The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-09-21
PUBLIC LANDS FOR GIRLS.

women working LnelT way lupo lhe
business world, and whose future Isl
a mere chance. 1t may end success
fully, but more often disastrously. A
young may be ever so compe-
tent, but her salary is not increased
to such an extent she can provide for
the future. 1t is either marriage or
retirement from actual duties at the
expense Of others after she has
burned odt the candle of her useful
ness.
To provide a competence for such
vo1,ng working gii.5 a plan is sug-
rested by ". r. Draper, OF Kansas
lily, Mo, by which the government
an be 0? great help and assurance
0 The wnri,ing gi"ls. There are at
resent seven hrn,iied million acres
/ rrLlic land in the United States,
{ which approximately two hundred
:i,lion ares is irr;gable. This land
: now. md will be for a number OF
ears, oIan to public entry al fifty
ms to S1.ccJ an acre. Water can
re delivered TO the land at a net cost
f six to twenty dollars an acre and
S being sold at such prices.
Under the present reclamation laws
1t is necessary to reside fourteen
months on the land, build a house
and improve the land and pay the
government SIPS an acre for it. Then
a water right costs additional, but
is handled in ten or more annual
payments which almost any farmer
can meet.
However the residence clause eff
fects the laboring class. Before Wa
ter is brought to their land the soil
will produce next to nothing n a
man or without capital can
not make the land pay them any
returns whatever. In fact, not until
six months to a year after water is
brought to the land will it COM
mences to bring in returns to the
worker. For this reason il is next
to impossible for a working person
to file on government irrigGble land
The residence clause was placed
there to prevent speculation in gov
eminent land, but it seems to work
just opposite. The poor farmer, or
the laboring woman. cannot take up
this land because they cannot stick
1t out" The man of wealth employs a
number of young Men 10 file on the
land and later when they have prov
ed up he buys it, or has already
bought it In, advance, giving them a
grub stake. as it were. The result
is now apparent in many western ir-
?igated land districts and land is be-
ing brought under individual control
in an astounding manner.
The plan propCscd-that Of dorat-
ing forty acres 10 each working girl
over twenty years Of age who has
earned her living for the past eigh-
teen months-is as follows:
To donate the land free of all cost,
TO make The water right at exact cost
to be paid at the rate Of II dollar
an acre per annum until fully paid,
and to allow them to file on the land
without living on it.
Restrictions would be: The wo-
men thus benefited could not be per-
mitted to sell or mortgage the land
for five years, and then for not less
than thirty dollars an acre
She must not permit the title to
pass from her possession for less
than five years unless meantime she
should die, then the claim reyerts
to her nearest female relative.
This permits young women work
ing in cities and elsewhere to take
I'D government land and rent it out
or hold it and this acquire a COM
petence for their future, but it does
not permit them to take 1t up and
hold it a short time and sell It. The
plan Is one that can be abused. but
not easily.
While working girls. especially
those in cities, do not have much en-
thusiasm over irrigated public lands,
If they will look into the subject
their enthusiasm will rapidly in
crease.
For instance: Irrigated lands en-
tered a.few years ago at Yuma, Ariz..
are now worth $500 an acre, cost with
water right about s25 an acre; irri-
gated lands in the Yakima Valley in
Washington are selling at $1,000 an
acre, entered a few years ago at the
usual price of s1.25 an acre with wa
ter rights at $50 an acre, payable in
ten years. In fact. there are numer-
Gus public land districts where these
irrigated public lands have jumped
from almost nothing to three, five
and even ten hundred dollars an
acre in the last five years.