The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-07-16
By ERNEST @ WALKER
mail Special to the Advertiser

great deal is being done at washington
even now with an eye out the window
for conditions after the war. A very
great deal more of the same sort will
be done as months pass and the ramif-
cations and Importance Of these efforts
will more definitely appear. Indeed
after-thc- enterprises In administra-
tiou and in legislation are already dim,
ly figuring in national politics. They
are not selfish enterprises, either from
the indivlual or national standpoint,
beyond recognition Of conditions that,
In few months or a few years (when-
ever peace cOmps) will generally apply.
There are at hand two concrete illus
trations. The more forcible one is the
shaping of preliminary plans for huge
undertakings by the government in the
far western states in retaining arid
lands. This fits in with recently an
nounced plans of the government re
gaFding public lands in Hawaii. Quite
fifteen years ago the interior depart
ment by congressional authority, EN-
barked upon projects for putting wa
ter upon desert land, making this land
tilliblC and attractive to settlers, to
whom it was sold on easy installments.
The government now has twenty five
or thirty of these projects scattered
over a dozen states on the Pacific Coast
and IN the Rocky Mountain section.
Thu policy has indicated itself
through years of more or less tribula-
tiOn. Theoretically the government is
reimbursed for all its vast expenditures,
and, in spite Of temporary discourage
ments theory is working out tolerably
well in actual practice. Certain of the
projects for government reclamation
were not thoroughly prepared and safe
guarded and when this became plain
D few years ago, it gave the reclama
ti0n service a black eye temporarily,
but that is now in the past. Recently
100000 has been voted by congress for
surveys of drainage basins and reser
voir sites and all that The depart
ments of the interior and of agriculture,
iBciuiin5 the geological survey, are
making ready to obtain a great volume
of physical data such as stream meas
urements and soil analyses with a view
to having all this ready for undertak-
ing after the war an enormous con
4 struction program. bill to appropri
ate 81, 1000 900, 900 for this work has
been introduced in both houses of con,
gress.
Homes for Soldiers.
The basic idea is that when the mil.
lions of American soldiers return from
service in France they will want alike
work and homes. Homesteads have al
ways been in brisk demand after every
American war and they must be low
priced In earlier days these were Civ
en-, without cost, to ex-soldicrs out of
the public domain. But the enormous
areas of public lands, available for
farms, no longer exist and the govern
q ment must invade the arid wastes,
which, when properly watered, make
some of the finest farming land in the
world.
+, Thousands upon thousands of sol,
diers, now in France or about to 90
there, will, on their return, have OPP
ppTtunity as labOrers, clerks, fOremen
and engineers to reclaim vast acre
age in the West on plans the govern
ment will have ready, and, subsequent
4 ", to settle upon these new farms.
The hundreds of millions Of dollars
that the government will put out in
\ these enterprises will be paid back into
the treasury in the course of fifteen or
twenty years.
Water Power Development
Io.. r,,roI ,,ndor+okin, hut bovino
dis-iartI,, an nf,n~.tIr'v9, asract !.
Tho coormons JryeIonm4nt Of watr,
y nouor FoIIo,,;rr many years y,
= ,,ron,,,;rc IN con.Ircs. and ont ~ i q
rr,bnn.ive hiII f,r tho aIoumrr,
NJ aotnr rnvor nm the ,ul,,ir Lom,,r
and m nayiGahIn r;yars uharr con
nro,s rothrr tLan Nh. Individual states
n sxar,ises anthoritv has nassrd hotI
Iegi,Iotiye houses amt has h.rr ogrcr,
mn in corferencr If ,.en,s NOW -
cor u,ov N became Iav urohahIv II
. form that will attract rapitaI an,
nal, anra avtar.,y,. ,pdnstriaI dpvnlon
r mat
president Wilson ur,.d this IroisIa
tior anew Iost December .lnt mt hi
racn.nmondatinu NJ II ,s . vor rrres
~, Will, rorI,m,,t.nr If ara Ian ,
~, ho ossontiolI, ,..,.r, L.y,.lnn
- 80 u,o+nr ,,o,,or viii ~. r.,,n,
- T. vii boI,, IN ,L, tLirLI, nm
80 ,tIontia .ooI,,rl ..atn. Co.. o,.,,,
4, onnfootnrirn N'.,y Er,,Io,I vL.r
H. - md -,r.,,,,,, nrn h.rn,,ss,,,
~, oonoroIIv tban .rsn,, bera ~ ~,