The Ordway new era., 1919-02-14
by FRANKLIN X. LANE
Secretary of Interior
Written especially for The Ordway
New Era.

New Era.
All over the United States there
are quantities of lands that are cap
able of producing cotton, corn. wheat
and fruit, which are out of use. AL
together there are perhaps $50, ,OOO,-
900 acres of such lands that in two
or three years by scientific drainage
or by irrigation or by stumping could
be converted into frat class farms.
In the far west. in the arid country
along the Colorado river in Arizona.
along the Snake in Idaho. the North
Platte in Wyoming and Colorado, and
near the great rivers of the west.
there are millions of acres of lands
that can be irrigated; while in the
south and in the northwest there are
more than 100, 900 aces of land
that have been logged of but which
are lying idle today.
Put Land to Use
and Everybody Gains.
The plan which / have presented
to Congress means that we shall put
this land to use. That is where the
country gains. 1t means that 1t shall
be put into condition by the soldiers
after they have been mustered out.
That is where the soldier gains. Every
man who has been in the ranks OF
opportunity to go on to one of these
projects and have a job at the cur
rent rate of wages in building dam
or ditch or leveling land or pulling
up stumps, building dikes, clearing
land, building houses or roads or
fences.
Can Select Complete
Farm In Any Cline.
This means that when the boy
reaches New York he goes back home
for time. meets his people, and then
is given chance to take place in
one of the great camps that will be
formed for the reclamation of some
of this unused land.
He gets his wages there. Out of
these he will pay a certain amount
for his board, save enough in a year
and half or two years while he is
working to pay a first installment on
a farm anywhere-north, south or
west, and have that as his own 1t
will be farm that will be prepared
not piece of wild land. but a farm
in settlement which has its roads
already built.
1t will he farm already surveyed.
fenced, house and barn built, the
land cleared, so that a man can move
in his furniture and begin life at
once.
They will be connected with rail-
roads. IL they are not Immediately
on 1t. by good roads. They will be
chosen with reference to the market
ing of the produce that will be pro-
duced upon them.
In short, each man can have a job,
the government advancing the capi-
tai. and out of the combination of
his own labor and the governments
capital he can be given an indepen-
dent living.
It's Not Charity Act,
But Partnership Affair.
But this is not to be done in the
slightest bit as a matter of charity.
nor is any man to be coerced into
taking up the work. It is an oppor-
tunity which the government out of
appreciation for the fine service rem
dersd by its boys gives to them. They
will pay back the money with interest.
but they can pay It back over a period
of 40 years. The man who drains a
great area in Scum Carolina may
choose farm in Arizona or in Idaho.
We have spent $50.000,000 a day
in fighting the boche. and surely we
can afford to spend what was a few
days war outgo in setting up for
life the men who whipped the Hun.
1t will be a profitable arrangement
all around. The money will be ad-
vanced by the people. It will be re-