The Springfield herald., 1904-11-04

into the Humboldt valley ana supply
settlers in the vicinity of Reno. This
project is destined to reclaim about 2OO,-
600 acres. The Milk River project in
northern Montana will reclaim nearly
100000 acres in the vicinity Of Malta
and Glasgow. At Tonic Creek, eighty
miles above Phoenix, Ariz.. immense i'm
pounding reservoirs will provide a supply
of water to irrigate about 100000 acres
in Salt River Valley, which is already
thickly settled.
Irrigation, Mother of Civilization.
There is no one thing that portends
tho future greatness of the present civili-
"a ation more than the efforts now being
put forth in all arid regions Of the earth.
to make the desert and waste places
habitable and productive. ArcheoloSists
tell us that where they have found mans
struggle hardest, there they have found
the highest types of civilization that are
dead and gone. On the high plateaus of
South America and the mesas of Mexico,
in the desert where flows the Nile, on
the bleached plains of Arabia and where
the sacred Ganges courses to the sea,
are found traces of feats of irrigatinS
skill, broken works of art. ruined tenn
pies and shrines that equal and in some
instances surpass the boasted skill of
modern engineering, art and architecture.
AS nation, America may be justly
proud of her greatness. but if we would
continue to grow and endure, we must
encourage all moves that seek to make
us a nation of rural homes rather than
a people of great cities. We should
strive to build up more homes with sur
roundings of simplicity and truth, where
coming generations may grow to matur-
ity, uncorrupted by the superficial gilt
ter and gilded vice OF the city.
The United States leads all other coun-
tries of the earth in the production of
wheat. corn, cotton, wool, beef, pork.
mutton and edible fowls. Millions OF
people across the seas are dependent
upon this country for both food and
clothing. 1t is our vast agricultural re
sources that constitute our great national
wealth and economic independence of the
rest of the world. The source and store
house of this great national wealth is
the land that. through mans industry
and skill. produces all these staples of
food and clothing. these necessities for
the life and well-being of the people of
the earth. How important it is, then,
that this great storehouse OF wealth be
preserved and enlarged by the rcclama-
ton OF the arid West.
Ideal Irrigated Homes.
A very small farm unit, says w. Il.
Smythe. makes it possible for those who
til the soil to live in the town. The
farm village or home center is a well
established feature of life in arid Amer
lea and the feature which is destined to
enjoy wide and rapid extension. Each
four or five Thousand acres of cultivated
land will sustain a thrifty and beautiful
hamlet where all the people may live
close together and enjoy most of the So
cial and educational advantages within
the reach of the best eastern towns.
Their children will have kindergar
tens as well as schools and public lib
raries, and reading rooms, as well as
churches. The farm village, lighted by
electricity, furnished with domestic water
through pipes. served with free postal
delivery and supplied with its own daily
newspapers at morning and evening has
already been realized in arid America.
The great cities of the western valleys
will not be cities in the old sense, but
long series of beautiful villages con-
nected by lines of electric motors, which
will move their products and people from
place to place. In this scene of intense
ly cultivated land, rich with its bloom
and fruitage, with its spires and roofs
and with its carpets of green and gold
stretching away to the mountains, it will
be difficult for the beholder to say where
the town ends and the country begins.
If you wish to contribute your part in
bringing about these and countless other
blessings, vote for Roosevelt and Fair
banks!