' THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



given full control. It should have the power and be held 

 to the responsibility. This responsibility should not be 

 divided among subordinates, still less shared with the 

 rank and file. The leader has placed in his hands, say, 

 one hundred thousand dollars, and the destinies of one 

 hundred families. The care of the money is an impor- 

 tant trust, but the care of the families is a more sacred 

 responsibility. The man who is willing and able to 

 assume the burden of such a task should have the power 

 necessary to its accomplishment, and the praise or blame 

 which will follow the result. No man fit for the work 

 would undertake it upon any other conditions. But the 

 chief reason for vesting control in superior and responsi- 

 ble leadership is the welfare of the people themselves. 



Almost without exception successful colonies have 

 been ruled with the strong hand. Sometimes the power 

 proceeded from religious superstition or fanaticism, 

 sometimes from financial or legal obligation, and some- 

 times from sheer force of genius on the leader's part; 

 but, without exception, the colonies which have succeeded 

 have worked under one guiding brain and hand, while 

 those that have failed did so through the dissensions and 

 incompetency of the general membership. This has not 

 been peculiar to our race and country, but to all races 

 and countries. It was true of Plymouth, New Amster- 

 dam, and Jamestown. It was pre-eminently true of the 

 Utah settlements, and only a little less so of those of 

 Colorado and California. It is worth while to glance 

 briefly at recent foreign efforts to observe the working of 

 the same principle. 



Soon after the close of the Napoleonic wars, eighty 

 years ago, the streets and roads of Ilolland were filled 



