Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-08

wv ASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 4.--Every respon-
NJ sible American citizen who wants a farm
w shall have one, fully equipped, provided
he can pay the government as first installment
4 small percentage of the value of the land. He
will be given a long time to pay the rest of the
price, and that price will be based upon the &C
tuaI producing power of the land, and not upon
a speculation to its future value. The farmer
shall further be given every possible assistance to
make his farm pay.
That in brief outline, is the method by which
the present administration expects to solve, after
the war, the problem of feeding America, and also
in part that On replacing in civilian life the sol
diers returned from Europe. The plan upon which
it is working, through the department of the in
terror, is based upon one which has proved sue
cessful in Australia, and also as state measure
in California, DIR. Elwood Meade, chairman OF
the California Land Settlement board, has been
called to Washington by the secretary of the in
terror, and is now here studying the problem OF
applying the Australia California plan to the whole
United States. At the same time, the interior de-
partment has several land experts in the field,
studying arid, cut-over and swamp lands which
may be reclaimed and made fertile Tor TINS pur-
pose The department has appropriation OF
$500 900 for carrying out these Investigations And
independent study, but also under government aus
pices, is being made by Benton McKaye, an ex-
pert in forestry, whose studies look to the appli
cation of this colonization scheme to numbering and
mining as we'll as farming. Several measures have
been introduced into congress which embody the
general idea, but these will undoubtedly be SUI
perseded by an administration" BILL prepared by
the experts who studying the problem.
Although this land settlement plal goes unu0T
the name of a measure TO provide farms for sol
diers ID is really a great deal more than that. 1t
is a plan to forestaI food shortage in the United
States.
1t aims to do this by establishing a scientific
ally planned system of rural development, which
will in every possible way insure the success OF
the farmer and thereby the productivity of the
farm. Heretofore have had no ordered system
of rural development.
The country is awakening to the fact that it
cannot feed itself much longer by the haphazard
method. The has shown that there are Hmi-
tations to our resources, often called boundless
The American people have experienced want. Yet
we undoubtedly have the land to feed population
much larger than present one The trouble,
then must be in the way the land is cultivated.
1t is.
Land in nearly every state of the union lies
uncultvated partly cultivated, wastefplly cul-
tivated, because good farming in many parts OF
this country does not pay There are two prtn-
cpal reasons for this In the first place. the price
of the land is so high that an investment in land
cannot possibly pay. In the second place, our sys-
tenn of distributing the products OF the land is such
that fair share of the price paid for them does
not reach the who produces them.
The price of land alone is enough to check the
development of farming which is necessary to feed
the United States in the future. The difficulty IS