El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-22

" 7 ASHINGTON, D. c., April o.
w This is the first of series Of
letters which | shall write from
Sunday to Sunday upon Uncle Sam,
patriarch. A dozen years ago our great
national relative was merely the business
manager for the American people. he
was a hard-fisted, non-thinking machine
to collect taxes and keep order. He took
IN the revenues and paid the employees,
giving no attention to the conservation
or development of the country. he
allowed himself to be used by the inter
ests, and our public lands by the hum
dreds Of millions of acres went to the
railroads and individuals, and corpora
tions got our forests and mines Tor a
song. At the same time an incalculable
waste went on in every branch Of in
dustry and every condition of life, max
ing 8 loss so great that it cannot be
counted.
Uncle Sam, Patriarch
That was the condition until a decade
or so ago, when Uncle Sam had an aEyak-
e1inp. He then began 10 assume the
position of a father to his American
children, and he has now become great
creative force working for the better
ment and protection of all the people. He
Is a real patriarch, deVoting himself TO
the personal welfare of each OF his sub
iects and developing the family estate Tor
all 1T is worth
dred different lines, and they embrace
every part of our country from ocean TO
ocean and from the great lakes 30 the
gulf. They affect every branch OF busl-
ness. every grade of society, and every
man. woman and child. The schemes
involve an expenditure OF hundreds OF
millions, and some viii add billions to
our national wealth. Let me mention
few of them.
The Deserts and the Swamps.
Take for instance the great mango
on the soil of our waste lands. You
have read something of it IN the opening
of the Roosevelt dam. Uncle Sam has
$50. 100000 in hand to water the deserts,
and his reclamation fund for our arid
lands is fast approximating a hundred
millions or more. He is tunreling the
mountains, damming the streams and
carving the waters IN fumes over the
CANYONS. He has more than 1900 miles
Of canals already dug. The Roosevelt
can alone will redeem 8. quarter OF a
million acres and there are "a other
projects. each OF which will reclaim
thousands. All that land is TO be set
aside for his American children, and any
one who applies can have 40 acres for the
asking. ] shall tell you what those lands
are worth, and how you may get them
Another big scheme is draining the
swamps. We have millions of acres OF
wet lands that can be turned into farms.
They are scattered over the Union from
California to Maine. They are as rich
as Holland, and will feed tens OF mil
lions It Is estimated that it will cost
81 an acre to drain them and that the
crops they viii yield viii bring in a
billion dollars a year. Where these
swamps are and how they are to be
handled is another project of Uncle SAM
patriarch.
Harvesting the Waters.
This is another big scheme, bills In
the aid of which are now before con-
gress. The government scientists are
testing the matter, and they have col
lected a vast deal of new information.
This project includes the water powers
which the experts say are equal TO Co.
100000 horses, or twice enough to run
every mill, drive every train and light
every house in the country. This
power can be increased TO 200,000,00o.