CHAPTER III 

 COLONIZATION WITH CO-OPEKATIVE CAPITAL 



THE problem of making homes in the West for the 

 masses is the problem of bringing together surplus land, 

 surplus labor, and surplus capital. The first two factors 

 have been discussed in previous chapters. It remains 

 to consider the question of surplus capital and of its 

 utilization in connection with the conquest of unused 

 natural resources. 



Of the fact of surplus capital there is, of course, no 

 more question than of the fact of surplus land or the 

 fact of surplus labor. Just as there are great areas of 

 unemployed land and great numbers of half-employed 

 people, so there are vast amounts of idle and unpro- 

 ductive, or of half-employed, capital all over the United 

 States and in foreign countries. The difficulty is that 

 those who own the land do not possess the necessary 

 labor, and that those who have the labor do not possess 

 the necessary capital. Each of these factors is impotent 

 without both of the others. To bring them together 

 upon a basis of mutual security and profit is to solve so- 

 cial and economic questions of world-wide extent and 

 importance. 



The evils of over-population, and the consequent fierce 

 struggle for existence, are not peculiar to the United 



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