The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-01-06
Two Dollars for One.

1t would seem that in view OF the
devastation wrought by the floods
along Weldon river during the year
1915, that every man who owns land
along the stream .xpuld wake up to
the necessity of A6(ng something to
stop them.
4 flood is worse than drouth. A
drouth merely destroys the crops
while the land is left in good shape
for the next season. A flood de-
stroys the crops, washes the land,
tears out fences and distributes drift
wood and foul weed seed, making
necessary great deal of hard and
Improbable labor to get the land
ready for the next crop.
Experience in other localities has
proved conclusively that floods along
such streams as Weldon can be OBJ
waited by Strengthening the channel.
These tortuous Misunderstanding
around from two to four miles in
one, INSTRUCTED by weeds, brush and
driftwood-will not carry over one
tenth of the water that straight
open channel of the same size will
carry. Straighten the channel and
you do away with the floods.
1t will cost something to do it
we cannot say how much-but this
we can say, 1T will pay back two
dollars for every dollar it costs.
No good business man would turn
down a proposition that would re-
turn two dollars for one. Will it do
lit? Travel along the stream and see
thousands of acres of the best land
in the world covered with weeds,
driftWood and wrecked fences and
you have the answer.
Do away with the floods and you
double the value of every acre of this
overflow land. Land is only valuable
for what it will produce. Land that
produces nothing is worth nothing.
Straighten the stream and the sur
plus raised, over what can be raised
now, will in very few years liqui-
date the debt Then if you like, go
on after the debt is paid putting the
surplus in the bank and it won't be
long until you can own as long an
automobile as the banker has, and
own it as long as you want to. Or
you could take trip to Paris after
Henry Ford has restored peace to the
warning nations of Europe.
While Strengthening the channel
and preventing overflows would
greatly benefit the land owner who
pays the bill, it would also, in an in
direct way, benefit every other per-
son in the county. The more farm
err makes, the more money he has to
spend with the people in other lines
Of human endeavor. He prOspers
and so do they.
1t requires no argument to prove
that an increase of wealth in any
community is of benefit to all the peo-
pie in that community.
Where there is nothing to eat, all
must go hungry.
All other land owners would be
benefited because there would be a
general advance in the price of land.
The value of land in any particu-
lar locality is based, largely, on the
aggregate production of all the farms
in that locality.
One rich man does not make a
prosperous farming community A
few rich farms in country where a
great portion of the land is worth
less does not make high priced land.
Even good farms are cheapened by
being in poor country. The bene-
fit to the whole community, of max
ing all the land as productive as pos
sible is easily seen. Let Decatur
county farms produce in the aggre-
gate even 10 per cent more than they
do now and the price of all land will
advance.
We have heard considerable talk
lately, about Strengthening the erik
and we are wondering if it is going
to end there. Talk is alright for
Billy Sunday or Billy Bryan. They
have a brand of language people are
willing to pay for. But common farm
ers talk. Pshaw! All it is good for
is to say-"Pass the soup, please, !"
or won't you give me little mora
time on that note?" 1t is also useful
to use around the barn; also the
house when the woman is absent. In
fact we have never known a farmer
who was great on language, who did
not nave a lot of wrinkles in his
bread basket.
So let us, get busy, get up a petit
ton and if possible get every man
who owns overflow land to sign it.
Present it to the board, have a
drainage district declared, and let
the county go ahead and do the
work, charging the same up to the
land in a just and equitable way.
A. NJ. CHRISTIAN,
Garden Grove, Iowa, Jan. 3, 1916.
Crouching, shivering, freezing, dy-