Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-03-17
DOING THINGS
FOR IDAHO
THE MAN WITH ONE IDEA. AND
HOW HE GETS RESULTS BY
PERSISTENT METHODS.
Has Great NFaith In Idaho and Is
Spending Vast Sums of Money IN
Order To, iseaIize On His Hopes To
See This the Banner State.
Capital News)

Dreamers. They are pronounced inn
practical, and with that their ideas
are dismissed with a smile, more of
federation than aught eles.
But there is a great dreamer who
has done much for Idaho, and who
has, perhaps, never receiver the
credit due him. And the peculiar
thing about it now that his early
dreams are coming true, instead Of
waking up" he continues to dream
other dreams
This man some twenty years ago
saw for the first time an irrigated
tract Of land. He didn't know a thing
about irrigation, but he saw things
that others failed to see-he dream
ed. He saw thousands of families Gull
tivating the soil of Idaho made fertile
by the transmission of water where
but single families were then found
He appreciated what it meant 70 have
water to seep into the soil, reaching
the seeds and roots of grains and
trees, just at the very time that
water should do the most good, for
he had lived in Nebraska, where
water was lacking often just at the
moment when its presence would
double or treble the crop that was
produced when it did come
When David l.. Burley accepted
the position Of general passenger
agent for the Oregon Short Line rail-
road, he was not satisfied to see his
trains loaded with people ticketed to
Oregon or Washington points, or
from those points through to some
eastern point-he wanted to see the
time arrive when his trains would be
carrying passengers back and forth
in Idaho and carrying tickets from
outside points to points within that
state, which carried so many miles
of the Short Line system That
ambition helped him magnify his
dreams. perhaps, but the first work
he did was to set about inducing peo-
pie to come to Idaho.
lie had a desperate time of it, and
frankly Acknowledges that It cost him
more to get one man located in Idaho
then than it does to get thousand
OF them today He first adopted the
theory that the men who knew by
personal experience what irrigation
would do, was the proper man to send
among the farmers Of Iowa, Nebraska
Kansas and surrounding states. Ac-
coriingly he furnished free trans
portation to all who would take the
trip from Idaho to so back and preach
the doctrine Of irrigated lands
Those approached, however. looked
with suspicion upon the accounts OF
the productiveness Of irrigation and
refused to believe what they wer,
told.
Then what amounted to a detective
agency was adopted. Whenever it
could be learned that anywhere in
the central states a man had sold his
farm and was thinking Of going Else
where, agents We're sent to him to
present the claims Of this wonderful
Idaho land Still the results were
unsatisfactory even though personal
solicitation was resorted to.
But Burnley dreamed on. These
western men who had tried irriga-
ton and knew what it could do. wera
not believed. Some other plan had
to be devised Every land agent of
every railroad running west Of
Chicago and every real estate agent
in all the towns Of that country was
made agent Of the passenger depart
ment Of the Short Line and they were
paid a commission upon every sale Of
Idaho land made through them. They
exerted every energy to induce peo-
pie to visit these wonderful lands.
Passes We're given to the agents SO
that they might come and see for
themselves and might know that they
were not being asked to misrepresent.
They came and of course were more
than satisfied The stream Of immi-
grafton was started.
Then the new and more extensive
irrigation plans We're made and car
ried into execution.
The dreamer began to see the rea-
lization of his dreams
He is dreaming again now. He sees
Idaho producing potatoes to feed the
world This dreamer who has the
habit Of making his dreams come
true. thinks nothing but potatoes
he can talk nothing but potatoes-hc
dreams potatoes.
Satisfied that no other country IS
so we'll adapted to potato culture.
this dreamer sat in his Office in Salt
Lake City and planned campaign
which in the end will fov the f,,1l