The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-11-19
open lands
TO The PEOPLE
Louis w. Hill Talks of benefits
to be secured in the
West
lAIY MILLIONS OF ACRES OF VACANT lllDS
Railway President Thinks Taft's trio
Will Mean Much of Interest
to the People.

to the People.
In dispatch from New York to
the Denver News-Times a special
staff representative of the paper gives
at length an interview with Presi-
dent Louis w. Hill of the Great Nor
thern railway, who was In New York
last week:
Hill had much to say for the west
and had no hesitation in criticislng
the governments present methods in
disposing Of the public lands and res
ervations. He thinks President Taft's
recent tour Of the country will bring
boundless good returns and especially
declared that If there was freight
car shortage in some, parts Of the
country, there is none on the lines of
the Great Northern.
VALUABLE VACANT LANDS.
'sWe have millions and millions of
acres of valuable government lands
and Indian reservations in the West, !"
declared Hill enthusiastically, all un-
developed and unoccupied, with mill
lions of people anxious to develop
them if the government will just open
up the land and give them the oppor-
tunity. There is too much red tape
now necessary to enable hustling
man to procure one of those tracts,
and when a reservation is opened the
undeserving get the allottments.
"It Is not generally known that
great tracts of land in the western
part of the United States remain un-
surveyed. In Montana alone 16 per
cent, outside of the forest reservation,
is unsurveyed and I think the same
is true even on larger scale in many
of the other western states.
"Why doesn't the government open
these sections and provide for the in
dustrious women and men q means of
securing home for themselves, in
stead of letting the real estate specu-
lltor grab it up and sell to those who
do not intend to develop it.
SETTLERS ARE NEEDED.
"We want and need men to settle
on these great tracts of land who are
not afraid to work, and get out of the
soil what is waiting for the right man
to make his own.
''The western country is so big, 50
fertile, so beautiful, SO attractive,
that to me it seems absurdly foolish
for people to huddle together In box
Nike rooms in the eastern cities, when
for less physical effort and far less
outlay of money they can go to any OF
these western sections and run a farm
and raise all they need, save money
and have a home all their own. 1t
would not be living from hand to
mouth, with>nowhere to go.
agriculture alone can support us
without the help of others, in certain
plenty and genuine dignity. Better
farming must be done, land must be
titled so as to make two blades OF
grass grow where now only one thrives
This is.a phase of the farming ques
tion which every tiller Of the sol
must recognize and adopt.
''In foreign countries all these ideas
are in practical operation, and wher
will we ever be able to meet the com
petition of England, Germany anc
France unless we get to work now,
say. Not day can be lost. We ar,
growing rapidly in numbers, but a.
producers of breadstuffs we are falling
short.
EARN life of hle future will be full
Of advantages not enjoyed in the past
The isolation of the past, so object
ionable to the women folks, is fas
disappearing because of multiplied
tion of small farms, better titled
which has brought good roads, auto
mobiles, schools, near neighbors
churches, Libraries, improved mai
facilities and up-to-date social envl
ronments.
"The farm must be considered frs
in shaping all our policies because
is the keystone of the national arch {
5 success. A prosperous agriculture
interest is to nation what goo
digestion is to a man. The farm /
surely the basis of all industry.
WEST IS THE PLACE.
"What do l think of Presiden
, Taft's trip and the good it will dc
! Well, l know he made good an
!, great impression wherever he wen
! because the people knew he came t
learn. 1t was wise man that col
ceived the idea for this sort of a tou
He wanted nothing at secondhand
; He went to see things for himself an
!. he saw them. 1t was not a junke
: but real tour of investigation an
study of the people in all parts of tt
n United States.
ut was study, study, all the da
+ and night, and nobody worked qui,
+ as hard as President Taft himse
Ibid. He looked at the east, he su