Evening star., 1919-05-11
BY NEWBOLD MOVES.

ME Department of the Interior
is ready to push it's fight for
farms for discharged soldiers
and sailors upon the opening
of the special session Of Congress on
May i9. With every pertinent fact and
figure in his possession, strengthened
by the assurance that only the jam in
the closing hours of the last Con-
gress prevented the passage of a bill
appropriating 100000. 900 for such a
project. ready to establish the need
for prompt legislation. Secretary Lane
Is confidently awaiting the introduc-
ton and passage of a bill drawn
much increased appropriation. Three
hundred and seventy-five million has
been suggested. Secretary Lane wants
all he can get and feels that this sum
would be none too large.
= The most powerful force behind the
measure. according to the Department
of the Interior. is the man who wears
tho uniform. He is emphatically and
vociferously for 1t and he is telling
his congressman SO. Back of the chap
in khaki or in blue are the governors
and legislators of nearly every one of
the states, the press, the church. COM
mercial, industrial, labor and other
great organizations.
Farming Makes New Appeal.
Back Of the whole movement is Sec
retary Lane. One phase Of the neces-
sity for prompt legislation, as ex-
plained by the Secretary. is as fol-
| lows:
The boys In the A. E. F. want farms.
| There is something in the independ-
ence and solidity and peacefulness OF
farming which. stressed by their ex-
periences and observations in France.
has awakened the land desire that
was dying out over here. Coming
back with this hankering hot in their
hearts and finding no facilities for
putting their dreams into practical
form. they are congregating in the
cities. with all the attendant prob
lens of unemployment and discomfort.
pass this bill promptly, SO that we
| can go to the boys as they step back
into civil life with proposition
| which will satisfy the wish in their
hearts," said Secretary Lane.
The men need the jobs and the
country needs the farms" the Score
/ tary continued. I'VE now have in the
farms and no formal application
blanks have been placed in the hands
Of the A. e. E. up to this time.
Seventy-five per cent of the appli-
cants have had former agricultural
experience"
Not "Bad Land" Farms.
The Secretary emphasized the ne
cessity. for a clear understanding
that the lands which under the plan
are to be offered as farms will be
as good as any in the United States.
The surmise that the tracts
to be offered are to be bad lands
is entirely erroneous. That phase Of
the proposition Is this: The govern
ment takes areas which for one
reason or another are free for our
use. II they need clearing. the gov
ernment clears them. II they are
arid, the government irrigates. If
they are swampy. the government
drains. The tracts. reclaimed to full
usefulness from ong-standing waste.
are then turned over, titled and
seeded, to the farmer soldier or
sailor. A house is built for him;
roads connect him with his COM
munity center. presumably near a
railroad; a school for his children,
a bank for his earnings, a county
hall, buildings for cooperative buy
ing and selling associations are
built by the government-and he
takes possession, to pay for his indi-
vidual plant within period of forty
years from his earnings. He benefits,
the respective states benefit, the
country benefits"
The possibilit Of the plan leading to
land monopoly through the financing
Of individual soldier farmers by land
erabbers, who would arrange that the
individual tracts be eventually turned
over to them, has been suggested to
Secretary Lane.
That possibility will be adequately