The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-10-19

preparation of plans for providing opportunity
for these men. And because his department has
handled similar problems in the past, he has
made it his duty to bring the matter to the at
tention of the president and congress. He points
out that every country has found itself face to
face with this problem at the close of a great
war. From Rome under Caesar to France under
Napoleon down even to our own Civil war, the
problem arose as to what could be done with the
soldiers mustered out Of military service.
At the close of the Civil war America faced a
somewhat similar situation. But fortunately Mt
that time the public domain offered opportunity
to the home-returning soldiers. The great part
the veterans of that war played in developing
the West Is one Of our epics. The homestead
law had been signed by President Lincoln in the
second year of the war, so that out Of our wealth
in lands we had farms to offer the military vet
Grams. 1t was also the era of ranscontinental
railway construction. 1t was likewise the period
of rapid, vet broad and full, development of towns
and communities and states.
To the great number of returning soldiers in
the present war land will undoubtedly offer the
great and fundamental opportunity. The e-
perience of wars points out the lesson that our
service men, because of army life, with its open
ness and activity, will largely seek out of doors
vacations and occupations.
This fact is accepted by the allied European
nations. That is why their programs and poll
cies of relocating and reimbursement emphasize
the opportunities on the land for the returning
soldier. The question then is, "What land can
be made available for farm homes for our sol
diers?'
We have not the bountiful public domains Of
the sixties and seventies. In a literal sense, for
the use of it on a generous scale for soldier farm
homes as in the sixties, the public domain is
gone. The official figures at the end Of the fiscal
year, June 80, 1917, show that we have unappro-
priated land In the continental United States
to the amount of 30,657,7 55 acres. 1t is safe to
aA- khok nAk A-A vol 80 thI1 In~I x-nI AVIAN
prove to be cultivable in any sense. So we have
no land in any way comparable to that in the
public domain when Appomattox came-and men
turned Westward with army rifle and roll blan-
ket-to begin life anew.
While we do not have that matchless public
domain of 85, we do have millions of acres of I'M
developed 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 If
properly handled.
But it will require that each type of land be
dealt with in its own particular fashion. The
arid lands 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 No Mans Land. The solution of
these problems is no new thing. In the admirable
achievement of the reclamation service in recla-
nation and drainage we have abundant proof
of what can be done.
Looking toward the construction of additional
projects, Secretary Lane announces that plans
and Investigations have been under way for some
time. A survey and study has been In the course
of by the reclamation service on
the great Colorado basin. That project, undoubt-
edly, will appeal to the new spirit Of America. It
would mean the conquest Of an empire In the
Southwest. 1t is believed that more than 3,OOO.-
600 ncres of arid land could be reclaimed by the
completion of the upper and lower Colorado basin
projects.
1t has been officially estimated that more than
100000 acres of ~irrigable land now remain In
the governments hands. This Is the great re-
naming storehOuse of government land for recia-
nation. Under what policy and program millions
of these acres could be reclaimed for future farms
and homes remains for legislation to determine.
The amount of swamp and cut-over lands in
the United States available for farming is extern
tive. Just how much there is has never been de-
termined with any degree of accuracy. Practical
ly all OF It has passed into private ownership.
For that reason, in considering its use, it would
be necessary to work out n policy between the
private owners and the government unless the
land was purchased. 1t has been estimated that
the total area of swamp and overlooked lands In
the United States is between 100000 and So