Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-10-01
HALE ON IRRIGATION
FAMOUS AUTHOR, PREACHER AND
PHILANTHRoPIsT WAS AN
EARLY CONVERT.
William e. smythe Tells of Boston
Mans Ideas on Irrigation and Then
Gives Some Points as He Sees Them
An Interesting Letter.

An Interesting Letter.
Washington, d. c., Sept. 26.-One OF
the earliest converts to the national
men of the east, was Edward Everett
hale, the famous Boston author, di-
vine and philanthropist.
To one of the early missionaries of
the movement, DR.. Hale explained that
the first public work he ever engaged
in was the promotion of emigration
to Kansas to preserve the equilibrium
of the free and slave states. He add
ed: Now am for this great move
ment of yours because | have come
to the conclusion that freedom for
white men is just as important as free
dom for blacks
BY that striking remark the great
Bostonian showed that he appreciat-
ed the vast social and economic sig
nifcance of the plan which looks to
the reclamation of our neglected en-
pire in the west and the making of
homes for millions of people. Some
of the issues which are now rising in
connection with this undertaking do
actually involve the problem of CIV
ing freedom, as opposed to servitude
to white men. DIR. Hale saw that this
was so after a very brief consideration
of the matter and it would be well il
all his countrymen could appreciate
the fact as clearly.
To begin with there is the question
as to whether the future settlers of
the great arid region shall be able
to obtain his heritage-his share of
the public domain-at the government
price, or whether he will be compelled
to pay tribute to the enterprising spec
ulator who has forestalled him. I'm
der existing laws it is possible for
land to be acquired in large amounts
by those who have no intention what
ever of making home upon it, Not
only is it possible" but the thing is
being done by wholesale at the pres
ent time. The entire assets of many
land and water scheme in the west,
on which bonds are issued and sold
in the east and abroad, is fertile soil
recently carved out of the public do
main with one of the two instruments
which our national statutes provide
the desert land law and the commu-
i tation clause of the homestead law.
1t is not treating a white man ex-
actly right to steal his property (for
that is what it amounts too and then
sell it back to him at ten times what
you paid for it, is it? But that is
only one aspect of the matter
Cattle or Children.
Much of the land which is being
wrongfully taken by spectators viii
be held for the raising of cattle, when
it is needed for the raising of chill
dren; and thus many people will re
main homeless who might otherwise
be free and independent landed pro
prietors. Then, too, much of this i'll
gotten soil will go to form large pri
yate estates which will be cultivated
with servile labor or rented to tenants
who must share their product will
the owner. Current statistics SHOW
that tenant farmers have increased il
the United States from 20 to So pei
cent during the last ten years. Ism
it about time to start a tendency il
the other direction and have the mum
Der Of land owning farmers increas'
instead of decrease? The surest wa!
to do it is to save the lands we nov
own; then open them to settlement
after they have been irrigated by ma
tional enterprise.
When these bad land laws are re
pealed and the statutes made sucl
that only the genuine homeseeker ca
take up land, and he upon the sol
condition that he will build his HON
there and raise crops, the thing vii
be done chiefly by the influence ~
the populous states east of the Mis-
..a- u, TO, Nae,
a, understand.
Property of Value.
The enterprising citizens of tn
far west know the value of this pull
lie property. They are convenient
situated to file upon it under tn
present laws. They are inclined
believe that the pioneers of ne'
country are fairly entitled to enric
themselves from the great fund {
unused natural wealth which lies abol
them on every hand. Hence they al
not, to put it mildly, wildly enthusiast
tic over the proposition to change th
laws. ~
In the east and in the south tn
other side of the shield is presente
to view. There live the people VIII
need the land for homes for themsel
es and their children and who,
time, will desire to claim their shal
of it and to use it in good faith I'll
same impulse of self interest whie
makes one section opposed or indi
ferent renders the other section favo
able to the proposition to reserve til
peoples lands for those to whom the
rightfully belong.
Another feature Of the national irl
cation cause which interested DR.. Ha
was the plan of having the ownersh
OF water go with the land. He rea
lily saw that if it were otherwise fire
dom of white men," in the full &c
nomic sense of the term, would be {
empty dream. In land where ar
fetal moisture must be applied
raise crops the man who owns Il
water practically owns the land.
Roosevelt's Words.