The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-03-25
DRAINAGE CONVENTION
HELD AT GRAND RAPIDS
Enthusiastic Meeting of Those Interested in Welfare of
Northern Minnesota, Held Saturday. ...John Aber.
cr0mbie Delivers IN Address.

district meeting Of the Safe
Drainage League was held Satur-
day afternoon in the court house,
presided over by j. S. Cole, sec
retary of the league. A com
mittee composed of J. S. Cole,
A. M. Greeley and A. J. Nc
Guire was appointed to press
the needs for drainage of Itasca
and Koochiching counties upon
the state drainage board. The
meeting was large and enthusias.
tic. s. t. - :.
The most important address
was made by John Abercrom bic,
president OF. the State Drainage
League, who said in part:
"What is the reason to- be now
adduced to justify fervent and
favora BILE action respecting the
pressing demand to push system
attic drainage as a factor in the
obligatory work Of estate devel-
opment?''
Is it: That the millions of
acres of public lands, said to lie
waste and unproductive within
our state, be speedily reclaimed
to make footing and provision
for suitable ard sufficient i'm
migration, it being conceded that
the Drawn and thrift of the tens
of-thousands of such are in
dispensable to US in the task of
uplifting our commonwealth to
that summit of enduring pros
perity which our waiting re-
sources promise to pinnacle for
US. .':.~ -'.sr ,s'.:-'..' ',
!, Also is it: That suitable and
sufficient betterments be made
for many who were units in the
corps of a former immigration,
SO that it may be tolerable for
them to cling to the holdings
which they took up in hope and
good faith among us, rather than
emigrate. And that the making
of a home-under the same old
star-be ready at hand for pur-
chase by any Of the sturdy stock
Of the fathers who stood the
brunt of the battle of building
our state and bejeweling it with
cities; and not that such-stuff
whose worth has been proven
should have resort to emigrate
rather than to remain to emulate
the grit of their progenitors.
If the answer is in the afirma-
tive, a reason is adduced which
ought to beget implicit conf.
dence, full sympathy and vigor-
Gus allotment from all sources.
However, the affirmative implies
a. double thought, immigration
on the one hand and emigration
on the other-a flowing in, and a
flowing out. This double thought
is not assuring to a states am
bition to encompass a teeming
and prosperous population. It
savors too much of the character
of an open tube, as free to dis
charge at the one end as it is to
receive at the other. Let us
glance at emigration from Min
nesota.
Last fall Mr.. John A. Mckay,
a hustling real estate man of 80
years standing at Alexandria,
| Y
in Douglass county, who about
ten years ago added a Canadian
government land agency to his
general practice, informed me
from his records, that up Co
October 1st, 1906, he had for
warded to Western Canada over
1900 persons who took with them
$387,028 in cash and effects. The
locality That suffered this loss
has Alexandria for it's center,
and a sweep of about thirty five
miles. That the Canadian agent
djoining him to the northeast
had sent away more than be-,
tits noticeable that these agen-
cies creep we'll up into the region
of our states waste lands. Also,
that during these nine years he
had been interested IN some good
dry lands in northern Minnesota,
and had called the attention of
many of his clients to them, but