The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-12-07

oMlST OF AMERICAN CHURCH
FAVoRS WESTERN MOVEMENT
TO GET RETURNED YANkS TO
TAKE UP UNUSED FARMING
LANDS.
The Catholic Church in Colorado,
Wyoming, New Mexico and other
Western States, with an abundance of
land still open to settlement, is vitality
interested in the movement to have
returned soldiers and sailors take up
homesteads. Because OF the fact that
at least 35 per cent of the army and
about 40 per cent of the navy is Cath
Ole, it means much to the Church
out here to have this movement sue
coed. The Rev. John A. Ryan, D. D.,
of the Catholic University, probably
the most famous of American Catholic
economists, greatly fayors this move
ment, and, in The Catholic Charities
Review, edited by him, discusses it as
follows:
Prominent among the items in every
plan that has been put forward for
social reconstruction after the war is
one relating to land settlement. In
most cases the principal object in view
is the welfare of discharged soldiers
and sailors. 1t is assumed that a
large proportion of these will desire
to become cultivators and owners of
land Whether this assumption will
be verified. is a question that cannot
fidence until the men have actually
been returned to the United States.
In passing, we would record our guess
that no very large number of those
who formerly have been city dwellers
will show a very resolute inclination
Soldier Colonization.
However, the project of govern
ment-assisted colonization is not, and
should not be, dependent upon the
interests or the preferences of our
soldiers and sailors. If any consider
able proportion of these wish to live
upon the land, that will constitute a
powerful and particular reason why
| the federal government should under
take systematic policy of opening
new lands to settlement; but there
are sufficient reasons for the policy,
even though all the men returning
from the war should prefer to live in
| the cities. The first of these reasons
| is the need for more food. For sew
eral years our population has been
growing faster than our food produc-
ton. While it is true that the needs
of the additional population could now
| be met by more intensive cultiva-
| ton of the acreage already in use, it
| is probable that this would mean
more costly production, and therefore
still higher food prices. Hence stu
| dents of the subject turn to the pos
sibility of obtaining the needed in
crease in the food supply from lands
| that have not yet been brought under
| cultivation.
| The other main reason for sys.
! tematic and far-reaching program of
colonization through government aid,
| is to be found in the Importance, nay,
the necessity, of increasing the num-
| Der Of farm owners in the United
| States. For the last two decades we
| have seen steady and rapid increase
| in the number and percentage Of ten
| ant farmers. One obvious way to
check this deplorable tendency would
be through legislation enabling exist
| ing tenants to become owners. Diff.
cult as it is, some such program will
undoubtedly have to be undertaken in
the not distant future. The other, and
in some respects the simpler, method
Of increasing the proportion of own
| ing cultivators and decreasing that OF
| tenant cultivatOrS, is to bring more
| land into use and make the users pro
prietors.
| In a letter to the President at the
| end Of last May, Secretary Lane pre-
scented some valuable data concerning
the nature and amount of unbroken
land in the United States, suggested in
outline methods of rendering the land
fit for cultivation and establishing
colonies of soldiers and sailors upon
it, and urged that certain preliminary
| steps be taken Immediately. He de
clared that the United States owns
some 100000 acres of irrigable land
that about 10000, 900 acres, mostly in
private hands, of swamp lands could
be made suitable for cultivation, and
that there are 200.00O,000 acres of cut
! over timber lands, practically all pri
vately owned, which could be made
productive. His suggestions concern
ing the manner of settlement should
employ at good wages the returned
soldiers and sailors to prepare the
land for cultivation, and advance then
at the lowest possible rate of interest
money to buy machinery and all othel
/ necessary equipment. The money
thus advanced and the purchase price
of the land would be paid to the Gov
eminent in annual installments. OBJ
viously the plan involves no element
i K ne e. lint Dnd;cafad