The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1904-09-30

so many OF our people are nlasSllS LII
cities, that in cities rents are going high
er, and hence people are living iii fewer
rooms or smaller ones, and that the at
tendant and consequent evils, moral, ply
steal, industrial. Intellectual and national,
are seen on every hand. We are to-day
passing through a period of prosperity in
the United States without parallel In
the worlds history. Judging from the
history of all nations, this may not con-
tinue indefinitely. Our leaders must know
that, they have to do, not with supine
men who have been trained to submits
sive obedience-a people who stand ready
to shut their eyes, open their mouths and
take whatever is given and be contented
Herewith. Adversely will bring commo-
ton in our cities as cold %engenders
hail"
Remedy in Irrigated Farms.
In contemplating the dangers Of the
future that may come to this republic,
the wise citizen should reach out and
seize whatever remedy may be within
his reach and apply it SO that all the
years to come may be free from fear and
disturbing forces such as are always at
work in every nation. That remedy ap-
pears to be, to put the balance of our
population back on the land and keep it
there. There seems to be no other rem
edy. The man who has his home upon
mother earth, the mar who draws his
living straight from natures granary, the
man who is free from all the uncertain
ties of a wage earner's employment. the
man who gathers his wife and children
around his own hearthstone and gets his
living by his own la Dor from his own
land, is the anchorage of this country. 1t
behOOves our statesmen to rise to the
occasion m Undue the American people
with a patriotic determination to turn
the balance Of our population back to
the land and plant it there with homes
that no social upheaval can ever disturb.
This will safeguard this nation for all
years to come.
All Can Have Homes.
The nation has land for every man
who will make his home upon it in good
faith-who will break the sod, plant
crops, build a house and settle down to
support his family from the soil, but the
nation has no land-at least, it ought to
have none-for the man who merely
seeks to forestal the actual settler and
sell out to him at a profit, or become a
landlord, collecting income from his ten
ant.
Land monopoly robs men OF a large
portion of the products Of their labor. 1t
nullifes the spirit Of constitutional guar
antees which seeks to give assurance OF
political freedom. No man is free in
the true sense of the term who is be-
holden to another for the means of his
existence, and land monopoly makes
rebels instead OF patriots. In the case OF
Ireland it drove more than half the popu-
lation away from its native soil. 1t filled
their hearts with bitterness and even
sent some OF her children into the ranks
Of England's enemies in the hour of her
great trouble.
Will Help the East.
The subjugation and settlement Of the
great empire Of public lands means that
every factory wheel in the United States
must whirl faster, that every banking
house must handle more money, and that
every railroad must transport more pas
sengers and freight. This, in turn, means
a large and buster population in every
eastern and southern town, and that of
course will quicken and enlarge the de-
mand for all the products of the soil in
the older sections of the country. In the
meantime that which is grown from the
soil, to be conquered by irrigation in the
West, will go almost exclusively to the
feeding of new home markets to be erect
ed within the arid region itself and to
the satisfying Of unlimited demands in
the Orient and in the frozen north.
Limitless Oriental Trade.
Visible increase in American tonnage
in trade between the Asiatic East and
the Pacific coast is beyond the concep-
ton Of the ordinary citizen. This trans
portation issue concerns the merchant,
the manufacturer and the mechanic of
the Atlantic States, the Middle States
and the far West as well as the Pacific
coast. These merchants, manufacturers
and mechanics have the same interest in
the Asiatic trade that they have in the
irrigation development OF our arid and
semi-arid land. The larger that trade,
the greater the demand for the industrial
products Of the vast region east OF the
Rocky mountains, the greater the eff
cheney Of trans-Paci6c transportations,
the greater our trade with Asia.
In a way the merchants, manufactur-
ers and mechanics east OF the Rocky
mountains have more at stake than have
the Pacific coast States. Increased trade
with Asia, especially an increased de-
mand for American food stuffs. means in
creased agricultural. commercial and in
dustrial activity on the Pacific coast, a
larger population on the Pacific, and
finally, the most important OF all, a
larger home market for what the people
OF the Pacific coast call the American
East.
Improved Transportation.
The transportation issue is settling
itself. The trans-continental railway
companies face . globe circling competi-
tion that forces them to raise the EN-
cheney Of their systems, west Of Chi
cago. The steam lines OF the Pacific
ocean are meeting the transportation de-
mands, thus the American. commerce
With the Asiatic Hast = insured By that