations would then own all the. 

 available lands, aside from those subject to the Home- 

 stead law, the settler would be forced to buy from them. 

 And this fact points to the secret of the gigantic com- 

 bination that is working so powerfully for the repeal 

 of the land laws. 



The millions of acres owned by the railroads and 

 corporations are now nonproductive. If these lands 

 can be sold to settlers, even on long time and easy terms, 

 they at once become interest-bearing, and thereby reve- 

 nue-producing, and the railroad and private companies, 

 instead of being compelled to pay the taxes themselves, 

 shift the burden to the farmer, and he becomes the tax 

 payer and interest payer from the day he signs the con- 

 tract. Does anybody believe that the repealers, who are 

 maintaining newspapers and literary bureaus at the cost 

 of thousands of dollars every month, and sending speak- 

 ers all over the country to argue with boards of trade 

 and merchants' associations, are doing this in the in- 

 terest of "future generations'' or anybody else except 

 themselves? Does anybody know of a syndicate or pri- 

 vate land corporation that ever worked hard and spent 

 its money for the benefit of generations, or anybody on 

 earth, present or future, except itself? Xot at all. 

 These interests are simply trying to throw dust in the 

 eyes of the people by pretending to be concerned about 

 the future welfare of the people, while they are in 

 reality only trying to prevent the settler of today from 

 obtaining a home from the Government and forcing him 

 to relieve them of the taxes on their own lands and 

 pay them interest besides. The fact that the public is 

 rapidly finding out the true state of affairs, and the 

 widespread interest that is being aroused in the schemes 

 of the gigantic combination of repealers, gives rise to 

 the hope that their plans will be defeated. In view 

 of all the revelations that are now being made, the 

 repealers would have acted more wisely if in their 

 attitude toward the people had they waged this war on 

 the only grounds tenable to themselves self-interest 

 and a desire to grab all there is in sight. 



The board of lonely, disinterested 

 Needlessly philanthropic gentlemen who are vigor- 

 Alarmed, ously working for a repeal of the com- 

 mutation clause of the homestead law, 

 the timber and stone act and the desert land law, ex- 

 press the most alarming solicitude for the generation 

 of future farmers who will not have a place left on this 

 part of the globe upon which to establish a home. It 

 may be of interest to these gentlemen to know what the 

 authorities of the agricultural department of Washing- 

 ton think of the future possibilities of free land in this 

 country. Milton Whitney, Chief of the Division of 

 the Bureau of Soils of the Agricultural Department, 

 who has been for years conducting a series of soil sur- 

 veys in nearly every State in the Union and who is 

 probably better acquainted with the agricultural land 

 possibilities of the West than any other man in the 

 United States, said to a representative of THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE a few weeks ago : 



"If all of the Government land west of the Mis- 

 souri Eiver should be withdrawn from settlement to- 

 day, there still would be room enough left for all the 



