Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-23

tn HE train stopped one afternoon at
a station out west; and while
- waiting for a delayed connection.
we had time to look around. l call
the place a station. but 1t was nothing
but a water tank, with half-breed in
charge. Since early morning we had
travelled without seeing a human habita-
ton, or a tree or blade OF grass only
an occasional water tank; the visible
dnhabitants of this desert country were
the prairie dogs, and their chums, the
ratflesnake: so when we were delayed
for half an hour or so at the little sta
ton, il furnished an opportunity to get
out and look around A young engineer
in khaki was there in charge of gang
of laborers putting i'm what he called
ian irrigation project
The engineer said he came from the
east; by east he meant Omaha An IT
rigation company was engaged in con-
structing a big dam somewhere up in
the mountains, to impound the waters
formed by melting snow; and water so
RYnpounded was to be led by irrigation
bitches to the desert lands. This COM
,nanv owned thousands of acres of land;
II sold this land to settlers at so cents
an acre, but the charge for water was
ss5 an acre. Some irrigation companies
make an annual charge of SO to ~ an
acre for water. 1t means that the land
is utterly worthless without the water.
In this arid region there Is no rain at
all; precipitation is in the form of snow
in winter The water from the melting
SHOWS in springtime is imprisoned IN
huge reservoirs and led out to the sur
rounding territory in big bitches
could not help from contrasting this
situation with the lands of Georgia
where the gentle rains from heaven fall
in regular season sometimes little
too much) and you can buy dand out
right at $35 an acre, without having
TO depend on an irrigation company to
,s,.Dnlv YOU with water. 1 thought of
the mild equable climate of Georgia,
"a contrasted with the fierce winters
of those desert lands, with not a tree In
200 miles to obstruct the winds.
though of the hot parching summers out
west as compared with the denghtIul
vear-round temperature of north Geor-
gia: / wanted to get back to the land
where il rains.
How can settlers ever be induced to
go A1t west? Yet they have gone and
are going lured on by the alfalfa htera-
iture of railroad press agents. The west
lern railroads have certainly been enter
iprfsing in inducing settlers to ill up the
great blank spaces of the boundless
west Not a foreign immigrant was
ever allowed to come south. If 1t could
'rossibly be helped l have heard 1t said
that this is a good thing for the south;
but / think sprinkling of foreign agri-
cultural settlers would be of great bene-
int TO this country. l do not share in
the popular prejudice against foreign
settlers, but would like to see a num-
Der of German farmers in Georgia Not
that 1 am hyphen-Anferican Coeing a
" ilson Democrat of the most pronounced
itype), and l am not afraid to write
these weasel words that observation
leads me to believe that we can learn
much from the intelligent German far
lmer. In fact, / think the original
southern ruralist has much to learn (and
II have been one Of them).
The south has had much to contend
with; beginning with the Civil war and
running through yellow fever. malaria