The Florence tribune., 1899-09-30
Federal Irrigation and Land Values.
From the Los Angeles Times.l

l
 The policy of national irrigation will neither cripple nor kill private enter prise in water development. It may be surprise to many to learn that tlere are thousands of acres of good land, under reliable water privileges, which are not under cultivation. The fact is used by eastern people to prove that at present no more land is needed, and promoters of water systems say it proves that those who have put out money to develop the country will be ruined when the government adopts a plan of national irrigation. Both are wrong The men who have devised these extensive systems of land te- elamaUon, who have done so much to open up the west, are not destined 10 lose their investments. The fact is. they mast simply adjust themselves to new conditions. If they look for an immediate sale of their lands at profit they will be disappointed {; but let the government step in, build water systems, throw open the land at small price, with adequate water rights, and the result will be that the land of the whole surrounding country will at once become more valuable No surer way can be found of inereas- ing the worth of any real property than to make the surrounding realty more valuable. The principle is re- cognized by every one in problems of i less magnitude, but as national plan the land promoters cannot see it that way, chiefly because they believe there is too much land in sight, which will be sold at small price. The principle must hold true, however, and the enormous scale of the undertaking will but make the result more sure, though longer, possibly, in fulfillment. If the government began work in earnest to reclaim it's arid lands, there 1 is no shadow of doubt but that on private lands, unsold yet, under 8, good water system, the prices would at once become firm, and in short time enormously increase. If com pany can carry it's holdings, far larger profit will ultimately be ereaiized than if an immediate sale could be ef- fected at the present prices.
 The fact that there is much aad under water systems still uneultivated 1 does not prove that more land is not desirable, is not needed. The land is not taken up because eastern families who woula like to come, who would make desirable settlers ifthey came, cannot afford to pay the cost of traes- poration, the price of the land. and the added burden of water right. Throw open the land without the water burden and & stampede will immedi- ately follow. How long would the middle west have been in settling up if the land had been he'd at prizes from $20 to $l00 per acre.
 The question also-has social as well as financial aspect. England was deep in labor troubies fifty years ago, when the United States was free from them. Why? Because, as Lord Macau- lay pointed out, this country was in no danger of social unrest, so long as we had undeyeloped lands easily ob- tainable. The very fact that social unrest is becoming widespread is abso- lute proof that we must expand our area of tillable land, open for home builders, not for spectators. And, the eastern cities, seats of social unrest, must and will see that it is for their interest to get their surplus population ''back to the land " The large amount of unsold land under water systems is one of the strongest proofs of the need of national irrigation, and the men most surely to be benefited are those
 who have previously opposed the national education upon irrigation
 problems, which is all that is neees- sary to turn the attention of the government to the task. If the work is carried along ou as broad and intelli- gent lines as we have had reason tc
 believe it wll be, opponents of the
 national oiaY, win soon he hard to find