New-York tribune., 1918-12-12
Would Have Soldiers Help
Reclaim Nations Idle
Acres in Reconstruction
To Protect Labor Market
Secretary of Interior Urges
Movement of Population
to Cities Be Checked

soldier? What is to be his chance?
How shall the labor market be pro-
+scted against surplus when the sol
diers return? How shall the move
ment of population to the cities be
checked? How shall idle lands be
made productive? How shall foreign
born citizens be Americanized? How
shall initeracy be reduced among our
own citizens?
Secretary of the Interior Lane asks
these questions and answers them III
his annual report, made public to-day.
He proposes:
That the United States give the
IL soldiers the chance to acquire farms
on the longtime payment plan.
. That the national reclamation sys-
81 tenn be extended to include not only
the watering of arid land, but also the
reclaiming of swamp and logged-off
lands, and that soldiers be Immediately
employed on these projects.
. That a national land policy be de-
a. veloped with No "slacker or idle
acres" as q slogan.
That vigorous national educational
II campaign, in cooperation with the
nubNc school systems of the states, be
inaugurated to reduce illiteracy among
American citizens, whether native or
foreign born, SO as to secure citizen
shin alive and responsive to the obliga-
tions and duties of members of a de-
mocracy.
Secretary Lane calls this programme
"looking- forward work-the considera-
ton Of those problems, suggested by
conditions arising out of the war,
which the nation will be called upon to
meet in the immediate future" He de-
clares that "some of those ills which
have fallen upon other lands may, in
some part at least. be kept from our
doors by the development of policies
which are already in a small way being
carried out by this department"
"One of those policies" Secretary
Lane says, "is that our schools shall
be made to more completely serve
America as a nation. The other policy
is that the lands of this country shall
not lie unused. Both may be included
in the broader meaning of the word
'Americanization'- one makes for
the DEVELOPMENT of more helpful Amer
lean citizens, and the other makes for
the development of more serviceable
American acres. For the intensifica-
tion and extension of these two poll
cies | would make earnest appeal that
we have championed may be the more
perfectly realized.'
The Returning Soldier
Of the welcome to the soldiers he
says: "Their welcome cannot be too
warm or our appreciation of their SER
vice too hearty. And the question is
pertinent: What shall that welcome be?
Is it to be merely one of glad greet
ings, the emotional outburst of mo-
ment, or shall it take on a more per-
manent form. one which will be ade-
quate in its largeness and lasting in it's
nature?
Being Americans and being young,
the soldiers" Mr. Lane says, "will not
ask or expect pensions. They will want
work. They Will want, if possible,
chance for 4 home of their own. They
would like to know chat while perhaps
the fortunes of war did not so turn
as to bestow on them the medal for
distinguished service. the nation which
they served thought we'll enough Of
what they had done to give them some
evidence of its appreciation.
Now, these hopes, reasonable and
manly as they are, can be met and in
fashion that will not weaken the fibre
OF the man by making him an object
nently to the strength and the wealth
Of the nation.
why not say to this inquring SOL
der man: America offers you a farm
II you will help in it's making and paw
lor 1t out of what you make out of it.
his can be done, and if it were it
would solve, or tend largely to solve,
several problems:
"D That of the immediate Job for
the man himself.
"t2) That of protecting the labor
labor.
%3) That of providing for many
IInes mes of reestablished industry an i'm
mediate demand for their products.
i4) That of staying the movement
toward the cities, and thus more com
pletely decentralizing our population.
,.lo) That of affixing to our soil a
iarge number of the best-proved
Americans.
90 That of setting up throughout
s.,e lahu the most modern pattern of
Ierm settlement in which the social
Side OF human nature is given con-
sderation WI
That of bringing into use those
great areas of our land which now lie
neglected and are of no value to the
world.
"AIl of these objects, I apprehend,
"i'i WI De deemed worthy, desirable and
VI great concern to the nation. The
qu1Suons that arise in the mind will
10! 10Y involve the value of dong these
thlrgs, but the practicabilty Of such a
Programmed"
Lanes Land Programme
oecretary Lane then discusses the
ing: VI '''e pioD'ei'' s"o"
ood' ]' oI That there are in the United States
voU,ooO'o0O acres which may be con
dsr!ed INTO farms. either by irrigation,
urslnagc or clearing.
mat the greater part of this is
paNa'e a,, land or state owned land, which
EoIu Eyuiu oe acquired on appraisal bv the
e9eral "a Farm Land Board.
landa nat on the government owned
o;,o tJmas lmmediate employment could be
e'se'l rt 10 all men needing work.
sba.,,hat nat the national land programme
wo' LOUD apply to all states and be
statn gotneo cut through Federal aid and
unmssS ~,s cooperation, developing even the
as s'oveo Wa lands in the older states, such
Th ThnasSSachusetts and New York.
coni4 lhe United States. says Mr.. Lane,
fo".u four support a population of three or
rIe lines elmes what we have if the peo-
sroc re "ouic change their desire to CON
ss'e IN industrial centres.
Give Work First on Land
tba As San an immediate programme said
&C..