POTENTIAL GREATNESS OF NEVADA 



purchased by home-seekers on generous terms ; if in Hol- 

 land, the servants of the little Queen would extend the 

 admirable colonies which have flourished for seventy-five 

 years, graduating thousands of needy men from beggary 

 to tenantry, from tenantry to proprietorship. But Ne- 

 vada is in tho United States, and the remedy for its mis- 

 fortune is to deprive it of its Senators ! 



If anything is to be done for Nevada the impulse must 

 come from without. Ninety-five per cent, of her great 

 area is public land and the property of the nation. The 

 present land laws were made in ignorance of the con- 

 ditions imposed by aridity, and are practically unsuitcd 

 for any honest and intelligent purpose of home-making. 

 The citizenship of the State is composed of miners, who 

 care nothing for agricultural expansion ; of farmers, who 

 are not anxious to foster competition ; of stockmen, who 

 want undisturbed possession of water privileges for their 

 herds ; and of merchants and professional men who are 

 helpless to turn the wheel of progress. Congressman 

 Newlands made an elaborate effort to awaken interest in 

 irrigation development a few years ago, offering to back 

 it with his large means, but it came to nothing because of 

 public indifference and subtle opposition. The same con- 

 ditions prevented the strong effort of the late Governor 

 Jones a man who had the progress of his State deeply at 

 heart from reforming the water laws and providing an 

 irrigation administrative system. It would not be diffi- 

 cult to suggest palliative policies which would help to 

 turn the tide in the right direction. For instance, cer- 

 tain favored districts might be withdrawn from settlement 

 under present laws, and granted under special induce- 

 ments to organizations like the Salvation Army, or Com- 



205 



