The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-07-24
SOMETHING BETTER THAN A JOB

D1VeSteQ or 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 sol
diers anything at all, except a chance
to cooperate with the government in
helping themselves, and the country
as well.
For a generation the drift has been
from the farm to the city. The in
dustrial centers have been over
crowded and there has been a great
deal of unemployment, with attend.
ant strikes and discomfort At the
same time the agricultural lands have
been underdeveloped and production
has been tagging. The logical de-
mand for back to the farm" move
ment 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.
Mr. Lane has seized the opportu-
nifty that would have escaped Sec
retary of the Interior with less vision.
At what appears to be the psyche
logical moment" he has caught 4,000,.
900 Americans in a state of transition
in their material affairs, and he has
put a 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 its lands, and
in order to obtain it Mr.. Lane pro-
poses that the soldiers shall them
selves share in the fruits Of the plan.
After the Civil War great areas of
government land was opened to home
stead entry, and the back to the
farm" idea was given a boom. Then,
as now, millions of people were think
ing seriously of homes, and the fu-
ture. and the government gave them
their chance. They did what their
forefathers had done after the revo-
luton when the sons of the pioneers
sought new lands in order that they
might repeat their fathers successes.
But, we are told, all the good land
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 overfowed lands. In the East
some of the states propose to buy
the land, regaining among other
20 -
the West there is the great Colorado
Basin and millions of acres that can
be reagined to fertility at very little
effort. An attractive ION 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
government
Isolation" from the joys and bau-
bles of the world have been destroy
ing the morale and crushing out the
charms of farm life. 1t has gotten
so that the only people who want iso-
lation are the city people, who occa'
sionally like a quiet forsaken spot
where humanity is not so thinly con
gregated. And so Mr.. Lanes plan
provides for benefits that have been
worked out in other parts OF the
world; for community settlements OF
not less than 100 farm houses, sur
rounding a town-the kind of town
that the moving pictures, the shows,
lecturers, ETC., will seek out, and close
communication with the outer worlo
through good mail service, telephones
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 o half hour after
breakfast, and return to their homes
in town at night In these localities
there are no farmers who leave nome
because they are not isola"ted Inc
Lane plan contemplates giving TO the
new farmers opportunities to create
such conditions as these, when are
found in Winchester, Harrisonburg
and other places in Virginia-ano
which are likewise common enough III
the rich agricultural sections OF the
country, particularly in the MISSES
ippi River Valley and in the far west
That there is a real man with
real purpose in charge of the interior
Department, cannot be doubted. ina
he knows what he is about is yer,
apparent. That he knows how to tel
his story is evidenced by sentences
like the following. Here is VIVA
Franklin X. Lane says:
There can be no surer insurance
for the nation than to put lts mel
upon the soil, and there can be m
wiser investment that nation cal
make than to add to it's territory D.
taking from desert and wsters ant
desolation, land that is now useless
Nations make war on each other ina
they may have new lands-iands
tropical Africa, in remote Asia. An
here. under our own flag we nav
land as rich as the Valley OF the MIC