THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



To fence the home building world away from the 

 forests is a crime. To forbid them the uses of national 

 forests, which are theirs by right, and compel them to 

 buy of the lumber trust is still a crime. 



OPTIMISTIC CLUB OF AMERICA. 



A Novel Organization for Purpose of Dispensing Cheer- 

 ful Philosophy. 



The federal plan should be to plant trees for future 

 generations. State Forestry Bureaus are doing far 

 greater service along this line than the National Gov- 

 ernment. I note also that shrewd business men are add- 

 ing commercialism to the forestry spirit. One promi- 

 nent railroad has in the last year planted more trees 

 than the Government has in the entire incumbency of 

 the present Chief Forester, which is about ten years. " 



"Nature faking" is in many forms, but the one 

 most persistently insisted upon eminates from the "Ten- 

 nis Cabinet" the theory nay, the positive assertion 

 that forests on the mountains regulate the flow of water 

 and benefits irrigation. New England and the slopes 

 of the Appalachians bear witness that since brush and 

 young trees have grown upon abandoned farms, streams 

 that have run unceasingly for many decades have ceased. 

 Many of the brooks of Maine, once the home of the trout, 

 are entirely dry. The waters which might form such 

 streams now passes through millions of subterranean 

 channels, fibers of roots, into pulp and leaves. A single 

 large cottonwood tree will dry a well or spring. 



Congressman Mondell, of Wyoming, proposes the 

 sale of public grazing lands and isolated sections in the 

 railroad grants. That would help solve some mooted 

 questions, as well as add materially to the fund available 

 for reclamation. I would, however, suggest that the 

 sale be made of a provisional nature for a specific pur- 

 pose, and that occupancy and individual use be the es- 

 sence of the title. That the land revert to the Govern- 

 ment before it can be transferred to or used by, another, 

 and that & limit be placed on the acreage owned by any 

 one person. 



We of the West rather sympathize with the East in 

 your troublous panic, but admonish you who have grown 

 justly leary of "Industrials" that security and profit lie 

 in two classes of investment. Municipal bonds, which 

 include District Irrigation Bonds, and investment in 

 farms especially irrigated farms which command 

 high rental values. District Irrigation Bonds are a new 

 class of security, which, because drawing usually 6 per 

 cent, are first mortgages, with interest and principal 

 payable through taxation on groups of the richest and 

 most productive farms in the country ; and the security 

 covers all villages, lots, or other lands within the pre- 

 scribed limits of the District. Dig your money out of 

 your old sock and buy an irrigated farm or an irrigation 

 bond. 



President Roosevelt, Secretary Cortelyou and the Gov- 

 ernor of Every State in the Union Invited as 

 Honorary Members. 



This novel organization was recently organized with 

 headquarters at Salt Lake City, Utah, with Charles A. 

 Quigley, the vice-president and general manager of the 

 Studebaker Bros. Co. of Utah, as its president, and the 

 desire of the organization is to create a local club in 

 every hamlet, village, town and city in the United 

 States. 



Colonel Charles Arthur Carlisle of the Studebaker 

 Bros. Mfg. Company of South Bend, Indiana, has gotten 

 back of the Optimistic Club of America and is pushing 

 it forward to success in every direction. 



The philosophy of the club, subject to modification 

 and additions, is as follows : 



"God reigns ; the union still lives and the sun still shines, 

 even though the clouds obscure it." 



"There are more people dying- each day for the lack of a 

 kind work, a pat on the back and a little encouragement, than 

 there are from disease." 



"A smile is potential, magnetic, and dispels trouble." 



"The man who never makes any mistakes never makes 

 anything else." 



"Hard luck stories are like over-due notes." 



"Go bury thy sorrows, the world hath its share. Just 

 smile." 



"Before money was invented some people were happy." 



"Shake hands as though you meant it, and smile." 



"Nobody can compute the value of a smile; a frown has 

 cost a kingdom." 



"Nobody can really harm you but yourself." 



"You are under a real obligation to every man on earth." 



"You can't put influence in a glass case." 



"When in doubt, take Optimism." 



"In darkness, in light, in sorrow, in blight, be an Opti- 

 mist ever, and things will come all right." 



"Optimism is the first-born of hope, the mother of con- 

 fidence, the executioner of adversity and the undertaker of 

 pessimism." 



"A frown is a renegade smile that is afraid to look itself 

 in the face." 



"On the faces of the happy aged it is a well known fact 

 that wrinkles are only the foot-prints of smiles." 



"On the vehicle of modern progress the creak of the 

 wheel is the pessimist protest; a little Optimistic lubricant 

 will silence both the creak and the croak." 



"The Optimist wins." 



"The greatest smiler is the greatest healer." 



"Smile and the world delights with you; croak, and you 

 croak alone." 



"A smile is God's own medicine." 



"A grin is a counterfeited smile, and does not pass cur- 

 rent because the heart stamp of genuineness is not upon it.'' 



"Optimism and pessimism have fought many bloody bat- 

 tles; if Optimism had not been a victor up to date, hope 

 would have died years ago." 



"In the realm of the birds, the lark is the Optimist, the 

 crow is the Pessimist. Why be a crow?" 



"Clearing house certificates and tight financial conditions 

 have afforded more people, who never had a dollar, an ex- 

 cuse for their hard luck stories than anything that has hap- 

 pened since the Civil War." 



"Let Optimism and the Optimist destroy the last hope 

 of the pessimist and perfect confidence will again prevail with 

 peace and plenty for all." 



s "Fall into line and the sunshine of the home and the 

 glory of trade will reflect the delight of a gracious person* 

 ality." 



Organize a club, improve upon the philosophy quoted 

 above if you can ; print and spread your work, and let the 

 motto of your club be: 



"Not until every man and woman has been successfully 

 enlisted will we haul down the unconquerable flag of deter- 

 mination." 



