The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-06-17
SENATOR GIBSON ON WORLDS
FAIR ExHlBIT.
IT BRINGS SMALL RETURNS
Same Amount Spent in Advertising
States Farm Lands Would Pro.
duce Greater Results.

lOu lila IL IuO 1uOAOy uOAolSu W SAS
state of Montana for an exhibit at
the st. Louis exposition had been
used in an effort to systematically ana
truthfully advertise the states unoccu-
pied agricultural lands in the best
farming sections, both in this country
and abroad, more good would be the
result than can possibly accrue from
the showing made at the Worlds fair.
He expresses himself to that effect
in a communication published in the
Great Falls lr.ydAe OF a few days
ago.
After quoting an eastern paper de-
voted largely to the development OF
the regions west of the Mississippi
river as declaring that the immigrants
who have been attracted in large num-
bers to Canada during the last few
years have gone thither because OF the
extensive manner in which the domin-
ion government has advertised the
opportunities offered there to me
husbandman, Mr.. Gibson says if sim
liar efforts were put forth by Mon
tana homeseekers would now be com
ing into the state by the thousands.
The lands here, he says, are just as
rich and fertile as those across the
United States would naturally prefer
to remain on this side of the line,
provided they believed that govern
ment land equal in fertility was to
be had here. He then says:
"The whole matter may be summed
up as follows:
"The Canadian government is main
tanning a constant and intelligent sys-
TEN of advertising it's agricultural re-
sources from Winnipeg to the Rocky
mountains, while we here in Montana,
not satisfied with remaining silen,
as to the opportunities afforded for
making prosperous homes on our land,
are constantly declaring that this is
a mining and stockgrowing state, and
that it offers few opportunities to
farm settlers, when, as a matter OF
fact, millions of acres throughout our
state afford unsurpassed advantages
to the immigrant farmer, without the
aid of the irrigation ditch.
1T is quite unaccountable that the
people OF a state as richly endowed
with agricultural resources as is Mon
tana should be so entirely Indifferent
to it's settlement by a class of men
who will add tenfold more to its
wealth and power than all our posi-
BILE mining and stockgrowing interests.
Results Would Be Better.
THE government of Montana has
freely given $4,000 toward the main
tenance of a fair at lSa. Louis and $780,
900 for something similar to be held
in Portland, Ore, next year, but not
a dollar has ever been appropriated
for a wide circulation of facts through
out the eastern states and north El-
rope bearing upon our ~unoccupied
farm lands and their advantages for
the development of a great and pros.
porous agriculture. The 100000 ap'
p%ropriated for these expositions, I be.
lieve, will contribute little or nothing
to the advancement of Montana
whereas if half this amount had been
appropriated for the circulation of in.
formation bearing upon the agricul
tural resources of our great state, VIZ
could. as a result, confidently depend
upon large accessions to our farming
population and to our permanent
wealth. twenty-five or 30 years age
Kansas was a bleak, i%nhospitable
state, but her people, having faith il
its ~undeveloped resources, adopted E
system of widespread advertising, ant
publications on a very extensive
scale were issued in the English, Ger
man and Scandinavian languages, AM
were extensively circulated through
out the eastern part of the Union ant
in north Europe. AS a result of thi
far-sighted policy, the growth of Kan
sas in population, Notwithstanding it
droughts and grasshopper plague, TO
a long time vas unparalleled by an,
other state in the Union.
Kansas as Example.
: although western Kansas belong
to the semi-arid domain, the benefi
4 OF that thorough advertising anon,
the best farming communities in tn
world is shown by it's population O
more than 1900, 900; in it's cattle
which number 4,49O, 900; in it's dair,
interests, which annually contribut
$2O,O00,O0O to the wealth of the state
md in ifc voor1v for p~o1,o4~ -.l..I