The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-12-15

SUBJECT.
What then is to be done? The old
time antagonists of national irrigation,
the erstwhile advocates of state ces-
sion, seem to think that all they need
to do is call upon congress for more
money.
Right there is where they make
their mistake. The nine-tenths of the
people of the nation who live in the
eastern half will never consent to
spend another dollar of the nations
money for the benefit of western spec
ulators.
The fixed and unalterable attitude
of the eastern mind was clearly stat
ed in the address of the president OF
the National Association of Agricul-
tural implement and Vehicle Manufac-
turers at their thirteenth annual con-
vention at Chicago in October, 1906.
In that address G. F. Huhlein, the
president of the association, said:
"The cultivation of the soil is the
source of all trae in agricultural imple-
ments. Every new acre redeemed for
agriculture creates the necessity for
the implements with which to till it,
The great national movement for the
reclamation of the arid lands by irri-
cation and of the swamp and over
flowed lands by drainage, holds vast
possibilities of trade expansion for all
manufacturers of implements and We,
hicles. Already projects have been
approved for construction under the
national irrigation act that will re-
claim over a million acres of arid
hn ic cot anQrt in
the treasury of the United States to
build these great systems.
"But there is danger ahead in this
! irrigation and drainage movement. 1t
was approved by the people at large
under the belief that the foundation
for such a national policy should be q
public land system, under which all
that remains of the public domain that
is available for agriculture would be
reserved for bona fide settlers and
home-builders. The expectation has
not been realized.
"The president in his message to
congress, and the public lands commits
sion appointed by the president, have
urgently recommended the repeal OF
the timber and stone act and radlca!
changes of the desert land act and
the Communication clause of the home
stead act, but congress has done moth
ing to carry out these recommends
lions. It's failure to act is evidence
of the strength of the influences IN
the west whose sympathies are with
the land Speculation rather than with
the settler. Unless the commercial
interests of the country can be aWak-
ened to this peril there is great dan
ger that the speculative interests may
prevail to such an extent as to en-
danger the whole irrigation and drain
age movement.
at would seem useless for the peo-
pie of the west to clamor for increased
appropriations for irrigation or drain
age until congress has demonstrated
that it can legislate solely in the in
terest of the bona fide home-maker,
and has enacted the laws necessary
to carry into effect the recommends
tons of the public land commission.
The underlying difficulty seems to be
that the great majority of people are
not interested in the land question.
They do not appreciate how much our
future commercial prosperity and So
cial stability depend on spreading our
rapidly increasing population out over
the land, instead of packing them
more closely into the congested cities.
'It is of far-reaching Importance to
the business interests of the country
that by every possible means the peo-
pie should be educated and encour-
aged to make their homes on the land,
and that every wageworker should live
in a homecroft rather than in HAT
or in a tenement. The small, but
intenseively cultivated farm and the
suburban acre home should be our
national ideal of the environment for
human life that will best promote