The Washington herald., 1918-06-21

Land for the returning soldiers
and food for the folks of the coun-
try.
4 general resurrection OF "pio-
neering" and a revivatication OF
"homesteading."
This is the program outlined for
the end of the war and some of the
leading members OF Congress. and
executive officers are supporting
plans looking to this accomplish
ment. 1t will unquestionably be put
through in some shape or other. for
the obvious reason that the soldiers
will want 1t ana what they want
| when they get back here, is what
they are going 70 get.
The results OF this movement will
be beneficial, of course. both upon
the population OF the country and
! upon the soldiers themselves. 1t
will bring the same results. in a
measure. that were brought when
| the Civil War ended and hundreds
Of thousands of the veterans of that
conflict went into the Middle West
| and Far West and built up that
country to its present enormous
prosperity.
Secretary Lane. has seen a vision
which is not far distant from that
touched upon in this column many
months ago. 1t tallies very closely
with Senator Harding's vision, also,
| and rather tends to detail what the
| Senator presented in more or less
ah hEtY Ia 80 .
In his very enlightening letter, to
members of Congress Secretary
Lane made these interesting oh
servations. which are of distinct
importance:
ITO the great number of return
| ing soldiers land will offer the great
and fundamental opportunity. The
experience of wars points out the
| lesson that our service. men. because
of army life with its openness and
activity. will largely seek out-of- doors
! vocations and occupations This fact
is accepted by the allied European
nations. That is why their programs
and policies of relocating and read.
justment emphasize the opportunities
on the land for the returning SOL
dier. The question. then, is What
land can be made available for farm
homes for our soldiers?
I'VE do not have the bountiful pub
lie domain of the COS and '7Os. In
literal sense, for the use of It on
a generous scale for soldier farm
homes as in the COS. the public do
main is gone The official figures
at the end of the fiscal year. June
30. 1917. shsow this: We have unap-
propriated land in the continental
United States TO the amount of 80
G57,755 acres. 1t is safe to say that
not one-half of this land will ever
prove to be cultivatable in any sense.
So We have no land in any way COM
parable to that in the public domain
when Appomatox came-and men
turned westward with army rifle and
roll blanket'-to begin life anew.
while we do not have that match
less public domain of IS, we do have
millions of acres of undeveloped lands
that can be made available for our
homecoming soldiers. We have arid
lands in the West: cut-over lands in
the Northwest, Lake States, and
South; and also swamp lands in the
Middle West and South, which can
be made available through the proper
development Much of this land can
be made suitable for farm homes il
properly handled. But it will require
that each type of land be dealt with
in its own particular fashion. The
arid iand will require water-the cut
over land will require clearing. and
| the swamp land must be drained.
Without any of these aids. they re-
main largely Nc Mans Land. The
solution Of these problems IL no new
thing. In. the admirable achieve. lC ut
| Of the Reclamation Servica in recJa-
nation and drai lare we have abun-
dant proof of what can be done.
Looking toward the construction
OF ADDITIONAL projects, am glad to say
that plans and Investigations have
been under way for some time. A
survey and study has been in the
course of contamination by the
Reclamation Service on the great
Colorado basin. That great project
believe. will appeal to the new spirit
of America. 1t would mean the con-
quest of an empire in the Southwest
1t is believed that more than three
millions of acres of arid land could
be reclaimed by the completion OF
the upper and lower Colorado basin
projects. .st..s
TT has been officially estimated that
more than ,15,0Oe.eo0 acres of irrigabls
land now remain in the governments
hands. This is the great remaining
storehouse of government land fol
RECLAMATION. Under what policy and