The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1906-09-05
introduced to the committee.

There is, perhaps, no one conspic-
uous subject in the state which is so
imperfectly understood as the subject
of drainage. The popular impression
is that the taxpayers are taxed to
train the swamp lands for the sole
benefit OF the locality where the lands
lie. AS well informed a man as Gov
ernor Johnson said when he was run
ming for the state senate that his
county (Nicollet) had paid for its
bitches and now let the northern coun-
ties pay for their own. Governor
Johnson probably views the matter in
q different light now because his Off
cial duties have caused him to investi-
gate and he is better informed.
The plain facts are these:
Congress gave the state of Mime
sofa 100000 acres of swamp lands on
condition that the state attended to
their drainage. The state gave away
many Of these lands to railroads on
the theory that the railroads would
reclaim them for their own interests.
| This was largely done. In addition
| the state set apart 100000 acres for
the insane asylum at st. Peter, Nicol-
let county, Governor Johnson's home
! county. The state also gave sim
liar amount to the deaf and dumb asy-
lum at Faribault and the state prison
! at Saltwater. 1t also gave $4,000
acres each to the normal schools at
Winona, Mankato and ST. Cloud. When
the 100000 gift by congress had been
thus depleted for railroads and public
institutions there was a constitutional
amendment adopted forbidding the
legislature from giving any more
swamp lands away, leaving the state
to actually drain the rest, 500, 900
acres. Confronted with this great
heritage the state inaugurated drain
age system, providing that the lands
should be actually drained and sold
like school lands at not less than SIS
per acre. The realization from these
sales was ordered by law to go one
half to the common school fund and
one-half to the public institutions of
the state. From 1891 to 1904 these
sales produced a revenue of $685.
372.44, or an average of $6.43 per acre.
AS it cost on an average 81 per acre
to drain the lands the state had a
profit Of $5.43 per acre, which went in
equal shares to the public schools and
the state institutions. AS the average
price obtained during the same period
for school lands was only $6.26 per acre
it shows that the state had a pretty
good bargain by its drainage work.
The consequence is every voter who
sends a child to a public school and
every town which has a state institu-
ton gets the benefit of drainage AS
most of the public institutions in the
state are in Central or Southern Min
nesota it is unjust and the sheerest
nonsense to claim that the southern
part of the state is taxed to reclaim
the swamp lands in Northern Mime
sota All that Northern Minnesota
gets is the adding of more agricul-
tural lands for the market, increasing
the population and production of the
state and of course in this manner
increasing the value of other acres in
the region drained But this increase
is not obtained at the expense of any
other part Of the state. Comparatively
few people in the state really under
stand that the drainage of swamp
: lands is not tax and burden upon the
people but an actual profit for the
whole population of the state
When drainage first began there
were undoubtedly mistakes made and
occasionally some private or even rail
road property would be inadvertently
drained. When Mr.. Cole, the candi-
date for governor, entered the legis-
nature he saw this mistake and framed
a bill which became law directing
the :rafnagC. board to employ a COM
petent engineer and have surveys and
plats made so that hereafter the board
could act more intelligently and when
drainage bitches were ordered have
them apply only to lands which belong
to the state and would bring them into
market as state lands, securing an
average profit as already noted of
S. 43 per acre. This one act shows the
keenness and foresight of Mr. Cole in
the care of the public interest and
shows the practical side of his plea
for state development"