The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-13
THE DESERTS
TO BE POPULATED BY SALVATION
 ARMY.
What 1t has Done Already-ColoradO Colony Ia Already . Suc- cess-Arid Lands are
 Next,

officers of the Salvation Army, which is now holding its international con gress in London, have evolved a stu pendous plan. of populating the arid re- gions of the West, says Washington letter to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch They have scheme to remove the pauperized classes from the great cities and make them farmers. They want the government to advance the money for a colonization scheme more ambi- tious than any which the great colo- nizing countries of Europe have ever yet attempted. They had bill intro duced at the last Congress to carry out their scheme, and. authough the Dill was killed and the plan called chimera they are now lining up to nght it through at the next session
 The Selvationists have figured 1t all out, There is enough waste water Tn the United States. they say. to irrigate one-fifth of the arid lands, or l5oooo'- 900 acres, and of this vast territory only one-fiftieth, or about 100000 acres, have already been reclaimed. They estimate that the government can settle families on fifteen acre tracts at the cost of $27.50 an acre. and in the bill which they want passed Uncle sam is to loan out $5,000.000 a year to re-
  This would remove from the cities every year, they estimate, more than 10 900 families, or about 50.000 souls Such a project would not only pay for itself its advocates say. but also net rich income The money Is all to be paid back at per cent. inteerst.
 Whenever the Salvation officers are called visionary in advocating such plan they point to the three colonoies which they have themselves establish ed in Colorado. Ohio and California These settlements. aggregating about $500. 900. but their founders say that all except the youngest are now self-sup- porting,
 Famous Colorado Colony.
 The oldest and largest colony and the one that best illustrates the settlement plan, which the army wants the gov ernment to undertake, Is at Amity, Col. a few miles west of the Kansas line, on the Santa Fe Railroad. Here six years ago 2.oO0 acres were purchased for s44.000, and at the present time one- half the land has been taken up. and the community has grown to a popula- tion of 350. Its people have prospered, according to Commonder Booth-Tucker. who said recently that the freight alone on Fort Amity's crops last year amounted to $5o,00O or $6.000 more than the original cost of the land. Of the $I10,000 expended on the colony for land, buildings and irrigation works, the colonists have paid back nearly one-fourth. or $27.000.
 As each family arrives at Fort Amity it Is quartered by the commanding officer, until it's house is built and furnished. If the newcomer Is handy | with the hammer" he builds his own | house: if not. he hires the village car penter. Besides the home the settler obtains two horses, a COW, two dozen ] chickens, and all the tools needed for | cultivating his twenty acres of land. l He is also supplied with cash to buy | the seed for his first crop, after which l he Is supposed to shift for himself. His l chief crops are alfalfa, cantaloupe and | sugar beet. By the time the first crop is harvested, however. he is in debt to | the army for from $1,000 to $1.50O. He | has eleven years to pay back the sum, | and inasmuch as the interest Is &C., | cumulating right along at the rate of
 6 per cent. he is stimulated to cancel
 his debt as soon as possible. Com
 mander Booth-Tucker says that few
 have already cleared themselves. and
 adds: Families who started two to
 five years ago with nothing now pos
 sess farms worth from $2000 to $5,-
 O00 The average cash income of the
 settlers Is $500, and there is no dis
 position manifested on the part of any
 of them to abandon their farms and | return to the city,"