Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-10-23

CITY. certain to enrich the owner, or at
least his children, by natural and newt
able Increase in value from the increas-
ing demand of a multiplying population.
Farm mortgages should be the most
sought for of all investments, and the in
terest should be reduced, by competition
Of lenders, to about half of what has
now to be paid. while the amount that
can easily be borrowed should be about
twice what it Is now. Every skillful farm
er, operating a property Of any reason
able dimensions, should not only be sure
Of a living but should be on the highway
to wealth, or at least have before him
every probability of acquiring very much
more than an ample competence for his
declining years.
Now consider, please, the equities Of the
matter. the rights and the wrongs. This
is no sort of a sectional plea, no setting
up of one part of the country or one
class of our people as entitled to any
kind of special favor from the govern
ment, a special protection from competi-
ton. Not a bit of IL: nothing like 1t. But
as a great deal has been said about fur
nishing homes for the homeless, and
great many birds seem to have been
caught with that char, let us notice just
here the fundamental principles involv-
ed. In the first place, a farm is primari-
~ a IaCIOTy, only liCluCHNaAAS cA0 ocS-
dentalIy a home; keep that distinction
very clearly and sharply in mind, pray
you. OF course, the owner may live on
the premises; so may the owner Of cot
ton mill But in every respect in which
the occupancy of new farms at the far
west affect the interests of the present
owners Of the property out Of which they
are carved. the people Of the United
States, each new farm is to be consid-
cred entirely as new factory, entering
directly into competition with those now
established. The irrigation scheme does
not at all differ in essential Characters
tics from plan of inveighing the govern
ment into building and equipping thous-
ands of new factories and giving them TO
any impecunious but enterpristng appli-
cants who might come along. Think what
our manufacturers now established in
business would say to a project like that!
It would be grossly iniquitous and mon
strous, as is of course evident, why is a
similar project any better If il is food
stuffs that are to be manufactured in
stead of cloth or buttons. and If it is the
farmers instead Of the mill owners of the
country that are to suffer?
Please notice. secondly, that the wild
lands are the property of the people, just
as much the property of the farmer in
the northeast corner of Maine or the
orange grower on the Florida peninsula
as of those who live around them.
According to the figures Of the National
Irrigation Association, about thirteen
fourteenths of all our population are east
of the arid region, and the plan of this
them is simply to deprive this enormous
majority of all their ownership in the
property referred to-property perfectly
certain to appreciate in selling value
enormously after a generation or two
that II may be used, directly and actively,
to the injury of the present owners in
the interest of what is called developing
the country and benefiting the mere hand
full of people in the newer regions. If
some Of our Western friends were owners
of valuable lots in Boston which they
preferred to keep vacant until a growing
demand should bring an increase in their
selling value. and the Bostonians living
around these lots should endeavor to
seize them. under color Of developing Bos-
ton and providing homes for the home
less, one can imagine the Indignation Of
the owners and the opinion they would
express of the shameless rapacity of the
plotters. Their own plan is precisely the
same. except for a difference in the 10
cation OF the coveted booty.
Permit me now to read to you what
think the best brief summary of the whole
business that has yet appeared pream-
BILE and resolutions adopted without dis
senting voice at the last annual meeting
Of the National Grange Of Patrons Of
Husbandry, at Lewiston, New, eleven
months ago. They run thus:
Whereas. the one great burden on the
farming interests in the perpetuation of
the superannuated policy Of the govern
ment in giving away its arabic lands to
anybody and everybody who VIII occupy
them. thereby constantly maintaining and
increasing a most unfair compel4e.on with
farmers already established. and divert
ing to the far West thousands Of men who
would naturally furnish the much needed