The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1919-03-07


worth"
IAN inherent valued" demanded the
c~ollege-bred man, turning from the
window.
An inherent value declared the
exponent of aridity.
"Will you tell me just what you
mean?"
Not in n session. Look yonder
That's Brawley. When l came through
here ten years ago / could have had
my pick of this land at % cents ar
acre They were working at this
scheme then-On paper. l was not
alive TO the possibilities then; 1 had
not yet lived in Utah -
The train was slowing up by q brand
new yellow-painted station. There
were several dusty automobiles wait
ing by the track, a few faded surreys
and the inevitable country hotel bus.
The platform was swarming with
alert, vigorous faces, distinctly of the
American type.
The man in the seat beside him
asked Richard if he observed the gen
eral average of intelligence in the
faces of the crowd below. Richard ac-
knowledged hat he had been struck
by that, not only here but at Imperial
Junction, where he had waited for the
train.
There is 4 club in the valley, lately
started, a university club which admits
as members those who have had at
least two years of college training.
The list numbers three hundred al
ready. The first meeting was held last
week in an empty new store in Impe-
rial. If it had not been for the set
ting we might have been at Ann Arbor
or Palo Alto. The costumes were a
little motley. but the talk sounded like
home.
The dust blowing in through the car
doors brought on another fit of stran-
CLING. Richard turned again to the
window, to the active scene which de-
MED the presence of desert beyond.
THE doctors say 1t will have TO be
the desert always for me-" The stran-
ger tapped his chest significantly.
But IT is exile no longer-not in an
irrigated country. For the reason of
irrigation! 1t is the progressive man,
the man with ideas, or the man who is
willing TO take them, who comes into
his desert country. If he has not had
education it is forced upon him. / saw
1t worked out in Utah. / was there
several years. Irrigation means CO.
operation. That is, to me-. the chief
value of %aridity."
The wind, though still blowing
d thars2pusAs a SO car an5 iess of grit and
sand. To tie nostrils of Richard and
his new acquaintance it brought the
pleasing suggestion of grassy mead
ows, of willOW7lined streams and fra
grant fields.
1T is the accepted idea that this
valley is attracting a superior class
of men BECAUSE of it's temperance
stand. 1t is the other way round. The
valley stood for temperance because
of the sort of men who had settled
here, the men of the irrigation type"
The engineers ear criticized 'irriga-
ton type" He oegan to suspect that
he had picked up Il crank.
THE desert offers a man special ad-
v%antages, social, industrial and agricul- |
trral. 1t is no accident that you find
i certain sort of mar here"
81 suppose you mean that the
struggle necessary to develop such IA
country, under such stern conditions,
develops Of necessity strong men?"
evolved Richard. "Oh. yes, l believe
that, too"
"Oh. more thar that. 1t is not so
much the struggle rs the necessity for
cooperation. The mutual dependence
is one of the blessings of aridity."
zone of the blessings of aridity ="
his listeneI You are a philos-
opher." He had pot yet touched the
others thought at the spring.
You might as veil call me a social
ist because l praise irrigation in that
it stands for the small farm unit"
the valley man. THAT is one
of its flats; the snail unit. 1t is the
small farm that p;ys. That fact brings
many advantages. What is the charm
of Riverside? 1t comes to me always
like the unreal dean of the socialist
true. 1t is a city of farms. of
small farms, wheie a man may make
his living of his en- acres of oranges
or lemons; and With all the comforts
and c~Onveniences of a city within
reach. his neighbos not ten miles off
A farmer in Rlveside or in any irri-
gated community does not have TO
postpone living fol himself or his fam
until he cam ell the farm, He
car go to church, can walk there; the
trolley car While passes his door
takes him to a pblic library or the E.
opera house. Hs children ride 70
His wife ioes not need to be !,
a drudge. The bead wagon and the
steam laundry Mgon stop at her {,
:,
observd that perhaps he !
did not know awning about irrigation
after ALL He ha not thought of II :
before in its sociological relation but
merely as IL touchd his profession. /
mot going into oil values. for thar :
Is a long story, Dgan the older man.
is la answer which sci a
gives 70 the griculturist who is <
impatient or methods. Irri- Y
CATION is not Il cobromise, as so many
who know othing about it lr 7
Is n distinct advantage over the old 4
methods
II am n of hose VIII asways +