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

ing; and the opportunity to live, not
as isolated settlers, but as members
of community which would practice
large degree of cooperation. 1t goes
without saying that all those advan-
tages and the whole project should
be open to any qualified person, as
we'll as to discharged soldiers and sail
ors
To Make Surveys.
The most immediate proposal in
Secretary Lanes letter was request
for an appropriation of million and
a quarter dollars to make surveys and
other preliminary Investigations. Con-
gress has met the request by giving
him only two hundred thousand dol
lars. However, something worth
while will be done toward preparing a
practical program for submission to
Congress, inasmuch as the money is
to be spent under the direction of Mr..
Arthur P. Davis, of the U. S. Reclama-
tion Service, and Professor Elwood
Mead, who has had charge of similar
colonization enterprises in Australia
and California
Although the action of California in
aiding land settlement is quite recent,
it is highly instructive and encourag-
ing. The State Land Settlement
Board provides not only the land
which is to be colonized, but irrigation
bitches, wells and houses; it lays out
hn fop inc or fol IN hn
various forms of agriculture, and lends
the settler 40 per cent of the money
needed for improvements. In some
cases it has planted the seed before
the land was actually taken by the
settlers. In no case is the land trans
ferred to the settler before it is ready
| for cultivation. The settler pays back
the money advanced by the Board in
ten annual installments, including in
/ terest at the rate of five per cent. A
strong community and cooperative
spirit is fostered. The colony owns
its irrigation system, and operates
stock breeding and selling associa-
ton.
From every important point of view,
economic, social and moral, the settle
| ment of our untitled land is vital to
the future welfare of America. We
must have an increased production of
food, we must multiply property own
| ers, and we must get and keep the
largest possible proportion of our peo-
pie upon the land. But the thing will
| have to be done on a large scale, sys-
tematically, scientifically, and through
the agency either of beneyolent-minded
private association or the state or fed
eral governments. 1t cannot be ac-
| complished through the efforts of in
| diyiduals, nor as result of pious &c
hortations to "get back to the land"
lnasmuch as the right kind of coloni-
| Zatlon enterprises do not make a
| strong or general appeal to owners of
private capital, by far the greater part
of the enterprise will have to be car
ried out by the governments of the
states and the nation One important
advantage of government over private
colonization projects is the possibility
that it gives Of leasing the land in
| perpetuity to the settlers at a yearly
rental, instead of selling it outright.
! This is the plan followed in the state
aided colonies in New South Wales,
and it is said to be favored by Pro-
fessor Mead. Whether it would satisfy
the instinct of ownership in the aver
age settler, and provide sufficient in
centive for permanent occupation and
| iVr1T1 y1{ re n Sc
ton that could be answered only on
| the basis of careful and considerable
experience. In addition to the advan-
tage of freeing the settler from the
necessity of providing capital for the
purchase of the land, the leasing sys-
tenn would prevent speculation, alb
sentee ownership and tenancy, and
retain for the community the in
creases in the value Of the land
To Catholics land colonization
should be OF peculiar interest An abb
normally large proportion of our peo-
pie is now in the cities, and year by
year the situation grows worse We
ought to do our utmost to induce
Catholics to take advantage of any
feasible project of colonization. But
our efforts should go much further
than mere exhortations. We should
have an organization which should en-
courage and assist Catholic settlers to
occupy any given locality in sufficient
numbers to support a church and a
school, and to form community that
would be solidly and dominately Cath
Ole. We all realize how great have
been the losses to the Church through
the migration of individuals to nom
Catholic settlements. Let us not by
indifference and neglect permit this
history be repeated in connection with
such an excellent enterprise as gov.