Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-12-05

/ power of their positions in the social
| world.
| The national government through
the department of agriculture should
do all it can by joining with the state
governments and with independent as
sociations of farmers to encourage the
growth in the open farming country
of such institutional and social move
ments as will meet the demand of the
best type of farmers, both for the i'm
provement of their farms and for the
betterment OF the life itself
/ inland Waterways.
J Our great river systems should be
developed as national water highways;
the Mississippi, with its tributaries,
standing first in Importance, and the
Columbia second, although there are
many others of importance ON the Pa
cifc, the Atlantic and the gulf slopes.
The national government should under
take this work, and the president
hopes, beginning Will be made in the
present congress; and the greatest of
all our rivers, the Mississippi, should
receive especial attention. From the
great lakes to the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi there should be deep water
way with deep waterways leading
from it to the east and the west.
I Such a waterway should practically
mean the extension of our coast line
into the very heart of our country. 1t
would be of incalculable benefit to our
people. If begun at once it can be
carried through in time appreciably
to relieve the congestion of our great
freight-carrying lines of railroads.
The work should be Systematically
and continuously carried forward in
accordance with some well-conceived
plan. The main streams should be i'm
proved to the highest point of eff
cheney before the improvement of the
branches is attempted. The inland
waterways which lie just back of the
should likewise be developed. More
over, the development OF our waterways
involves many other important water
problems, all of which should be con-
sidered as part of the same general
scheme. The government dams
should be used to produce hundreds of
thousands of horsepower as an Incl
dent to improving navigation; for the
annual value of the unused water
! power of the united States perhaps
exceeds the annual value of the prod
ucts of all our mines AS an Incl
dent to creating the deep waterway
down the Mississippi, the government
should build along its whole lower
length levees which taken together
with the control of the headwaters,
plete stop to all threat of floods in the
immensely fertile delta region.
Reclamation Work.
Irrigation should be far more ex-
tensively developed than at present,
not only in the states of the great
plains and tn Rocky mountains, but
! in many others, as, for instance,
large portions of the south Atlantic
and gulf states, where it should go
hand in hand with the reclamation of
swamp land. The federal government
should seriously devote itself to this
task, realizing that utilizat on of wat
terways and water-power forestry, irri-
cation and the reclamation of lands
threatened with overflow. are all in
terdependent parts of the same prob
lem.
Public Lands.
| The effort of the government to
deal with the public land has ueen
based upon the same principle as
that of the reclamation service. The
land law system which was designed
to meet the needs of the fertile and
well.watered reg 'ons OF the middle
west has largely broken down when
applied to the dryer regions of the
great plains, the mountains. and mucn
of the Pacific SLOPE, where farm of
160 acres is inadequate for se1f-sup-
port. In these regions the system lent
itself to fraud, and much land passed
out of the hands of the government
without passing into the hands of the
home'maker. The department of the
interior and the department of justice
joined in prosecuting the offenders
against the law; and they have accom-
plished much, while where the ad-
ministration of the law has been de-
fective it has been changed.
Some leg station is essential in
order to preserve the great stretches
of public grazing land which are unfit
for cultivation under present methods
and are valuable only for the forage
which they supply. These stretches
amount in all to some 100000. 900
acres, and are open to the free graz
ing Of cattle, sheep, horses and goats,
without restriction. Such a system,
or rather such lack OF system, means
that the range is not so much used
as wasted by abuse. AS the west set
.I1. h. ro-.a Aan0paau mona and