The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-16

be ample since in the one case, the
value of the donated land thus settled
would be least two-and half mill
less than one million. There are also
vast stretches of rich irrigable land
near our California and Colorado col
onies while the new irrigation projects
now on foot will make available i'm
mense regions with fertile soil and Sa-
luxurious climate suited in every sense
| to be converted into a veritable Poor
Mans Paradise
What a magnificent outlet is here
afforded for the lamentable congestion
of our great cities. How unspeakably
sad, nay, how incredible must it appear,
that in this great, rich, prosperous
our fellow citizens-men. women, and
| children-at least so per cent. of them
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. be ''cabinned.
| cribbed, confined in the unhealthy ten
ements of our cities, while there exist
at the very gateways of our civilization
these boundless prairies with their in
MIGRATING breezes.
No thinking person can view without
regret, mingled with apprehension, the
sorrows of cur suffering poor-needless
sufferings, / venture to say, in view of
the possibilities created by this irriga-
ton congress. The hunger-wail of
helpless children the secret tears of
sad-faced mothers, the sullen despair
of worthy but poverty-stricken fathers,
the coalless attic. the empty cupboard
! the scanty clothing, the comfortless
/ home, the grim. eternal, hopeless battle
with the wolf at the door-all these are
facts. not fancies. Verify the hunger
roars of the lion of poverty are already
heard in our midst. and it is well that
| we should give heed.
| Hitherto society has had little to offer
/ but the brand of pauperdom and the
| humiliation of the home as condition
| of its assistance. Domicide or the de-
| Sfr1Cfinn n ic nj
! the worst signs of modern civilization.
| Il have three brothers, said one of our
| Bowery boys adding with the mother
| wit which characterizes this class, but
only one is living, the other two are
marrse6Y'
| President Roosevelt spoke to the
heart of the nation when he pointed
out the dangers of race extinction and
the Importance of the family-the large
family-to the we'll being of the nation.
The pivot of true social reform appears
to me to turn upon the preservation,
and If necessary, the restoration of the
family unit. Destroy the home and you
destroy the nation. We must show the
poor man how he can afford to get
married and can bring up his family in
decency and comfort. and become a
| home owner. If this cannot be in the
city let us throw open to him our irri-
| gated lands and provide him with the
means for making a start. There is
no need to treat him as a nauper. We
can charge him with everv dollar that
we exDend upon him, and make him
pay reasonable interest into the bar
gain.
How much better would it be if the
| so to 100 million dollars now expended
annually in the relief of poverty in our
great cities could be devoted to the
placing of worthy families on these rich
! irrigated lands. Tax consumers would
become tax producers. Pauper depend
| ents on charity would be converted into
| affiuent homeowners. The $50, 000,0 900 an
| nually expended for charitable objects
would be turned into a rich investment
which would be amply secured and ul-
| timately repaid out of the profits from
| these irrigated lands. In ten years the
| money thus invested would amount to
| $500, 600, 900, which would suffice to locate
| 100000 souls, upon, say, 20,000.000 acres
| of irrigated land, which would produce
| to its owners an annual income of say
| $500. 900, while the value of the land
at $50 per acre-a moderate estimate for
| land so closely settled-would be no less
| than a billion dollars.
| What our American poor ask for is
not charity, but opportunity. Let this
congress then throw wide open before
our working classes that door of OPP
portunity. Let it place within the reach
| OF the landless man our manless lands,
| Let it speak with a voice which cannot
| be misunderstood, and let it thunder at
the doors of our national capitol and of
our state legislatures, till colonization is
made as much an imperative and prac-
| teal question of the hour as by it's bril-
liant and persistent efforts irrigation has
already become. The association of these
two powerful factors. irrigation and col
onization, in the welfare of our nation,
will be well-nigh irresistible. and with
these mighty levers this congress will
lift from the nation's pathway the dead
weight of poverty and congestion which
has INSTRUCTED our natural progress. Gre
ated internecine struggles between CAPT.
tai and labor, and threatened to ship
wreck our future prosperity.
You will have heard the story of the
eastern prince who gathered together
his tenants for the removal of an I'M
mense boulder which had long oDsJrucr
ed their main thoroughfare. They had
driven their wagons this side of the
rock and on the other. but none had
manifested the energy to remove it,
Finally with one united effort it was
rolled away, when lying beneath IT was
found great bag of gold. This" said
the prince, was intended to be the re-
ward of the tenant who, of his own ac-
cord, unaided and unssked. should re-
move the stone, but since all have ac-
complished the task which individual
/ enterprise has neglected the gold shall
be distributed among the many which
might have been the reward of onei"
Gentlemen. lying in the pathway of
our national advance is the rough rock
| of poverty. Beneath 1t lies the golden
| reward of industry to those who shall,