The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-08-06
PURELY DEMOCRATIC NOTION.
How DR.. Free Would Remedy Some
Existing Evils.

Under the caption of Government
Aid for Irrigation in the West" the
following communication from DR..
James E. Free Of this city recently
appeared in the Chicago Public:
The arid west is beginning to Won
der about how soon it a reasonably
expect to receive the farmers bonus
WHICH the republican platform favor
ed in 1900. OF course, while the war
in the Philippines was hanging ire,
and the supreme court was known to
have the constitution up a stump, the
west sat like patience on a monument
But everything has cooled off nicely
Mckinley can once more sleep the
sleep of the righteous, and the west
is getting as FESTIVE as a bronco that
has not bucked for quite a spell. 1t
cannot be that the grand old party
contemplates a bunco gam with the
people of the Rocky mountains. They
have recovered their equanimity, n
in the language of Shakespeare do not
give a yellow dog if the white metal
was turned upside down.
Farming cannot be benefited by
anything in this part of the world
which does not increase the acreage
under cultivation, the number OF
bushels to the acre, and also supplies
a market. The present tariff will not
do all these things, and there are
some wool growers who have even
lost faith in it's efficacy, since the bot
tom has dropped out of the wool mar
ket. Idle men are rapidly increas-
ing, building operations are at a stand
still and some people are blaming the
labor unions for demanding an eight
hour day. Are these the premonitory
symptoms Of a cloudburst Of colonial
expansion prosperity? or only indica-
tive of a spell of baa weather?
Some men handle any question
! which concerns labOring men very gin
gerly. 1t would be a shock to their
regulations to be called socialists,
Others are so much interested in the
welfare of the kind Of people Abra,
ham Lincoln said were so numerous
Il that the charge has no more effect
than a Spanish broadside on an Amer
battleship. A lie is it's own worst en-
envy. If it is driven to cover 1t com
mits compulsory suicide.
Government ownership of irrigation
is wanted, because no other method
of supplying water to the thirsty sol
can handle it at cost.
Every home builder who adds al
improved ranch to the property valu
alton of a western state has increased
the demand for the products OF do
nestle factories. Such homemade ex
pansion works both ways. There, is {
good time coming in the near future
!. when an imaginary line cannot sepa
rate Yankees who live on either s1dt
of it. Neighbors with common inter
ests are bound to get together.
The agricultural future of the arit
, west depends, after irrigation, on tn
South American market. An isthmial
i canal will be favored by the west, TO
a reason Of its own. We want FREE
trade with South America. Then tn
fortified canal is wanted by h AT
lantic coast as it's highway to the Or
ent. ga better subsidy to American
! shipping could not spring full robe'
: from the brain Of the republican ele
, plant than free transportation t
, American bottoms across the isthmus
! But unless the waterway is Gu 9
: once by popular subscription there
a chance for serious trouble with Ell
rope.
Make no mistake, Europe is afte
that canal h~ot-footed. n Dioo'
in her. eye, and threatens to take Tn
implied powers out of the Monroe doc
trine in a square stand up fight to
finish. War Is not pleasant to cor
template. Sherman-an expert on tn
subiect-declared 1t VAS hell. Europ
) cannot be prevented from going =
hell II she chooses, but 1t would D
ven to remember the inscriptio1