The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-23
~rHE LANDLEss WEST.

In recent article under the caption
1.-THE Landless West" the Pittsburg
Post rather rejoices that the tide of
restless men seeking lands for cult
walton is turning to the South and
East. and no longer flows westward.
The Post says it is now fifty years
since Horace Greeley gave his famous
advice to young men to go West and
gnow up with the country. 1.-THE ad-
vice that the force of disappointments
and privations has impressed on many
of the western people Of late years
is to go East or South. The West is no
longer the untitled agricultural para
disc. 1t lies east Of the Mississippi, a
fact that is shown by the return tide
of immigration, and especially by the
large drift of northern and western
farmers ITO the South"
1t may be true, as the Post re-
marks-at least to a very great extent
it is true-that ''the opportunity for
original speculation by taking up gov
eminent lands with a great prospective
value has passed away, never to re-
turn" 1t may also be true, as the
Post further remarks, that "the cream
of the public domain has been SKINNED
by honest settlers. by the land spec
uIators. and by the TOWNSHIP exploit
ers." And yet one cannot help but
think that in speaking of the land
less West. and the immigration
from the West eastward and
southwark. the Post has taken
only a limited view of the
west Although the Post writer
refers to broad acres of government
lands some of it piled up 10000 feet
ABOVE sea level" which beyond doubt
refers to the great inter-nountain re-
slon OF the west. and certainly he has
made the altitude of the broad acres"
nigh enough-we can but think that this
writer had in mind all the while the
vest that lies east Of the base of the
Rocky mountains and Mississinni riv-
ers. In eastern Montana. mart of the
Dakotas. western Nebraska and Kan
sas and eastern Colorado, the fortunes
OF the farmers have been hard during
the past few years. Men year after
year IN midsummer with anxious faces
watched for the pleasant rain to ma
lure the crops which in the sprinrtime
promised an abundant harvest. but the
rain did not come. Meantime the niti-
less scorch1ng sun and the blasting,
dry south wind shriveled up to dryness
corn and wheat and grass, until the
farmers hopes turned to despair and he
pulled up his stakes. abandoned his
ambition of owning a. home and a farm
Of his own. and went back East to
swell the number of increasing peasant
farmers in that section: or having
heard of the advantages of the South.
just awakening to a newness of life.
he went there and will spend his life in
a hard struggle to clear farm of a
heavy growth of timber, which by the
time it is cleared he will be worn out.
and the farm with that perversity
which makes nature so often return
to original types, forms and conditions,
is soon overgrown with wildwood, or,
its strength exhausted, grows I'D to
sage grass.
But we could tell the Post writer of
a better test than that which he had
in mind when he published his article
and rejoiced in the returning tide of
immigration to the South and the
East-our Table Land Empire, a part
Of Americas great West from which
there has not been and will not be any
returning tide Of immigration to the
East or South of people who have once
made their homes in it, True the
summers within that empire are as in
nocent of rain as the regions that oc-
cupy the eastern slopes of the Rocky
mountains; but the winter snow which
falls in abundance in the mountains,
reservoirs the moisture in the exhaust
less store house of their deep ravines,
to be gently loosened in crystal streams
by the summers sun, and made to take
the place of the rain of heaven by
means of irrigation systems and bless
the smiling valleys with bountiful
harvests. And while it is true that
the land most convenient to the
natural streams and therefore easiest
brought under irrigation has been
taken up, still there are untold millions
of acres of virgin lands waiting only
for the intelligent construction of
reservoirs and canals to make them the
fertile fields, rich gardens and fruitful
orchards of happy and prosperous
populace. 1t is folly to talk of the
landless West. Let the eastern CAPT.
talist seeking a field of investment for
his capital investigate the field of
reservoir and canal construction in
our intermountain West Let the
thrifty farmers Of the East ambitious
of cultivating fields that shall be their
own, and settle their sons about them.
look to our mountain valleys. There
are millions of acres of land here
wanting hands, just as there are in
the East millions of hands wanting
lands.
WAR FOR WARS SAKE.