352 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the maps and plats and application for segregation by the 

 state or territory: Provided, that if the state or territory 

 shall not present its application for segregation and maps 

 and plats within one year after such temporary withdrawal 

 the lands so withdrawn shall be restored to entry as though 

 such withdrawal had not been made." Approved March 15, 

 1910. 



This amendment will correct an evil with which the 

 execution of Carey Act plans has been hampered from their 

 inception. Persons who may have come into possession of 

 the plans of the projectors have, heretofore, made inroads 

 upon the tracts to be reclaimed, and filed upon the choicest 

 sites under Homestead and Desert Land Laws. The effect, 

 has been not only to hamper the companies, as stated, in 

 their legitimate operations, but to prevent Carey Act Entry- 

 men from enjoying the right of free selection. 



This measure has been strongly urged upon Congress by 

 Secretary Ballinger at various times and since its enactment, 

 the General Land Office has issued regulations for carrying 

 it into effect. 



During the past four or five years there has 

 Movement been a heavy movement of colonists toward 

 Toward Canada. This was brought about by the saga- 



Canadian cious advertising of some of the railway corn- 



Northwest panics operating in that country, and, while 

 the effort on the part of the railway officials 

 is commendable, in a way, as an attempt to develop their 

 territory, much criticism has been expressed concerning the 

 matter of misrepresentation of the possibilities for home- 

 building in the Canadian Northwest. 



Frequently word reached the AGE from people who 

 have been led to invest their limited savings in that country, 

 and who have found upon settling there, that conditions 

 have been misrepresented, and that they were wholly at the 

 mercy of the Canadian Trans-continental lines, traversing 

 the provinces in which they located. This would not be so 

 serious a matter, and would no doubt, be corrected later by 

 proper legislation, were it not for the fact that great claims 

 have been made as to quick money crops, and these state- 

 ments have not materialized. The result is that there are 

 hundreds of settlers, in the Canadian northwest today, who 

 have spent their available funds, and are now "on their up- 

 pers" without any possible way of reaching a safe position 

 in the work of home-building. 



Is it not time that the United States government or some 

 of the private land companies, investigate the situation. An 

 attempt should be made to supply facts. 



The agricultural, as well as daily press, of the United 

 States has carried large and flaring advertisements, setting 

 forth the claims of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and have pub- 

 lished editorial reports of the immense crops. Obviously 

 many of these reports have been misleading. 



The press bureaus of the various Canadian railways are 

 well conducted institutions. The heads of the bureaus are 

 located in Canada, while they have bright advertising and 

 editorial writers in "the States," who are continually working 

 the papers for reading matter space, in connection with dis- 

 play advertising. This campaign has been so well conducted 

 that, it is safe to say, 100,000 people will have gone into 

 Canada during the year ending July 1, 1910, and it is claimed 

 by Canadian publications that this number of people have 

 taken in, to aid in the development of that country, from 

 seven to ten million dollars. 



There can be no serious objection offered to a man 

 going into a country where he may do well, whether it be 

 Australia, Ceylon or Russia, provided he is certain about the 



result, and that the people who induce him to migrate are 

 honest in their statements. It is, however, an entirely dif- 

 ferent matter, to entice a man twelve or eighten hundred 

 miles, permit him to expend all his available money, and 

 then not "make good." 



The writer has met several people throughout the West, 

 particularly in Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho, who have re- 

 turned from Canada during the past year or two, so thor- 

 oughly disgusted with it, that they could not be induced to 

 go there again on a guarantee. 



It is time for some of the states of the West, and the 

 large land holders, to take this matter up, and give the 

 actual facts to prospective Canadian colonists, who could do 

 so much better on this side of the line. 



The Canadian policy of colonization is good, and the 

 Canadian government is a clean, paternal institution, but it 

 is a government for the classes, rather than for the masses. 

 It has continued along this line for so long a time that t''e 

 masses are satisfied with the situation and are willing to 

 accept small returns for their labor, while the governing 

 class, composed of bond- holders, and the heavy land 

 owners are sapping the life-blood from settlers. 



The writer was told, on a recent western trip, that the 

 railways of western Canada, absolutely dominate the crop 

 situation; in fact, handle il as some of the eastern roads do 

 the fruit crcp, charging a very high rate when the crop is 

 light, and an exceedingly low rate when a heav / crop is 

 harvested. 



This may be satisfactory from the standpoint of the 

 railroad, but it is hardly fair to the settler. There should 

 be a uniform rate, year in and out, for the transportation of 

 crops, and the only possible salvation for the settler of that 

 country is combination, and the election of members to Par- 

 liament who will dominate, the railway and class interests. 



This will eventually come about, but it is a pity that it 

 should be accomplished through the struggles and hardships 

 of sturdy citizens of "the States," who are induced to go 

 there through misrepresentation. 



It is axiom that a pendulum, once started, 



Railroad w ;n make several swings its arc depend- 



Regulation ing upon its momentum before finding 



vs repose. In a consideration of railroad af- 



. . fairs especially of the transcontinentals 



it may be true that the pendulum at one 

 time touched a point which for the sake of argument and 

 to sustain the premise of the present day anti-railroad 

 agitators, may be labeled "Pro-Railroad, or anti-Public." 

 It is not to be assumed that this view of the question is 

 altogether tenable, it would apear as though an unpreju- 

 diced study of the history of our railroads, in its larger 

 aspects, would discover much justification for even those 

 things, which today are the favorite field of exploitation 

 of the "Man with the Muckrake." However, whatever 

 one's private views may be, it will be found unprofitable 

 to attempt an argument upon subjects which, like religion, 

 are founded upon faith, or upon one's mental attitude 

 toward the question. 



Whatever the alleged crimes of the railways in the 

 past, it is difficult to find, for the present hostile attitude 

 of a large part of the public, any adequate motive. One 

 cannot, if he views the subject in a dispassionate manner, 

 and though the binoculars of intelligent understanding, 

 rid themselves of the conviction that "Railway Regulation" 

 the favorite war cry of both political parties has de- 

 generated into "Railroad Baiting" of the most aggravated 

 type. 









