44 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



wherever anybody can make a decent living, the proper and 



Small Farms desirable thing to do is to get people on your land and cut it 



Best Where . 



Practicable "P ^"^"^ small farms, as many as you can, making self-sustaining 



and self-owned homes. (Applause.) 



We have had a great fight during the last few months be- 

 tween the stockmen and the homesteaders ; between those who 

 were for and against the 640 acre grazing homestead law. The 

 cattle men, almost to a unit, opposed it. But the other fellow, 

 who stood for the homestead law, and who proved to be in the 

 majority, contended that whenever we have been able to get 

 people on the land we have gotten more cattle from it than 

 before, and a lot more things besides, and the settlers have 

 made a living and built towns and schools. 



Those of you who have been to Colorado know that across 



that great eastern portion, for many miles back of the Kansas 



Little of li"^' is a great area of rolling plains. Twenty years ago, when I 



Western Cow used to go across there, it was nothing but a cow country. One 



Country Left would see scarcely a habitation or town. You go across there 



now and you will find that as a result of this 320-acre homestead 



law that whole country is settled, and that country is producing 



more meat than it ever did before. 



I was talking to a Congressman who told me of a valley 

 which a cattle company had completely controlled for years, 

 and when the 320-acre homestead law came in it drove the 

 cattle company out, and now that valley is producing much more 

 cattle than the cattle company produced, and crops of grain 

 besides. 



Now, my friends, we have heard considerable here today 

 about various settlement and colonization schemes ; while I agree 

 with much that has been said, I want to say as a general thought 

 that if you will demonstrate the possibilities of these lands and 

 show their usefulness and practicability for home building pur- 

 poses under conditions such that a man can bring up and educate 

 his children under modern conditions, and you will sell the lands 

 at prices and on terms such that an industrious man can pay 

 out, you will not have to resort to any colonization schemes ; 

 you can't keep the settlers out. 



Now, the chief obstacle in the way, invariably in the West, 

 is the speculator. Invariably he wants to get in between the 

 large land proposition and the man who ultimately cultivates 



