Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-08-23

YOU to support them here, there and
everywhere. and tell you what they are
going to do for you, you hold them up
to that one point and tell them that
that is what you want.
How were the western states i'm
proved? The people from the east, the
| adventurous young men, came out and
peopled the country west of the Ale
| ghanies. When l came here st. Paul
was far enough west-it was the
| jumping off" place. Eighteen months
or two years before they had made a
treaty to cede the lands on the other
| side of the river 1t wa then Indian
land. In 1854 that treaty vas made.
I came here in 1856, and l have seen
the country grow. l am glad to have
been able to help it to grow in some
directions.
But your growth will be more in
| the direction of the development of
your agriculture than in that of all
others combined; because, in the first
| place. you can get more people to go
| onto the land than you can to go any
where else. And without people on
| the land you will have no nation. Re-
member that a nation without land
| would be a mob however big it is, and
all the most fertile land in the world
would be a wilderness if it had not peo-
pie on it. You have both.
"You people west of the river may
hope for the development of your min
| eral resources. I hope you will sue
| coed. 1 think it will be slow. Gold
and silver and copper will bear trans
p%ortation when you find them. They
are not so easy to find. There are a
great many prospect holes. Last week
I Travelled through the mountains in
western states and 1 saw no end Of
prospect holes. I thought every one
of them was a grave of some mans
hope! So much money and so much
effort have been poured out seeking
for the precious metals! And that
will go On, but there is a limit to the
development Of any country on those
lines.
"You will not succeed as manufac-
turing states for a long, long time to
come. Then build up your agricul-
ture. Take the question up intelli-
gently, without bad temper. and work
together. Looking to the development
Of your agricultural interests you will
get more money out of the ground year
by year IN IA good farm than you will
in a poor mine. Once the metal is
taken out Of the mine, removed, it is
there no longer. But your farm, well
cultivated, is a continuing mine for
ever!
And from a natural standpoint
while many of you gentlemen are en-
gagged in business. l ask you to STOP
and think if there has ever been a time
III the history of this country when its
great agricultural interests were not
the backbone and s~heet-anchor of the
1 #E
nation. They respond to every call,
They are orderly men, ready to. do
their duty as citizens; men who do not
stand round the street corners waiting
for somebody to give them two dollars
for their vote, and willing to take one
if they cannot get two. but men who
will take their team and their neigh
bors and drive six or eight miles to the
polling place and cast their vote as cit
liens. They mean to do right. Help
them to do right.
THE country west of the Mississippi
has grown up, you may say, since the
civil war. 1t is an imperial empire,
but the portion of it susceptible to, Gull
tivation without supply Of water,
. which must be furnished by irrigation,
is small. The best chances are taken,
the best opportunities have passed.
) and now you must depend upon the
general government, and if the genera
, government will spend a small por.
ton of the money that has been spen1
in lathing and plastering the bottoms
3 of rivers that never were and never
f will be navigable. it will create a funt
to irrigate all the land. l know many
areas where it will cost from five to ST,
dollars an acre to put water on it.
will be glad to take the land off thei]
hands at $12, and will put settlers o.
it at from S15 to $40, and the man VIII
buys it at SIS or $50 will make NOR
money than a man on any farm cas-
: of the river.
oil IF the government will spend this
: $6, or $40, if you like, and can get 81;
t or $50, a million acres that will cos
t them ten million dollars will brin,
them fifteen Or twenty million dollars
: they will very soon have a fund tina
will go on and require no further ap
preparation. The people will do /
themselves for the land is well wortl