The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-01-15
The HOME MAKER OR THE SPECULATOR
By William E. spythe in Forestry and Irrigation.

Shall. the nations great domain OF
western arid lands and the nations
money be used to enrich a compare
lively few greedy individuals, or shall
they be used to furnish security and
happiness for. millions of men, wo.
men and children?
Uncle Sam is still rich enough to
give us all q farm, and an irrigated
farm at that. It is not a dream, but a
fact. that the present population OF
the United States can be duplicated
on the arid public domain j n the
west.
This can be lone without making
new competitors for those already en-
gagged in agricultural pursuits in the
east and in the south. On the other
hand, this wonderful act OF planting a
new nation in what is now all but an
unbroken wilderness will confer enor-
NOUS benefits on those sections which
are already covered with farms, facto-
ries and towns.
The subjugation and settlement OF
the great empire of public lands
e that every factory wheel in
the United States must whirl faster,
that every banking house must handle
more money, and that every railroad
mist transport more passengers and
freight. This, in turn, means q larger
and buster population in every eastern
and southern town, n that, OF
course, will quicken and enlarge the
demand for all the products OF the
soil inathe older sections of the coun-
try
In the meantime, that which is
grown from the soil to be conquered
by irrigation in the west will go al
most exclusively to the feeding OF
new home markets to be created
within the arid region itself and to
the satisfaction oil the unlimited de-
mands in the Orient and in the frozen
north.
Congress has decreed that the great
policy of national irrigation shall be
entered upon without delay. Already
the engineers and surveyors are doing
their work, and five great projects
have Deer reported favorably to the
interior department. Only about 81
900, 900 are required to carry all five
to completion, and the money is in
-. 4~oo ,,N q ryoifin0 tho call Hill
upon the threshold of the greatest
constructive policy to which this ma
ton ever set it's hand a new and ap-
nalling obstacle is encountered.
Almost every acre OF these lands
which the nation is about to prepare
for the swarming of a BODYBUILDING
population may, under existing laws,
be stolen and used as the basis OF a
profitable speculation. And those VINO
: desire to secure these lands for specu-
.lative purposes are strong enough to
tie the hands of congress until the
deed shall have been done. This, too,
in spite of the fact that the president
of the United States has urged the
repeal of these iniquitous land laws
as something which is vital to the
success of the national irrigation pol
icy.
Shall the nations land, then, and
the nations money be used to en-
rich a comparatively few greedy in
dividuals, or shall they be used to
furnish security and happiness fol
millions of men, women and children;
This is the question which must be
answered when congress meets again
The answer depends absolutely upor
the will of the people as it shall be
made known to their representative!
at Washington. No power on eartf
except the power of an aroused ant
indignant public opinion can save thu
arid region from falling prey to thu
SPECTATORS who are alive to thei
opportunity while the people ar
asleep.
In his last message the presiden
recommended the repeal of the desert
land law, of the communication clause o
the homestead law, and of the tim
Der and stone act. These are tn
provisions of existing statutes unde
which absolutely the most valuable
property now owned by the America
people is being systematically Absorb
ed into private ownership by thos
who cannot use it, but who propos
to sell it at enormous profit to rea
home-seekers when the nation shal
have multiplied it's value an hundre
fold by means of irrigation.
The nation has land for every ma