The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-03-25
RECLAIM SWAMPS
OF SOUTH
3. z. YOAkUM, RAILROAD MAN.
POINTS OUT THE VAST
Possibilities.
Fifty.Eight Million Acres Of Immense.
" Rich Soil Could BE Drained -
Urges Concerted Action Toward
Securing Cooperation Of Federal
Government.

New Orleans, March 2O.-B. F. Yoa-
KUN, chairman of the st. Louis and
San Francisco Railroad Company,
urged upon the New Orleans Board of
Trade on Monday the need of concert
ed action in the South to secure the
aid of the Federal government in
draining the 100000 acres of swamp
lands in this section. These lands un-
der tillage, he said, would be worth
hundreds of millions of dollars, and
their products would be of the utmost
importance in stemming the rising tide
of the cost of living. Moreover, he
declared, a growing population which
is already overlooking into Canada,
needs these unused lands.
Mr.. Yoakum said the United States
could and would undertake the needed
reclamation projects which private
capital was ready to follow up if suit
able pressure was brought to bear up
on officials and Southern representa-
tives in Washington by the farmers
and business men of their States.
Without that pressure, he declared, lit
tie would be done. And he added sig
nificantly, referring to tendencies at
the national capital:
ITO drain the valley, to build new
railroads, to develop the country, and
to enforce our regulative laws are
more important than the enactment of
new and experimental ones.
There are 100000 acres of
swamp lands in the United States, 58,-
100000 of which are in the Southern
States-a greater acreage than the
States of Tennessee and Kentucky"
said Mr.. Yoakum. LET the Senators
and Representatives of the Southern
States cooperate with the agricultural
and business interests of the South,
and we will make farms faster than
they ever were made in the history of
the world. 1t must be inaugurated by
the business and farming interests of
the South through public sentiment
and cooperation at Washington.
For almost century our govern
ment has locked with Indifference at
the rich unused lands of the Southern
States, while the British government
furnishes it's money and credit to re-
claim waste lands in the valley OF. the
Nile, 5000 miles away. The low, rich
lands of the South have now become a
matter of Importance to the whole
country. First, the people need the
food, cotton and other products which
your low lands will produce in abun-
dance. Second, these lands are need
ed for settlement by the American cit
liens who are now seeking homes in
other countries. Sixty thousand peo-
pie moved from the United States to
Canada last year. They carried with
them $1,000 each, or $60,0OO,00O. Our
people are leaving thickly settled dis
tricts where the price of farm lands
is high. This means that our own
people are building up an empire be-
longing to a foreign nation at the ex.
pense of our own country.
"Your rich lands may be drained at
a cost of IS per acre located near the
congested centers, and will produce
the kind of food that supplies the
kitchens of the consuming masses. The
government is interested in reclama-
ton in the Northwest, but the admin
istration at Washington has become
interested in the irrigation projects OF
the Northwest because the people OF
the Northwest became interested In
the development of their country and
urged their claims"