The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-06-05
UNION LABOR
DEPARTMENT
Address all Communications to
w. M. PIGGOTT. editor.
375 TweEty-f fourth Street.

| punishment falls upon the innocent
many, rather than the guilty few.
| Many otherwise good men have gone
10 an untimely grave, because tney
have not been strong enough TO resist
the temptations thrown in their way
by our lawmakers. We may talk ABOUT
rebates, the devastation OF our forests.
land grabbing and such like offences;
but how many of these Offenders have
ever been sent to the penitentiary!
A few yes; a very few, but the great
majority have been fined, and the peo-
pie have paid the fine, indirectly. oil
course. but they have paid 1t. The
best WAY TO conserve our forests Is to
stop the slaughter now going on by
the gigantic lumber interests, and
turn the land over to actual settlers
as timber claims. or make national re-
serves of II, until such time as tbs for
ests have had time TO recuperate.
Another great source OF graft is
found in the conduct of the reclama-
tton service The government builds
these great irrigation dams and the
main canals and allows the settlers to
Pay the cost in a number OF years
acre per year. The rulings of the re
clamation bureau provides that no
one shall own more than 160 acres of
the land after the dams are complet-
ed. That. on It's face, sounds well;
but there is a little joker inside Of It
There Is no pToyision that no one
shall possess or control more than that
before the dams are completed SO
men with money. some of them ofIl-
cials, take options on all of the land
they can get, and then hold up the
actual settlers for twice and thrice
the amount the government asks in
payment for the water A splendid
example of the way in which the gov
ernment, through the reclamation ser
vice, enriches private individuals at
the expense of the community, and of
the community vet to come, is found
in the New MeXicoTeXaS irrigation
project The government has com
menced work on the Elephant Butte
dam at Engel n NJ, under which pre-
iect the Rincon and MeSflla valleys In
New Mexico, the Ell Passo in Texas
and the JuareZ and Guadeloupe valleys
in Old Mexico Will be irrigated This
dam will cost $7,000.O00 and Will ir-
grlate 175,000 acres of land; which
will make the cost TO the settlers $40
per acre, which they can repay 10 the
government at the rate of 81 per acre
per year, but this is not all Before
the building of the dam was thought
Of. the land Was not worth more than
$40 per acre; but just as soon as the
dam was an assured fact; these spec.
ulators secured options on all they
could get and the price of the land
went up by leaps and bounds, until
now 1t cannot be bought for less than
$50 per acre, and before the water is
turned on, II is conseryatiyely esti
mated. 1t will be worth SIS per acre
and all for the benefit of the specula-
tor. and the detriment of the farmer,
who must pay at least twice the price |
that he should fol7 the land. More
than that the Sharks" are not spend
ing one cent to improve the land.
These are only some instances OF the |
many hundreds that might be men
toned wherein the government could |
protect the interests of the producing
class of people If they would: but it |
looks like a deliberate shaping OF |
conditions by the legislators, 10 fav-
or few money sharks. to the greas |
detriment of the men who have made |
this country what it is. and who will |
continue TO make it better.
And then we are designated as an |