Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-06-18

manufacturer, every merchant, every
business man throughout the land is
most deeply interested in maintaining
the growth and development of our
agricultural resources.
In the past we have been in the
habit of feeling that Uncle Sam was
rich enough to give us all a farm but
today, as I said before, the arabic land
suitable for agriculture, without an
artificial supply of moisture. is prac-
tically all occupied.
In a few limited communities of the
west irrigation has been commenced by
what may be called Individual Eff
fort" Owing to diverse laws, made
to suit particular interests, the irriga-
ton of large areas is attended by
greater difficulties than can be well
su1mounted by individual effort. The
policy of a broad. comprehensive. ma
tional plan of irrigation has been
urged upon congress with but little
success in the past. However, an en-
terprise of such magnitude and i'm
portance to the nation as a whole.
which Importance will grow as our
population grows, cannot be turned
aside or lost sight of, for the reason
that every citizen of every state in the
union is deeply and vitality interested
in the question. President Roosevelt,
who has spent some, of his time in the
semi-arid regions of the west, has taken
an active interest in this subject, and
if his efforts, and of others who are
working for the same end, result in sue
cess. future generations will rejoice in
the memory of this work, while they
build for themselves comfortable homes
in the thousand valleys covering that
portion of the country which is now
given UP as grazing ranches for cattle
and sheep. With proper irrigation
these valleys will furnish homes for
Intelligent and industrious people, and
the number of cattle and sheep raised
on the land will increase many fold.
For the first time in the history of
this country thousands of our farmers
from states like Iowa, Kansas, Mis-
souri,. Michigan, Wisconsin and Mime
sofa r seeking homes in the Cana
dian Northwest, owing to the cheap
lands offered in that country and to The
difficulty of securing such lands in the
United States. A wise system of irri-
cation by the general government can
be made not only self-sustaining but a
source of income. Lands that without
irrigation are given away or sold at a
nominal price. can be sold as fast as
they are furnished with water ait $40
an acre or upwards, and the cost would
be little, if anything, more than half
that sum.
I cannot urge too strongly on the
part of every. man who wishes his
country well. and who desires that all
shall be prosperous, in order that he
himself may be prosperous with them,
the Importance and the growing neces-
sity of taking care of our public do
main in such a way as to preserve it
for generations now unborn.
l feel sure that no one here tonight
ever expected to see the time when
farmers and farmers sons from the
best states of the west would be forced
to leave their country and their flag
to seek homes in a foreign country.
The United States has many social
questions to settle in the near future.
and nothing in this connection will
take the place Of it's ability to provide
good homes for those who desire to sit
under their own vine and fig tree.
Land without population is a wilder
ness, and population without land is a
mob.
Considering the question from a
broad national standpoint, the next in;
terest in Importance to agriculture is
the railway interest of the country,
The entire railway growth is within
the memory of men living. Twenty
five years ago it al not supposed pos
sible that railways would ever be abb: