THE NATION'S PRIDE 



595 



to the States) goes into a fund for the 

 building of irrigation works to reclaim 

 the desert. 



Was there ever a more generous 

 method taken of populating and develop- 

 ing a new land? Surely there has been 

 no niggardliness on the part of the gov- 

 ernment, which has not asked from those 

 who took its lands even so much as the 

 cost of their administration. 



In doing all this with so lavish a hand 

 the government has been expressing the 

 generous instinct of the people and their 

 absorbing determination to "go forth and 

 find." For a hundred years and a little 

 more this quest has been the drama of 

 our life. It has given color to our civili- 

 zation and buoyancy to the hearts of the 

 people. It has been a century of revela- 

 tion, and as yet we have only the most 

 superficial knowledge of what this land 

 is. of what it will yield to research, and 

 how it may best be used. Its develop- 

 ment has only begun. 



TO USE, XOT TO HOLD OR WASTE 



But in all our giving we have been 

 guided by a purpose — the land that we 

 gave was to be converted from wilderness 

 into homes, or from rock into metal. 

 We gave to the States and to the rail- 

 roads, with a reservation of minerals. 

 We gave to the homesteader, with a con- 

 dition — the land was to be used. We 

 gave our swamp lands, but to be re- 

 claimed. We found our coal lands going 

 as farms and we put a price upon them. 

 We saw our forests being swept clean or 

 monopolized and we held them out from 

 the mass. Use ! Use by as many as pos- 

 sible ! The superior use ! These were 

 the things we wished and these gave 

 form to our legislation. Xo homesteader 

 receives all the lands he wishes, or even 

 all he might use. One hundred and sixty 

 acres was the limit, not a full section. 

 But now he may have 320 acres if it is 

 dry farming or grazing land — and for the 

 latter the size might still be increased. 



And he cannot have it as a speculation. 

 It must be made a home and brought into 

 the body of the world's producing area 

 by cultivation. 



The government was generous, but it 

 had no intention of being a spendthrift. 



When it found itself being imposed upon 

 it stayed its hand and drew back. So it 

 came about that lands were withdrawn 

 from entry — the Alaskan coal lands, the 

 oil and the phosphate lands, dam and 

 reservoir sites for power plants, and a 

 few water holes which commanded the 

 adjoining miles of desert. The Xation 

 stayed its hand and drew back, so as to 

 make sure of the right course. It wished 

 use — use by as many as possible and the 

 best use. 



And now we have come to a point 

 where it can be said that if Congress will 

 pass two bills now before it there will 

 be no resource in reserve, of all its vast 

 treasure in lands, save national forests 

 and national parks. 



A PROGRAM OF IXTERXAL DEVELOPVCEXT 



Two years ago I presented in my re- 

 port* what might be termed a program 

 of internal development with respect to 

 land : a railroad into the interior of 

 Alaska : a coal-leasing law for Alaska ; a 

 new reclamation act extending the time 

 within which payments were to be made 

 by water-users and under which land 

 would be forced into use : a water-power 

 bill governing the use of public lands for 

 hydro-electric development : a general de- 

 velopment bill providing for a practicable 

 method of disposing of our oil, gas. coal, 

 phosphate, and potash without danger of 

 monopoly or non-use. Of this program 

 the larger portion has been adopted, but 

 the last two failed of passage in the Sen- 

 ate after having been successful in the 

 House. 



The plan is to make the AYest help in 

 its own development. The royalties from 

 oil, gas, coal, and phosphate lands and 

 from water power developed on public 

 lands should be used for the reclaiming 

 of the arid country and then divided with 

 the States. 



PHOSPHATE ROCK "iN PLACE" 



The need for the general development 

 bill is not difficult to present. The lands 

 of the Pacific coast are being used in- 

 tensely in some parts, and these lands call 

 for fertilization. One of the elements 



* See Xatioxal Geographic Magazine, Feb- 

 ruary. 1914, pages 1S3-225. 



