Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-02-15
TO RECLAIM ARID LANDS.


Thomas F. Walsh. president of the
National Irrigation Association, pub
fishes the following letter in recent
issue of the Kansas City Times:
In assuming the duties of the Office
of president of the National Irrigation
Association 1 wish to extend greeting
20 all the members of the association
and to ask their cordial and hearty
support of our Efforts to achieve sue
cess for the great cause ia which the
association is enlisted
I have consented to act as preei-
dent of the association because am
profoundly impressed with the far
reaching national importance of the
objects of the association. IF carried
to full fruition they will transform
the vast arid region of our country
from desert waste into a populous
ard prosperous territory, and practic.
ally double our. national wealth and
productive capacity.
The problem is broadly national in
its scope and can be solved in no
other way than by the adoption of
the national policy advocated by our
association. The public domain is
the property of the whole people and
must be administered as truet for
their benefit, and not another acre of
it should ever be ceded to any state
or territory for any purpose or grant
ed away to anyone but an actual bona
inde settler or home builder on the
land, and then only in small farms.
The great reservoirs and irrigation
works necessary to bring the water
within reach of settlers must be built
by the national government.
The reclamation and settlement of
this great arid region would benefit
every section of our country and
every class of our citizens. Every
new farm or home in the west would
create new customer for our mer-
chants and manufacturers in the east
and when we can multiply these new
homes by millions, the magnitude OF
the problem brings it home to every
business man in the country, as a
matter of immediate individual inter i.
est and Importance.
We must not overlook the fac!
that the rural homes of the country
are the best assurances of the stability
of our government, aud that there
can be no truer patriotic purposes
than to multiply those homes and
promote their prosperity. AS Secre-
tary of Agriculture, Wilson has said,
they are Safeguards of the nation
The tendency Of our population to
con gregase in great cities is menace
to the perpetuity of our institutions,
and those who have the most at stake
in the preservation of social order
should grasp with strong hand and
solve the problem of turning the tide
of population back, to the land. The
surest and quickest way to begin this
is to open up attractive opportunities
for millions of home builders in the
west 80 as to open a natural outlet
for the relief of the pressure of owe,
population in our coDgested cities.
I believe there can be no higher
philanthrophy than this-giving, not
in aims or charitable aid, but oppor-
tunities to industrious men to go. out
upon the land and build homes and
become independent and self ststain'
ing producers.
1t has been mainly the isol alton of
country life which has driven 80 many
from country to city. Irrigation will
do more than anything else to remove
this isolation, because irrigation nee.
essarily brings intensive culture,
small farms, trees, flowers, beautiful
farm homes, good roads, free rural
mail delivery, near by neighbors,
schools, churches and an attractive
social environment. Whoever has
seen the irrigated colonies of Califor-
MIA or Colorado will appreciate this
better than it can be described.
It was this broad humanitarian