El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-02-18
COLONY AGENT To
LOOK OVER VALLEY
Two Hundred German Cath
olics May Locate in Val
ley; LeBaron Tells
Of Trip.

Awake to what has been called the
urgent necessity for bringing farmers
into the Ell Paso valley" the ii fS'so
chamber o.. commerce wired transpor-
tation and expenses Tuesday night 10
a representative in Chicago OF the
Catholic Colonization society who VIII
come here and Investigate conoluohs
with a view to colonizlng lOU OF ~
German-American farmers anu ~
families on land in the Yalley. 1il4S
action was a result OF the business
mems meeting in the commerce DulIo-
ing Tuesday afternoon WheH - 9 .
r. L,eBarOn reported the OutCoIHS u
his recent trip to Chicago as a ueIe-
gate from the chamber OF coIl tiIl- 20
More Farmers Needed.
Discussion Of the matter after Mr..
LeBaron's address brought out some
startling statements in regard 10 the
sparsely settled condition OF the val
lev east and west of Ell PasO. Said
La NJ. Lawson, project engineer of the
United States reclamation service at
Ell PasO-"An irrigation project IS
never complete until all the territory
it feeds is settled up and under cult
walton. Within a year and one man,
+. the Elephant Butte dam will be I'm
ished and a complex irrigation system
constructed throughout the valley. L
need not say that you need more farm
ers out here Few seem to realize the
urgent necessity for getting thls sec
ton settled up"
Needed in Lower Valley.
H. D. Camp, Of Clint, had this to say:
I'VE need farmers out here to show
us how to farm. Why, most of the
landowners in the lower valley are
making a failure of their land, simply
because they are not making enough
profit to pay it out. I think we ought
to get busy right away and see that
the valley from end to end is put under
cultivation. There is enough land to
support thousands Of small farmers
and we have done very little to turn
the attention OF prospective cOlonists
this way"
LeBaron Tells Of Meeting.
Not more than 20 men attended the
meeting, but everyone present took a
deep interest in the discussion. Mr..
LeBarOn began by telling OF the meet
ing of the colonization committee OF
the Catholic Colonization society IN
Chicago last week. According TO the
proposition made to him, between 1000
and 5000 acres Of land viii be needed
by the coIonists Their representative
will come to Ell Paso and report on the
feasibility Of valley ground for farm
ing purposes.
Facts and figures regarding irrlga-
ton facilities, prOductiveness of SOIL
price of property, climate and various
other points concerning the land will
be furnished the sOciety's agent The
land must be all in one piece or with
in a radius of two or three miles 1t
must cost between $50 and 500 an
acre approximately. Two years must
be given the colOnists in which to pay
for it.
Really Wishes an option.
In other words, the colonization So
ciety wants an option of "a months
on any land It may select, promising
at the end of that time to have at least
100 families settled upon ii. No imam
cial gain will result to the society from
this which is merely to safeguard any
promise that may be made as to the
price the colonists Will have to pay
for the land An Illustration Of the
society's work is cited by a reference
to Riviera, Tex, where 500 families
were located one year after the assoc
citation had decided to COLOMBO IN that
section.
Six men were named Tuesday as
committee to meet and arrange pro-
gram for the colonization agent when
he reaches here within four or five
davs. This committee IS composed OF
George LeBarOn, representing the
chamber of commerce; judge A. s. j..
r. II
city; H. D. Camp, the Water Users
association; l. NJ. Lawson, the recla-
nation service, and Robert RineharL
the FL PasO Auto club.
As agreed upon yesterday, everyone
will have an equal chance to offer lana
propositions to the Investigator when
he arrives here. The committee VIII
merely arrange appointments Tor MN
and see that he is entertained while
in Ell Paso. Automobiles for his use
have been offered and he viii probably
be shown all the big tracts in the up
per and lower valley. Groups Of land
owners who have small holdings may
combine and secure enough Territory
to offer as a concrete, single PROPOSE
ton.
One of the provisions Of the coloni-
cation society is that the seller or
sellers of the land must erect a $4,000
TO $4,000 church and pay the salary OF
a priest for two years, this of course
TO he taken into consideration when
the selling figures are named to the
representative. The cOlOnists, accord
ing to Mr.. LeBaron, viii not De lnHil-
grants but German Americans VINO
have lived in this country five years.
That they are a most desirable class
of settler was the substance OF state
ments made by Charles Leavel and
Richard T. Burgess, when Rev. henneln
whether or not they were immigrants
or would bring their foreign customs
here. Rev Mr.. Brown said that ten
wears ago while living in rural com
munfties in Iowa where Germans
bad settled, there was much dissatis-
faction among American farmers re-
siding in the same localities at the
beer drinking and general conduct OF
the foreigners.
T,eaven and Burgess replied that they
had watched the same nationality settle
on farms in other portions of Texas
and had seen them make flourlshing
out of villages that had
been unable to support
themselves. Heavy increase in popu--
Iafion and land values had resulted
from the arrival of the cOlonists, ac-
cording to the talks made by both
Among those at the meeting Tues
day, were Robert Krakauer, l. NJ. Law
son. Zach T. White, Robert RlneharL
And~aTr Reeves III =.