The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-19
FORTUNATE
REPUBLIC
VIM. Smythe Compare Eng
land and America.
WEALTH OF GREAT WEST
What Irrigation Will Do for
the Future.
For the agile:

For the Eagle:
The rising issue in English politics is
the question Of preferential tariffs for
the Colonies-the question Of protecting
the products OF the empire against the
competition of the products of the world.
1t is an issue that viii shake Great
Britain from center to circumference, for
it proposes the abandonment of the eco
nomic policy which has stood practical
IL unchaIienged for half a century and
under which the doors Of the British
market have remained wide open TO all
nations.
And what is the object of the proposed
revolutionary change? In a word, the
preservation and enhancement of the
prosperity of the British empire. To be
more specific, the aim is TO develop a
wide and growing market in the colonies
for the output of English industries and
to hold the forty million consumers OF
Great Britain as a home market for CO.
loniaI agricultural products.
The fact is that England is hard hit
by the enormous commercial expansion
of the United States. We are selling ouI
manufactured goods to its own people in
the very shadow Of its factories. We
are furnishing the bread and meat to
feed fits subjects. We are selling all sorts
OF ingenious machinery. including agri-
cultural implements. to its colonial sub
jects-yes. and building their bridges, sup
plying their locomotives and installing
their electrical plants We are rapidly
making the British empire a sort of com
mercial provincea dumping ground for
the surplus product of our farms, our
mines and our factories.
So ominous has this situation become
that Joseph Chamberlain, shrewdest OF
English statesmen, is willing to stake
his power and fame upon the startling
proposition to abandon free trade and
adopt protection as the only possible
means of saving his country from a con-
dition of economic dependence which il
his opinion, has already become danger
Gus and may soon become aject-
WHAT IT MEANS TO AMERICA.
In the meantime Americans have some
thing TO think of. They may well in
dulge in a moment Of pride at the
little more than century ago, snatched
up the sword to cut themselves loose
from Great Britain, have so soon van
quished the mother country on the eco
nomic field. But pride gOeth before a
fall" If a market which now absorbs
forty per cent of our export trade shall
be closed against US, where and how are
we TO make good so vast a deficit?
That is a question which may only be
answered when we understand the true
explanation of our success and of our
strength.
The economic greatness of the United
States is the fruit of a policy of peace
full conquest over the resources of a
virgin, continent Without this great
Item of raw material, the finished product
which the world acknowledges in the in
dustrial America of today would have
been impossible
We shall find continued national SUI
premacy where We found it in the first
place-in the development of our own
boundless and magnificent resources
Those who say that the conquest of this
continent lis now complete" speak idly
or know not whereof they speak. The
conquest of this continent is but be-
gun.
GREAT WEST ALMOST UNTOUCHED
II ENGLAND has its Canada, It's South
Africa and its Australasia to which II
now looks ito pluck the flower, safety
from the nettle. danger"-we have oul
Colorado. Wyoming and Montana, oul
Utah. Idaho and Nevada, our Washing
ton. Oregon and California, our New
Mexico. Arizona and Oklahomain ali, sew
enteen states and territories with VIII CT
20 hold level, and more than Level, tbs
far-hung dependencies of the British en-
pire.
And those undeveloped lands Of our:
are not divided by the seven seas. bu
stand side by side. shoulder TO shoulder
their citizens clasping hands across Dor
ders that are only imaginary. Here i:
a market for the output of our shop:
and factories potentially greater tina,
Great Britain and all its colonies viii
their present population. Here is an EN-
pire'' which already enjoys unrestricted
free trade within itself, accompanied b
preferential tariffs" against the world
The population of one hundred million
might live in prosperous cOntentment &
the far west There Is every hing {
inspire and reward their industry-th'
charm OF climate and Of scenry, the fer
tility Of the soil. the unimaginable wealth
Of water. forest and mine. and. across
the Pacific. new worlds to conquer.
But the United States may not res
upon its honors and retain its supremacy
It must keep on with its historic polio,
OF civilization. II must continue tha
marvellous reciprocal process by whicl
It has so rapidly risen to INN asCrabl
heights Of economic power-the maxim:
OF new communities TO feed the old. IN,
enlargement of old communities TO fee,
the new
The greatest step vet taken TO thh
end is the adoption OF the plan OF ma
tional irrigation. Il Is new policy. no
yet advanced beyond the experimental
stage. But those who know most abau
it believe # is a policy big with nationa
fate.
LAND sPECULATTNG AND STEALING
MUST BE STOPPED.
There is one condition alone upon whicl
It can possibly succeed. That IS that i
shall be used TO create independent homes
for the largest possible number Of human
beings. And this result IS. IN turn de
pendent on something else-that the IA
ton shall retain the ownership Of il
present domain until the genuine home
seeker. home-owner and home builder
ready 10 come into his heritage.
Existing land laws are ili-suited Z