Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-07-26
SOMETHING BETTER THAN A JOB
 FOR RETURNED SOLDIERS SAILORS

Divested of sentiment Secretary Lanes plan" is the most constructive suggestion for the common good that has come out of the war Secretary Lane does not propose to give soldiers anything at all, except a chance to cooperate with the Government in helping themselves, and the country as we'll.
 For a generation the drift has been from the farm to the city. The indus trial centers have been ovcrcrowded and there has been great deal of unemployment, with attendant strikes and discontent. At the same time the agricultural lands have been under developed, and production has been tagging. The logical demand for a "back to the farm" movement has never succeeded. All the time the young men and women have been leaving the farms to take up life in industrial occupations in the cities.
 MT. Lane has seized the opportuni- ty that would have escaped Secre- tary of the Interior with less vision. At what appears to be the "psycholo- gical moment" he has caught 4,000,- 900 Americans in state of transition in their material affairs, and he has put plain and interesting suggestion squarely up to them. Stripped of all frills it is a proposition to enter into a big development scheme with Uncle Sam. The United States must have this development of it's lands, and in order to obtain it MT. Lane proposes that the soldiers shall themselves share in the fruits of the plan.
 After the Civil War great areas of government land were opened to homestead entry, and the "back to the farm" idea was given boom. Then, as now, millions of peoples were thinking seriously of homes, and the future, and the government gave them their chance. They Ud what their forefathers had done after the Revolution when the sons of thu pio- neers sought new lands in order that they might repeat their fathers sue cesses.
 But, we are told, all the gooi lands has been taken. Secretary Lane proves that this is not true, and he has had the country divided into three zones, East, West and South. In the South there are large bodies of swamp and overflowed lands. In the East some of the States propose to buy the land, regaining among other things the abandoned farms" In the West there is the great Colorado Basin and millions of acres that can be regained to fertility at very little effort. An attractive "on time" basis is offered settlers, and they can have forty-four years to pay for their lands. and in getting their start the home seekers will be given work by the Govern ment.
 THE REASONS FARMERS LEAVE
 HOME lt.",.t .:~-
 Isolation" from the joys and bau- bles of the world have been destroy, ing the moral and crushing out the charms of farm life. It has gotten so that the only people who want isc ], lation are the city people, who occa- sionally like quiet spot where hum anity is not so thickly congregated. And so MT. Lanes plan provides for benefits that have been worked out in other parts of the world; for comn!up- ity settlements of not less than 100 farm houses, surrounding town-the kind of town that the moving pic- lures, the shows, lecturers, etc., will seek out, and close communication with the outer world through good mail service, telephone, good roads, and all that sort of thing.
 There are towns in the Shenandoah Valley today, populated by prosperous people, whose business is farming or orchards. They reverse the processes of the suburbanite who goes to town in the morning, since they hitch up their Fords and automobiles and go to their farms in a half hour after and return to their homes in town at night. In these localities there are no farmers who leave home, because they are not isolated. The Lane plan contemplates giving to the new farmers opportunities to create such conditions as these, which are found in Winchester, Harrisonburg, and other places in Virginia-and which are likewise common enough in he rich agricultural sections of the country, particularly in the Mississip- E )i River Valley and in the far west. CONQUEST WORTHY OF A DE- s
 MOCRACY SH That there is a real man with a real E purpose in charge of the Interior De- $ 'artment, cannot be doubted. That E e knows what he is about is very ap- k aren't. That he knows how to tell E is story is evidenced by sentences k Ike the following: Here is what s franklin K. Lane says: "There can be no surer insurance Is or the Nation than to put it's men E pon the soil, and there can be no k