Denver labor bulletin. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-19??, 1918-07-27
WHEN OUR SWORDS TURN PLOWSHARES
From the Literary Digest.

| When Johnny comes marching home
victorious and lays aside his rifle and
uniform, a place must be found for
him in the ranks Of civil life, and now
is the time to prepare for it, our news
papers are saying. Some of them
find a partial solution in the plan of
Secretary of the Interior Franklin X.
Lane, to settle those who wish to farm
on lands prepared by the government.
1t is noted that If the war is a. long
war, 5000, 900 men must find a path
back to ordinary life when it is over,
and tho a large part may return to
the work and even the positions they
had left, very large proportion will
be more or less at sea- In Secretary
Lanes plan, set forth in a letter to
the President and in several speeches,
we are reminded that the nation still
has millions upon millions of unde-
veloped acres, desert land that must
be irrigated, swamp land that must
be drained, cut-over timber land that
must be stumped out and made arabic.
The question of retaining arid and
swamp land, the Syracuse Journal re-
calls, has been before Congress in
one form and another for many years,
but no serious consideration was ever
given it. Events seem to show that
Secretary Lane has brought it up at
the psychological moment, and it
trusts that the note he sounds will not
be ignored by the wise men in Con-
gress. In Mr.. Lanes letter to the
President we read:
"a million or two dollars, if appro-
priated now, will put this work well
under way.
This ELAN does not contemplate
anything like charity to the soldier.
He is not to be given bounty. He
is not to be made to feel that he is
dependent. On the contrary, he is to
continue in a sense in the service of
the government. Instead of destroy
ing our enemies, he is to develop our
resources.
1.-The work that is to be done, other
than the planning, should be done by
the soldier himself. The dam or the
irrigation project should be built by
him, the canals, the bitches, the break
ing of the land, and the building of
the houses, should, under proper direc-
ton, be his occupation He should be
allowed to make his own home, cared
for while he is doing it, and given an
interest in the land for which he can
pay thru a long period Of years. per-
haps thirty OF forty years. This same
policy can be carried out as to the
other classes of land, so that the SOL
der on his return would have an op-
portunity to make a home for him
self, to build a home with money
which we would advance and which
he would repay, and for the repay
ment we would have an abundant Sc
curity.
"The farms should not be turned
over as the prairies were-unbroken,
unfenced, without accommodations for
men or animals. There should be pre-
pared homes, all of which can be
constructed by the men themselves
and paid for by them under q system
Of simple devising by which modern
methods of finance will be applied to
their needs"
The New Orleans Item notes the
statement Of Secretary Lane that the
public lands Of forty, thirty, and even
twenty-five years ago are gone, and
considers that the settling of the SOL
diers on reclaimed land is one after
the-war problem in which the South is
vitality interested. The South should
be exceedingly active in its solution,
for lit affords the South opportunity
for settlement and development SINH
lar to that enjoyed by the West after
| the civil war" For Northern-born
men the northern third Of Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan would be
VASTLY preferable to anything the
South could offer" according to the
Minneapolis Journal, which tells US
this section is destined by nature to
be the greatest dairy region in Amer
ica." The Boston Transcript, too. OBJ
serves that:
There is another source of land
for such purpose which probably has
not suggested itself to Secretary Lane,
but which would, if awaited of. supply
a larger acreage than either the irri-
cation or drainage projects 1t is
the unused or half-used farm lands
of the Northeastern states. These are
now in private ownership, and for the
most part their land is out Of tillage
because it cannot be made to pay
under current or extensive methods
of cultivation, in competition with bet
ter land in the West. But
under an organized and well-directed
intensive cultivation they would pay
largely"
The Wichita Beacon points out that
there are 100000 acres Of irriga-
Bile territory in the West, much of it
in the western part of Kansas. These
reclaimable areas must be taken in
hand now, for "if the war is to end
in 1920 or 1921. which seems prob
able, if all goes well, work will have
to commence now in order to provide
sufficiently large tracts Of disable land
for the soldiers who are coming back"