The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-07
LANDSOF THE NATION
SHOULD Be
SAVED
Congress Is Asked to Call a
Halt on the Wholesale Dis
position of Western Gov
eminent Thanksgiving to
Secure the Repeal of Laws.
BY William E. Smythe, author
"CnnnnnCt of rid M n,inn

By William E. Smythe, author of
Conquest of Arid America
The operations of the land laws of
the United States have been in the
main beneficient. The dominant idea
in public land administration that
homemakers would be given a part of
Uncle Sans vast public domain has
caused the westward movement of the
sturdy sons of our New England and
Eastern farmers and has attracted
other thousands of the better class of
European emigrants. The result has
been a great homemaking movement
which has civilized and settled the
Mississippi valley and the states to
the westward in an incomparably short
period But the land laws which have
made possible this great movement
have likewise benefited the land specu-
lator, and in soma sections, under
their loose administl alton, great areas
have been wrongfaly and fraudu-
lently acquired and to the great detri-
ment of the country. The desert land
law is responsible for the greatest of
the land frauds.
Every Land Law Abused.
1t would be erroneous to suppose,
however, that all the stealing of the
pubic lands has been accomplished
under this law. On the contrary, there
is not land law on the statute books
=
or less extent. Even the beneficient
homestead law-of glorious tradition
mas frequently been made an instrI-
ment Of injustice and a plaything of
speculation by means of its notorious
communication clause" Both have
been mfsapplied by greedy and dishon-
est men who have looked upon the
public property as means of private
speculation.
But the desert land law is singular
IN th1S-that there never was even the
shadow of an excuse for it's existence
from the standpoint of the homeseeker.
II has been a hypocritical pretence of
benefit to the homeseeking public.
when it could not possibly be used for
such a purpose in the vast majority of
instances.
Great Lesson We Have Learned.
From our years of experience with
the desert land law, and with other
enactments made in connection with
the public domain, the American peo-
pie should learn one lesson and write
1t In luminous letters upon their
hearts. That lesson is this:
Inc government should not offer one
single acre for settlement until it has
peen made mt for settlement. The arid
land cannot be fit for settlement until
water has been made available for its ir-
What social tragedies have followed
What precious years have been vast
ed by whole families and entire com
munities! What beautiful homes have
peen pullded IN hope, to be abandoned
an despair! What seeds have been
planted, only to wither and die-seeds
not merely of fields and orchards, but
OF institutions as WE'LL joaquin Miller
once told me the whole story in a
single explosive and dramatic sentence
when he exclaimed:
And America! My God, we have
Watered it with our tears!"
A Misfortune All Around.
Our arid land legislation has not
onIy been such as to do injustice to
Inc homeseeker, but such as to bring
little or no advantage, in the end, to
those who have sought to use these
iands as means of exploiting the
homeseeker. How many of the spec-
ulative irrigation enterprises have
made profits to those who actually
invested the capital? A distinction
should be drawn between the promoter
and the real investor. Sometimes the
former has made money, but it is sell
dom that the latter has done so. This
as not because the desert land law and
the communication clause of the home
stead law do not offer every opptorun-
lty Tor abuse. 1t is due rather to the
Iact, save in exceptional instances. the
reclamation of new countries is inher-
entIy an improbable investment for
private capital. The enterprise is SIR
rounded by too many unknown factors.
the settlement of the lands is seldom
to be controlled with any certainty:
too long time is required to get the
country established on a dividend nav
Ing basis. All this has been proven
over and over again in the expert
ence of nearly every state and Terri
tory in the West.
Government Irrigation VIII Succeed.
But these facts do not constitute an