Gilpin observer., 1902-12-04

Rural free-deHvery service Is no
longer in the experimental stage 1t
has become fixed policy. The results
following its Introduction have fully
justified the Congress in the large APP
preparations made for its establish
ment and extension. The average
yearly increase in postoffice receipts In
the rural districts of the country is
about 2 per cent. We are now able,
by actual results, to show that where
rural free delivery service has been
established to such an extent as to
enable us to make comparisons the
yearly increase has been upward of
10 per cent.
On November L, 1902. 1850 rural
free delivery routes had been estab-
lished and were in operation. cover
ing about one-third of the territory
of the United States available for rural
free delivery service. There are now
awaiting the action of the department.
petitions and applications for the es-
tablishment of 1918 additional routes.
This shows conclusively the want
which the establishment of the service
has met and the need of further ex-
tending 1t as rapidly as possible. 1t Is
justified both by the financial results
and by the practical benefits to our /
rural population; it brings the men
who live on the soil into close rela-
tions with the active business world !
it keeps the farmer in daily touch with
the markets; it is a potential educa-
tional force; it enhances the value of
farm property makes farm life far
pleasanter and less isolated and will |
do much to check the undesirable cur
rent from country to city.
1t is to be hoped that the Congress
will make liberal appropriations for the
continuance of the service already es-
tablished and for its further extension.
E0D IDDJNArI0N ,At -lIr x.,ec-
Few subjects of more Importance
have been taken up by the Congress
in recent years than the Inauguration
of the system of nationally aided irri- !
cation for the arid regions of the far
west. A good beginning therein has
been made. Now that this policy of
national irrigation has been adopted,
the need of thorough and scientific for
est protection will grow more rapidly
than ever throughout the public land
states.
So far as they are available for ag-
riculture, and to whatever extent they
may be reclaimed under the national
irrigation law, the remaining public
lands should be held rigidly for the
home builder, the settler who lives
on his land. and for no one else. In
their actual use the desert-land law,
Communication clause of the homestead
law have been so perverted from the
intention with which they were enacted
as to permit the acquisition of large
areas of the public domain for other
than actual settlers and the consequent
prevention of settlement. Moreover,
the approaching exhaustion of the pub
lie ranges has of late led to much dis
cussion as to the best manner of using
these public lands in the west which
are suitable chiefly or only for gaaz-
ing. The sound and steady develop
ment of the west depends upon the
building up of homes therein. Much Of
our prosperity as a nation has been
due to the operation Of the home
stead law. On the other hand, we
should recognize the fact that in the
grazing region the man who corres-
ponds to the homesteader may be un-
able to settle permanently IL only al
lowed to use the same amount of pas
ture land that his brother, the home-
steader. is allowed to use of arabic
land One hundred and sixty acres of
fairly rich and well-watered SOIL or a
much smaller amount of irrigated
land, may keep family in plenty,
whereas no one could get a living from
| one hundred and sixty acres of dry
pasture land capable of supporting at
the outside only one head of cattle to
every ten acres. In the past great
tracts of the public domain have been
fenced in by persons having no title
thereto. in direct defiance of the law
forbidding the maintenance or con-
struction of any such unlawful incIos-
ure of public land. For various rea-
sons there has been little interference
with such Enclosures in the past, but
ample notice has now been given the
trespassers, and all the resources at
the command of the government will
hereafter be used to put stop to such
trespassng.
THE CARE OF INDIANS.
In dealing with the Indians our aim
should be their ultimate absorption In
to the body of our people. But in many
be very slow. In portions of the Ind
ian Territory the mixture of blood has
elne ON at the same time with prog=