American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1912-10-24

afternoon was We'll aLteHQ0Q Ill
spite of the inconvenient hour and
the stormy day and before the hou
arrived for the meeting the seats OF
the Auditorium were we'll taken.
The senator. amid cheers, came to
the front of The platform as he was
introduced and in his clear voice and
precise manner delivered talk SO
filled with argument that it will re-
bound in Republican votes on the
9th of November. He called the at
tention of his audience to some of
the things which he had accomplish
ed in congress. when / appear
before you and ask your support for
reelection as your senator, you have
the right to ask me what have ac-
complished for you during the few
years l have served you,' said the
senator.
The senator gave a brief history
of his work in the passage Of the
three year homestead law, that law
which has done as much for Idaho
as any other ever passed. Il learn
ed," he said, that in few years
over 100000 people had gone to
Canada to take up land under laws
more lienient, that this country was
losing 100000 people annually ON &C
count of this. l realized that it
took means to be able to live upon
and make proof upon land in this
country, or the hemesteader must
leave his family upon the land and
work elsewhere to provide food for
the family before he can begin to
make a living upon the land.
went to my friend Gallinger and
tool him there must be something
done. That this country was losing
ANNUALLY many good farmers and
vast amount of wealth which they
were taking with them and we
were losing the good farmers who
would build up our country as we
would to see in built up. 1t took
two and q half years to succeed in
the passage of this bill, for we
met with the opposition of the SEN
ators who believed that those of
the west were taking up land simply
as a speculation and that it was
an easy matter to live upon and Sc
cure a living from homestead each
of the five years. But at last the
bill was passed and you now have
three years to live upon your land
instead OF five and have an absence
of months of each year.
Another bill which l drafted
and which became a law after some
hard work was the bill emitting
those under the government irriga-
ton projects to secure title to the
land after the homestead period and
requirements had expired. 1t was
the law that all the water payments
before title would go to the settler
and these payments extended over
a period from five to fifteen years.
Under the new law they can secure
a title and borrow money upon the
land with which to made improve
ments without waiting fifteen years
and it gives the farmers on those
projects an equal chance to build
up their homes.
Another thing which I did for
the west was to secure the passage
of the bill authorizing the issuing
of $20,0O0.O0O bonds to complete
the government irrigation projects
which had been begun. This en-
abled our government to complete
these works years before they could
have otherwise done and has given
to the settler upon those projects
water several years before they
would have received it had they
have had to wait for the funds OF
the reclamation service to grow large
enough to complete them and this
has perhaps saved the homes OF sew