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

has caused the failure OF not a rev eA-
cellent and thoroughly practicable 1rr1-
| cation schemes. The reason for this
is not far to seek. A canal which VIII
irrigate say 100000 acres of land is
necessarily costly enterprise. The
interest and upkeep can easily be met
if the whole tract be quickly occupied
But if small portion only be settled
either the. colonists will be disheart-
/ ened and driven away by the heavy
i charges made in the effort to meet ex-
penses and pay dividends. or the in
vestors will become discouraged at the
1 long delay and nonreceipt of fair re-
turn for their investment. In either
case the enterprise will be killed in its
initial stage.
Scientific colonization can secure the
rapid and immediate enjoyment of the
fruits of irrigation. Each is a necessity
/ to the other. An ill-digested and hap
if not ruin, colonization. Similarly an
unsystematic plan of colonization will
retard (as it has already done) and fire.
quentlJ ruin the best laid and most
feasible plans for irrigation.
/ Scientific colonization will not wait
for the farmer with capital any more
than manufacture will wait for the Ia
! bOrer with capital. Imagine the cap
tain of industry who would employ no
laborer who did not possess a few
thousand dollars! And yet this is the
course which colonization has pursued
The most that the capitalist or land
/ owner. or irriSationist has been willing
to do in the past has been to bring the
water to the land, and accept time pay
ments for the latter from the settler.
Further than this thew have been IN
willing to venture. And hence the colo
nizatiOn of irrigated lands has been al
most entirely limited 20 farmers posses
sin" ca0ital 1at
This has had several serious disad-
vantages.
l. Irrigation lends itself much more
readily to the small intensive farm
than to the large ranch from which
such settlers usually come.
3. The small farmer who is not too
high-toned to cultivate the land him
self will succeed where the gentle
man" farmer who employs hired labor
and sends his children to college will
fail, even though the latter may con-
troll ten times as much land as the for
mer, and possess few thousand dol
lars. Give the former a chance select
him with care. and back him with say
5000 cash for start, and he will sue
ceed better than the latter every time
With ample funds for irrigation now
IN sight. and with some of our BRAIN
lest engineers working out extensive
plans. what our arid west" calls for
is not the nonresident gentleman farm
er with his staff of cowboys, but the
resident tewnty-acre horny-handed son
of the soil, who does not consider it
beneath his own or his children's dig
nifty to drive the plow milk the cow
and earn an honest living by his sweat
of brain and brow. The old-time gov
ernor of Virginia was right when he
told King George that he would rather
nave a dozen such than a shipload of
the ladies and gentlemen whom the
latter was proposing to send out.
But granted that such settlers are de-
sirable, why should there be any diff
Guilty about obtaining them? For the
simple reason that they have no capital
and cannot move themselves
That there are millions of them. pre-
pared to move at q few hours notice
from all quarters of. this and other
lands in just such numbers as may be
desired, cannot be denied The talk
about their un~illingness to leave the
cities or go back to the land, is pure
und1luted moonshine. The simple fact
IS that those who wish to be moved.
and who would make the most desira-
bic colOnists, are blessed with large
families, are often hampeIed with debt,
and are unable to move without f1nan-
cial assistance. Who will pay their
travelling, buy their livestock, fix up
their cottages, and trust them with
land? The farmer, like the manufac-
turer, wants the single man, or woman,
and they must be young at thatl
Into my office there walked a few
days ago a New York banker, escort
ing splendid specimen of physical
manhood typical farmer, hale, hearty,
manly. His wife was with him-every
inch a farmers wife. He held excellent
New York and other prominent gentle
men on whose estates he had worked.
But with a family of eight children he
had been unable to more than barely
pay his way. He had no wish for the
city. But his large family made him
undesirable to the farmer, and he had
no capital with which to give himself
a start. We made immediate arrange
ments to settle him on one of our col
Onies- This is but a typical case among
tens of thousands. Not only do our
cities abound with them, but multi
tudes of them may be found in our best
agricultural districts. Why do our land
agents pass over these 1aborers in favor
of the farmer who has to sell his land
in order to move? Not because the lat
ter would make a better colonist, but
because he has cash. while the former
would require assistance.
Now scientific colonization uses the
worthy family that has no cash 1t
says ins brief, place this waste labor
upon the waste land by means of waste
capital, and thereby convert this trim
ity of waste into a unity production. -
1t has been argued on the other hand
that, first they would not go, second
they would not stay, third they would