The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-11-09
ON HIGHEST
AUTHORITY
(From Thursdays Advertiser.)

(From Thursdays Advertiser)
"Here is something from President
Roosevelt which is exactly in line with
what we have been preaching here, y
Land Commissioner Pratt said yester-
day as he indicated passage in the
President letter to the Irrigation
Congress.
"What the President says there
about the amount of land that should
be sufficient to support a family in the
mainland sections irrigated under the
Reclamation Act agrees with the prn-
ciple we have adopted here in allotting
agricultural lands. The only difference
is that there the lands are irrigated by
the Federal Government, while here
the Territorial Government makes a
forest reserve above the lands to con
serve the water supply. Then the set
tier can flume the water down to his
land from the forest reserve.
"Those people here who have been
crying out for the Federal land law
here, thinking it would ensure the set
Element of all the public lands at once
by bona fde homesteaders, should read
what the President says about the pre-
caution that must be taken against
speculation in lands reclaimed by the
government
"Also those who are fighting for
homesteads of one hundred acres or
more of best cane land under cultiva-
tion ought to make note of the Pres
ident g remarks about the amount of
reclaimed land which should suffice to
support a family on the mainland. 1t
will be seen that he puts closer limit
on homestead than we have been do
ing here.
President Roosevelt mentions ten
year payments for mainland reclaimed
lands, while the terms made in Hawaii
are five-year payments"
THE PRESIDENT WORDS.
Following are the remarks by Pres
ident Roosevelt to which Mr.. Pratt re-
ferred:
"The pressing danger just now
springs from the desire of nearly ev-
cry man to get and hold as much land
as he can, whether he can handle it
probably or not, and whether or not
it is for the interest of the community
that he should have it.
1.-The prosperity of the present irri-
gated acres came from the subdivision
of the land and the consequent inten-
sive cultivation. With an adeouatr
supply o. water, a farm of five acres
IN some parts OF the arid West, or of
forty acres elsewhere, is as large rs
may be successfully titled by one fam
lily.
"When, therefore, man attempts
to hold l6O acres of land completely |
irrigated by government work, he is
preventing others from acquiring a
nome, and is actually keeping down the |
population of the State.
speculation in lands reclaimed by |
the government must be checked at |
whatever cost.
1.-The object of the Reclamation Act |
Is not to make money. but to make |
homes.
Therefore, the requirement of the
Reclamation Act that the size of the
farm unit shall be limited in each
region to the area which will comfort. |
ably support one family must be en-
forced in letter and in lpirit
This does not mean thct the farm
unit shall be sufficient for The present
family with its future grown children
and grandchildren, hut re- Their that dur.
ing the ten years of payment the area
assigned for each family shall be suf-
feient to support it.
when once the farms have been
fully TILED by freeholders, little dam
ger of land monopoly will remain"