The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-02

and Home discusses a community set
Element made possible by the clearing
of land, the building of roads, and the
digging OF bitches prior to the coming
Of the settler. Meadowlands Is an &C
complished social fact, substantiating
every claim made by Farm, Stock and
Home for the community settlement
idea as opposed up the cut-over coun-
try.
The physical problem Of settling a
timbered country Is a tremendous one.
In the past 1t usually has taken three
generations to turn the standing tim
Der land into farm homes provided
with comfort. The cost. both to the
individual and to society, has been
too high. The settler has approached
the the problem without means, with
out help from others. and with the
handicap of insufficient markets. Nee
essarily, progress has been SLOW. After
ten or a dozen years he neighborhood
is still struggling, the cleared acres
few, the local market poor and rapa-
cious, and too often the evils that as
sociate themselves with poverty are
in full play. The ambitious young the
younger generation leave. the weaker
one become shiftless hangers on, and
progress often ases until new blood
SOlLICS III W Suy lllo oLlu puA
money into extensive clearing, or un-
til another generation has painfully
toiled it's way toward better things.
None who know the conditions can
deny that this Is a true picture Of what
has been the accepted way of settling
our new lands. Those Who speculate
in human life and rope have thrived,
while the settler and society alike have
been impoverished. Community set
tIement, where the burden Of doing
the hardest of the work Is taken by
the seller Of the lands. and the cost
Is taken by the settler, Is the essence
of the Meadowlands plan.
Farm, Stock and Home recognized in
this plan the way to better things for
the settler. 1t saw that this plan
would make him a man with a home,
with an income, with hope, with neigh
bors, schools, church privileges-in
other words, a we'll situated and con-
tented American citizen. It saw fur
Their in this plan the saving of two
generations of human life. and it said:
Here's a plan good enough to be
made the basis for our future state de-
velopment." So, Farm, Stock and
Home went to work.
The largest land Spectator in Min
nesota is Minnesota itself. It's swamp
lands have been and are being sold to
men who do not till them, at a price
and on terms that enable them to hold
these lands until the man who wants
to make a home m along. The
past and present policy of the state
does practically nothing for the real
settler. Farm. Stock and Home said,
four years ago: Find out what these
lands we w are, get a soil survey,
then drain them, build roads to them.
clear a few acres for every settler,
charge all this cost to the selling price
Of h lands, and we will get real
farmers onto our state lands, and at
a profit to the state"
That sounds and is reasonable, A
few men, some of them, in all fair
ness let it be said, approaching even
earlier than Farm, Stock and Home
the social importance Of this reform
in land-clearing methods, rallied
aroun this journal. and the fight for
better things was on.
The state still sells it's lands to the
s~peculator. The state still refuses to
make a legitimate profit by the clear
ing Of its own lands. But the state
is going to modernize it's business
methods and its social policy. Mean
while private interests are taking up
he idea. Men everywhere through
Il9 CuI-oVer II are alKlng the
good business sense of doing for the
settler at a fair cost to him what he
caonnot do for himself except at an
unfair cost to society. The idea that
to waste men is to waste money and
delay progress has at last gripped the
public mind. And when things
have progressed that far the real Dat
tie is already won. Wherefore Farm.
Stock and Home takes heart, and has
courage to still go forward to the So
luton of the problems hat remain.