24 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



gation development in this country could visit one 

 of the Australian districts and see what it means to 

 a settler to go into a new and comfortable home, 

 to take possession of fields from which, in many 

 instances, a living income was obtained within 

 thirty days after settlement, and look over the finan- 

 cial records of the government and see how this is 

 being carried out without expense to the general 

 tax payer, it would mean an immediate end to the 

 haphazard, unaided, wasteful and costly policy that 

 is now being followed here. 



As year after year I saw the settlement extend 

 and show as much progress in a year as it. as a rule, 

 made here in five years, the desire and the longing 

 grew within me to return to my own country and 

 do all that lay within my power to help establish 

 here the system that is doing so much for rural 

 developments in other lands. 



I believe that the time has arrived for this 

 country to change its methods and that public opin- 

 ion is favorable to such change. The great intellect 

 of Secretary Lane is united to a broad, hu- 

 man sympathy and understanding, and his spirit is 

 reflected in the present administration of the Recla- 

 mation act. We have in our agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations a body of trained, expert 

 advisers such as are available in few other countries. 



One of the most gratifying experiences I have 

 had since my return is, however, to find in Cali- 

 fornia an exhibition of its old and lovely spirit of 

 hospitality to the stranger within its gates and a 

 demonstration of the feasibility and value of organ- 

 ized aid and direction in settlement. It owes its 

 existence not to the conscience and wisdom of the 

 public, but to the sagacity and humanity of an in- 

 dividual. The pioneer in scientific land settlement 

 in California is Dr. George Dwinnell of Siskiyou 

 county. He is building houses, leveling and plant- 

 ing part of the farm, providing the needed equip- 

 ment of tools and livestock, giving the settler time 

 to get on his feet before requiring repayment, and 

 is building up a community with right social condi- 

 tions and enabling families to enjoy landed inde- 

 pendence who could never pay for it if left to begin 

 their struggle unaided. 



The best part of his work is that it pays in 

 money, although he did not undertake it for profit. 



The experience of Dr. Dwinnell shows that 

 here, as in other countries, capital and organization 

 are needed in the preparation of irrigable areas for 

 settlement, and not only pays in money, but in 

 social conditions. 



What Dr. Dwinnell is doing, what has been 

 done in British and German South Africa and Aus- 

 tralia, can be done in America. That is the view 

 of a parliamentary commission of our near neighbor, 

 British Columbia. This commission, after an in- 

 vestigation of rural credits and land settlement in 

 this country, Europe and Australasia, have recom- 

 mended the adoption in their province of the Aus- 

 tralian system, and a bill appropriating fifteen mil- 

 lion dollars to inaugurate this system is now before 

 their parliament. 



The report of the British Columbian commis- 

 sion ought to be widely read in this country. It 

 says : "The system has not only increased the out- 

 put of farms, given a great impulse to the agricul- 



tural industry, but has reacted on other industries 

 and stimulated trade. 



"With money available on terms suitable to 

 the industry, the farmers have built better houses 

 or remodeled their old ones; brought a large acre- 

 age of land under cultivation that would otherwise 

 be lying idle ; have bought and kept better livstock ; 

 have bought and used more labor-saving machinery 

 on the farms and in the houses ; have erected ele- 

 vated tanks and windmills ; * * They keep 

 more sheep and pigs and have so largely increased 

 the revenue from their farms that they are able 

 to meet the payments on the mortgages and to 

 adopt a higher standard of living and a better one. 

 Throughout the country a higher and better civili- 

 zation is gradually being evolved." 



State aid and control in settlement, if adopted, 

 must be, however, on business principles. Aid 

 should only be extended to actual settlers and to 

 those equipped in experience and character to suc- 

 ceed. There should be no donations of money. 

 Loans should be secured by liens on the land and 

 improvements and the interest rate should be high 

 enough to make the system entirely self-supporting. 

 It can do this and still be of immeasurable benefit 

 to settlers and to the state. 



To those who are fearful that the adoption of 

 this system would mean loss which the public 

 would have to assume, I would say that this will 

 not occur, unless as a nation we are less capable and 

 less honest than the countries that have adopted it. 

 The remarkable fact is that in not a single country 

 has the system failed to pay its way. 



In New Zealand the accumulated profits amount 

 to $1,500,000. In Denmark, where the loans go up 

 to 90 per cent of the value of improvements, there 

 has been no loss. In Australia, where $232,373,200 

 has been loaned, there is not one among the 777 

 members of the eight parliaments concerned who 

 is not an ardent supporter of the system. 



In the Australian state where I lived, out of 

 over seven thousand repayments due in 1912, only 

 ten farmers were in arrears and those arrears aggre- 

 gated only $468. 



To the objection that such aid would be pater- 

 nalism, I would reply that it is no more paternalism 

 than the Homestead act or River and Harbor Im- 

 provements or the Postal service. Of all govern- 

 ments, democracies should be the ones most capa- 

 ble of performing and willing to perform any direct 

 service for the people which the public welfare 

 requires. 



Relief and protection for the settler is both a 

 national duty and an opportunity. I hope that the 

 Reclamation Service may be given money and author- 

 ity to relieve its struggling settlers. I hope that 

 the State Rural Credit act, introduced in the last 

 legislature of California, may become a law in the 

 next one. 



Is the entrance to your home attractive? Things 

 that are always noticed in the country are entrances 

 to farmsteads. These should at least be clean, or- 

 derly and well laid out. The lawn is more pleasing 

 if it is kept clipped and if it contains a few shrubs 

 and trees. 



