The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1910-09-08
PUBLIC uAaDs FOR GIRLS.

There are s2Vera. million young
women working tl.eir way into the
business wn.ld. and whose future is
a mere chance. 1t may end success:
fully, but n IRE often disastrously. A
young woman may be ever SO compe-
tent, bit her salary is rot increased
to such All extent she can provide for
the future: 1t Is either marriage or
retirement from act:;al duties at the
expense Of others after she has
burned out the candle OF her useful
ness.
To provide a competence for such
young working girls plan is sug-
gested by W. R. Draper, of Kansas
City, Mo-, by which the government
can be Of great help and assurance
to the working girls. There are at
present seven hundred million acres
of public land in the United States,
of which approximately two hundred
million acres is irrigable. This land
is now, and will be for a number OF
years, open to public entry at fifty
cents to S1.25 All acre. Water. can
be delivered to the land at net cost
of six to twenty dollars an acre and
is being sold at such prices.
Under the present reclamation laws
1t is necessary to reside fourteen
months on the land. build house
and improve the land and pay the
government s1.25 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 ef-
fects the laboring clsss. Before wa
ter is brought to their land the soil
will produce next to nothing and a
man or woman without capital can
not make the land pay them any
returns whatever. In fact, not until
six months to year after water Is
brought to the land will 1t COM
mences to bring in returns to the
worker. For this reason it is next
to impossible for working person
to file on government irrigable land.
The residence clause was placed
there to prevent speculation in gov
ernment land; but it seems to work
Just opposite. The poor farmer, or
| the laboring woman. cannot take up
| this land because they cannot stick
it ont" The man of wealth employs a
number Of yc,ng men to file on the
ard and later when they have prov
d up he buvs it. or has already
houcht II In advance. giving them a
rub stake, as ii were. The result
now arparenI in many western ir-
igatea land districts and land is be-
ne brorcht under individual control
:; an astounding manner.
The plan rrorGsrd-.tfat Of d0nat-
"g forty acres 10 each working girl
vcr twenty years of uge who has
lrncd he" living for The past eigh-
IN morths---is as follows:
To donate the and free Of all cost.
O make he water right 1T exact cost
% be paid at the rate of one dollar
IN acre per annim uniil fully paid,
md 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
up government land and rent 1t ont
or hold it and th"is 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 II. 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.
II they will look into the subject
their enthusiasm will rapidly in
crease.
For instance: Irrigated lands en-
tered 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 al $1,000 an
acre, entered few years ago al the
usual price Of S1.c5 an acre with wa
ter rights al $40 an acre. payable in
ten years. In faci. 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.