New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-02-12

HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS ARE
ASKED FOR RE-GAININc
OF WASTE LANDS
There IS a bin pending in congress
asking for the appropriation Of the SIM
OF $l00, 000, GOD '.to be expended under
the direction Of the Secretary Of the
Interior, for the investigation. iirripa-
ton, drainage, and development Of
swamp, arid, waste, and undeyeloped
lands Tor the purpose of providing en-
ploylnent and farms for honorably dis
charged soldiers, sailors, and marines
OF the United States, including neces-
sary expenditures for personal services,
purchase, maintenance, hire, and opera
ton OF motor-propeelld or horse-drawn
vehicles. -
This bill embodies far-reaching plan
OF Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the
Interior, to provide the necessary means
to give the great mass Of the returning
American soldiers an opportunity to
settle down, give them work and home.
In his annual report for the fiscal year
ended June 80, 1918, Mr.. Lane explains
the motives for this plan. The young
Americans coming back from the front
will want work, he says. They will
| want, if possible, chance for homes of
their own.
| Several Problems Solved.
| Then the Secretary continues:
Why not say to these soldier men:
America offers you farm if you will
help in its making and pay for it oat
of what you make out of it.. This can
be done, and, if it were, it would solve
or tend largely to solve, several prob
lens:
Il. That Of the immediate Job for
the man himself.
2. That of protecting the labor
market against any possible collapse.
by being swamped with surplus Of
labor.
g. That OF providing for many lines
of re-established industry an immediate
demand for their products.
q. That of staying the movement
| toward the cities and thus more COM
pletely decentralizing our population.
That of afixing to our soil large
number Of our best-proved Americans.
1'e. That Of setting up throughout
the land the most modern pattern of
farm settlement in which the social side
Of human nature is given consideration.
%. That Of bringing into use those
great areas Of our land which now lie
neglected and Of no value to the world. ,:
About this latter problem Mr.. Lane
says that there are fully 2O0,O0O,OGo
aches in the country which may be con
verted into farms either by irrigation,
drainage or clearing. By far the larger
portion Of our unused and unproductive
lands is comprised in the cut-over or
logged-of timberland lying largely with
in the esatern half of the United States.
The State Of Minnesota has 1902, OOG
acres Of these lands alone, according
to table, accompanying the report OF
the Secretary. They have in greater
part passed out of the hands of the
Government and are in private hands
or are owned by the several States.
Much Of it once was titled, especially in
the older states, such as Massachusetts
land New York. Within fifty miles of
! the city OF Washington there are large
bodies of lands which once were ps rts
of great plantations that can be had
for less than any lands within the same
distance of most Of the larger cities of
the West.
Wants Farm Village.
| There is but one way of dealing with
this problem, Mr.. Lane says, and that
is to answer the questions that are put
by developing new conditions. We must
turn, as Europe has in her centuries of
Experience, to the farm village, the
settlement Of farmers around a cent
which is their home, in which can be
gathered most of the advantages Of the
city-the good school, the church, the
moving picture, the we'll outftted store
and these, with good roads, the rural
express, the telephone, the automobile
land the post Office will make life on the
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