The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1912-10-24
BORAH'S SPEECH
Continued from page ~

his endeavors almost during the first
season in which he began to plant But
now the homesteads such as he had are
gone, and the settler must earn his
title in adversely and hardship, and
felt very earnestly that the five year
clause was a harsh and an unjust and
unfair clause, and / began the agita-
ton of this as / say some two and one
half years ago. / realized the fact too
that this homestead law In its harsh
features had driven from our country
during the last five years over 500, 900
American citizens; that II had driven
them into Canada, expatriating them In
order that they might acquire title UNI
der more humane laws: and with the
view OF keeping the homesteader at
home and the settler in the great north
west and making 1t possible for him
to get his title, I began the agitation
of the reduction of the residence period
from five to three years; and SO /
drew a bill and introduced it In the SEN
ate and that bill as | introduced 1t I
now hold in my hand, and / wonder II
this editor win be just enough to print
that bill for his readers In the coming
issue of his paper That bill as l drew
1t, and as l passed 1t through the sem
ate Of the United States, contains no
provision which is criticized In this
paper. The bill as 1t passed the
senate made two changes In the old
homestead law. and only two. First, 1t
reduced the residence period from five
to three years. l think you will agree
with me that that was entirely in
the interest Of the homesteader. Sec
ondly 1t provided for leave Of abb
sence for six months out of each year:
and / think you viii agree with me
that that was entirely humane and In
behalf Of the homesteader because It
Is not once In ten times that q home
steader can earn enough upon his home
stead for the first two or three years
to improve 1t and take care of his fam
lily, and so we provided an absence per-
iod OF six months to enable him to go
where he could and earn money with
which to improve his homestead and
something with which to clothe and
feed his family. and not only that, but
1t would enable him to go where there
were schools In order to educate his
children, which II very often impossi-
BILE on these homesteads in the out Of
the way places. Now. there II the
bill as 1t passed the senate and ~
drew It In the first instance. It went
over to the house. and went to the
committee on public lands Of the house.
and there these changes OF which this
good woman complains and which they
say makes It impossible for the home-
steader to acquire his home were In
serted through and by, that committee.
Now, my friends, II I wanted to play
peanut" politics. ! would say to you
that q republican senate passed the
Aav A. =
democratic house and democratic COM
mittee inserted the Objectionable clauses
and 1t would be literally true. and ]
might stop my argument there and
leave the record to speak for itself,
say things during q campaign that every
campaign is over But want to say
further in behalf of the situation that
1t was not by reason of the fact that
they were democrats that they inserted
1t; ii was because our eastern friends
regardless of party, are opposed t.
making the homestead laws or any
other Of the public land laws any more
humane than they are. You know
they have this idea of conservation ir
the east; 1t has taken possession oil
them and they think most of us Out
here are more or less dishonest when
we come into contact with the public
lands. and there Immediately issued q
proclamation from the conservation asso
citation to the effect that Borah's home.
stead law would make It easy for the
homesteader to get title, and that In
their opinion 1t ought to be made more
difficult. So the eastern senators got
hold of the matter In the house and
inserted these clauses requiring the cul.
tivation Of ten acres during the sec.
ond year and twenty acres during this
third year. Now, I realized then, m,
friends. Just as thoroughly 40 I real.
ixe now that that would be q hardship
upon the settler In the northern par
OF the state. and In other parts Of thu
country. because It is practically i'm.
possible In many instances for him t
clear his ten and twenty acres, and
so Mr.. French. who had charge OF thu
bill In the house during the time o.
the discussion, and myself made ever,
effort to keep out of the bill ths
clause with reference to cultivation. ant
we said to our eastern friends that 81
you insist upon putting this cultivation
clause In II will prevent the homestead
er from getting a homestead in som'
or the timDered regions. ana they salu
..that is precisely what we want: W,
don't want him to homestead these tim
bered lands we want to keep thes'
timbered regions for posterity. to b.
occupied by the owls and bats for tht
next hundred years. After Mr.. French
and myself learned of their determine
ton TO insert this clause we made al
effort for over three months In the dis
cussion before the committee and other
wise to reduce 1t from ten acres t
five acres during the second year ant
from twenty acres to ten acres durint
the third year, but we were never abb
to command enough votes to pass tn
bin even out of the committee upoI
that proposition. And so the bill Fl
nally went to the house. amended b!
the house committee over our objection
and over a protest of over three months
with these clauses in 1t which ar
Objectionable, and / concede It. | hav'
no doubt that 1t works hardship. Art
err the bill passed the house and be
came a law 1 introduced an amendment
and here l want to read a paragraph
from this homesteader's statement be