Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-03

RN TINE past, readers of The Journal,
thoughtless or ill-informed, have been
disposed to dismiss lightly my firm
contention that the government had
lands. redeemable by irrigation, that
would be ample for the separation and es-
Enlistment Of a negro state.
Every year brings more completely the
indication Of the idea which 1 have ar
gued for ten years.
The great west is entering upon an era
Of irrigation and reclamation.
Three years ago the Associated Press
reported that the expert photographer of
| the Interior Department at Washington
had returned from a careful and elaborate
| survey of the wild lands Of the west with
the official statement that there We're
within the scientific possibility of irriga-
ton and redemption. some 15O,OOOOOO acres
| of land capable of supporting a popula-
| ton of over 100000 people yE
! The strenuous President OF the United
States, filed with experience and sym
patty with these western possibilities and
| conditions, has given nearly full column
| of his first remarkable message to the ex-
PLANTATION and advocacy of irrigation for
the purpose of making valuable many OF
! the sections Of the west owned by private
citizens, and for the greater purpose OF
! redeeming to government use, vast tracts
| Of land. now useless, that could be made
! by irrigation, fertile productive ana de-
! sirable in every way.
| Tae people of the west, catching hope
| from the inspiration of this new and Nigh
| ty influence, are organizing everywhere,
and pressing the splendid possibility to It's
limit
Eloouent and enthusiastic meetings
have recently been held in Chicago, in st.
Paul, in Fargo, North Dakota, in Oma-
! Ia in Sioux City, in Kansas City, and
| in Denver, and the firm and hearty sup
| port of the chamber of commerce, board
| of trade and commercial bodies OF these
great and thriving centers has been
pledged to active and earnest influence
upon national legislation to further the &C
| complishment of these vast and benihcent
| designs.
The industrial commission at Washing
| ton has passed a strong memorial TO con-
gress along the same line.
The st. Paul papers make a conserVa-
| tive estimate that some 80, 600 acres can
be redeemed in the Dakotas and in the
| territory contributing TO the twin cities
| of the northwest
The Omaha, st. Joe and Kansas City pa
pers see the possibility of 100000 more
acres that win pay tribute to those great
In Denver, Fort Worth and Salt Lake,
the estimate calls for some 15OOOOOOO
| more.
Here in Colorado, the press and the peo-
pie laugh at the experimental doubt ex-
pressed in the cities further east.
| Here in Colorado irrigation and re-
clamation are established and benificent
| facts. written upon the smiling surface
! of thousands of acres once barren and
| cherries, but laughing now with a fairness
and abundance that give them actually
higher money value than any productive
| lands in these United States. Lands
| around Eaton and Greeley and LaSalle,
are selling now at S1O0 an acre and upward
higher by far than the magnificent corn
lands of Missouri and Illinois.
And the farmers of this section are act
! ually able to laugh at the vagaries OF the
seasons, and with tranquil confidence in
| their little, almost hidden trenches, TO
| count their crops as surely and as pros
| perously as the COOLERS Of Georgia, or
| as the long staple cotton Of the Atlantic
| islands
The triumph Of irrigation will make a
new and greater America, and the addi-
| ton to the wealth and resources or the
| country resulting from its ultimate and
certain future will be beyond estimate.
The fast coming of this new issue into
| triumphant life of the west makes the
| opportunity that 1 have preached for
years for the solution of our great, un-
solved and otherwise unsolvable problem
| of the south.
/ am not going to reargue that question
| here and now. But l cannot forbear to
jubilate over the vindication of prophecy
that has been so freely Knocked on the
lips of the unthinking. have not claimed
| and do not claim any wisdom above the
mass of my fellows here. But have set
my faith and my prophecy in all these
great matters upon the ultimate beneh-
cence Of Nature and the providence OF
God. The compensations of nature are at
I . I'D r1a1f o he
last imminent factor in the destiny Of
nations.
| / have never yet known a necessity In
| nature, in law or in economics which at
| fected vitality the human race for which
Nature and God did not, in due time, fur
| nish the opportunity and the way to meet
It, The Almighty has pulsed the semi
! tropics with the acids, the turpentine
| and the fever-cooling fruits that are the
best balm for all their ills, just as he has
/ underlaid these wind-swept and frozen
! plains Of Montana and the Dakotas with
| the exhaustless strata of Ignite coal to
meet forever the arctic necessities of the
| cline.
And the same Providence that marks the
| sparrows fall will provide the way for
the race to meet it's moral dangers and it's
human duties If we will only follow in the
| way Il opens wide.
1 say it with reverence and in grateful
| humility that, basing all my judgment
on this great law of compensation, both
in nature and in Providence, that few of
my prophecies in public affairs have gone
astray within this decade of great events.
I trust this apparent but really nom
| existent egotism will simply prove that
| am an old-fashioned Presbyterian, resting
now and forever on the sovereignty and
| goodness of God. And 1t has never enter
ed into my mind to ask for any ''revis-
| ion" on thatl
But some of my iippant friends had bet
ter get into the band wagon with me now
/ on some of these great questions that are
| coming on, or they will be likely to be
| left in the procession of events.
And this sounds more like Sam Jones
! than the Presbyterian church.
But there are many things In which
Sam Jones and the Presbyterian church
are not so far apart. and there are times
| when II Is good TO be like both.
! Here at Colorado Springs, looking out
upon the glories of Pixies Peak with
| it's eternal court of snow and inhaling a
climate that has no superior in the uni
verse, my thoughts turn to poor Tom
Cobb who breathed out here his brilliant
and aspiring life in the brave but fruit
less search for health.
There are few careers whose untimely
| ending have carried me more into the
| shadows than this He had brains he had