The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-15
trenches Hand will Offer the great and

The question then is, as Secretary Lane says, "What land can be made available for farm homes for our sol- diers ?" As practically all of the swamp and cut-over land has passed into private ownership it would be necessary to work out a policy be- tween the owners and the government unless the land were purchased.
 "Any plan for the development of land for the returning soldier will come face to face with the fact that new policy will have to meet the new conditions" says MT. Lane. "The era of free or cheap land in the United States has passed. We must meet the new conditions of developing lands in advance security must, to a degree, ldisplace speculation"
 A plan whereby land is developed in large areas, subdivided into indi- vidual farms, then sold to actual bona fide farmers on long time pay ment basis, has been in force not only in the United States under the reclam- ation act, but also in many other coun- tries for several years and has proved a distinct success.
 What Secretary Lane particularly urges is prompt action on the part of Congress for the necessary plan ming. As he remarks, small sum 1 of money "put into the hands of men of thought, experience and vision will give us programme which will make us feel entirely confident that we are not to be submerged industrially or otherwise by labor which we will not be able to absorb, or that we would be in condition where we would show a lack of respect for those who re- turn as heroes, but who will be with out means of immediate self support" A million or two dollars, if appro- priated now, will, according to MT. Lane, put this work we'll under way.
 The plan, in it's general aspects, is simple. Congress should not delay in taking the preliminary steps. | When an army aviator, nearly two hours overdue, landed at the State Fair grounds, his wife said: Where in the world have you been all this timer" He might have answered truthfully enough: l Up in the air"
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 Let us hope that the thunderstorm which came up just before Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and Raymond T. Baker were to be married on the lawn
 
 does not presage domestic storms in the future.
 Secretary Baker says the opinion of General Foch is 'syery much more inn portant' than the opinion of General Won Stein, statment in which practically everyone who isn't pro-German will heartily concur.
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 St. Paul woman, an army officers wife, fired five shots from revolver at a negro intruder. Four bullets pierced his head and one his heart. That woman has evidently done little target prac- tice
 Before asking for that appropriation or s2.ooo,oOO, George Creel should have stopped to consider that it is contrary to precedent for newspaper man to associate with so much money < # * Senator Underwood's cloture resolution was defeated. Which may be taken as further proof that Congress would rather talk than eat and infinitely prefers gab- bling to transacting business
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 II the republicans and democrats of Michigan get together and elect Henry Ford to the Senate, it will do much to wipe out the memory of Madam Schwim- mer and the peace junket.
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 It has been year since the first American troops arrived in France, but considerably less time than that since Germany grudgingy acknowledged their presence.
 A recent photograph of Won Ludendorff lshows him in deep thought. He is at least capable of deep thought, which is more than can be said for the crown prince.
 People who have never cared much for souvenirs are hoping one of their friends in Pershing's army will be able to send them button from the Kaiser's uniform. !. $ $. l While his brother goes lover the top'' for democracy, the small boy will do