THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



are very small in Riverside they are from five to ten 

 acres in size they necessarily belong to the many. This 

 means a class of small landed proprietors at the base of 

 society. The condition is one which forbids the exist- 

 ence of a mass of servile labor like that which lives upon 

 the cotton plantations of the South, and, to a greater or 

 less extent, upon large farms everywhere, including the 

 greater part of California itself. On a small farm the 

 proprietary family does most of the work. Hence the 

 main part of the population in such districts as Riverside 

 is independent and self-employing. 



The people of southern California are plainly moving 

 along the line which leads to public ownership of public 

 utilities and co-operative management of commercial 

 affairs. But with them the movement is an economic 

 growth rather than a political agitation. It is the logi- 

 cal outcome of their environment and necessities. A 

 great body of producers and proprietors of the soil, they 

 formerly stood between private irrigation systems, sup- 

 plying the life-current of their fields, and private com- 

 mission houses, furnishing the only outlet for their prod- 

 ucts. The condition was an intolerable one, since it made 

 them utterly dependent upon agencies beyond their con- 

 trol. These instrumentalities the people are rapidly 

 taking into their own hands, and it is inconceivable that 

 they can ever again pass into private control. It is prob- 

 able that California has seen almost the last of the at- 

 tempts to establish the policy of private ownership of irri- 

 gation works, the most vital of all public utilities in arid 

 regions. The system of co-operative fruit exchanges is 

 carried forward by the same impulse. Already it handles 

 more than half the enormous product. The producors 



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