Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-01-02
LAND FOR RETURNING SOLDIERS
MAY BE RECLAIMED BY THE BOYS

careful attention by Congress, for if,
as he suggests, it is practicable, at
cost VIII oh would not be prohibitive,
to redeem many millions of acres of
lands now utterly useless, and thus
provide farm land for our returning
soldiers, and if it is practicable to
start such projects at once so that
these soldiers can take up, immedi-
ately upon their discharge and at
reasonable wages, the work of re-
deeming these lands and can continue
such work until the lands are ready
for Their occupancy, there should GER
tainly be no delay in putting the
plan of redeeming these lands into
effect. We are not, however, in ac-
cord with the secretary's suggestion
that the land so redeemed should be
divided into millions of small farms,
with their wasteful multiplicity of
fences, small individual dwellings,
harns and outhouses of.various kinds,
farm wagons. machines, implements,
etc., since such plan would cause an
enormous and useless waste of labor
and material. It is, of course, desir-
ag.a % prevent any single individual
from monopolizing a large area of
this land, after it has been redeemed,
and there may be no serious obiec,
ton to the granting of title to small
sections of the land to individual sol
diers; however, it would seem that,
instead of carrying out the wasteful
plan of constructing millions of di-
minutive farm buildings of all kinds,
or purchasing tens of millions of un-
necessary farm implements, appli-
ances, ETC., and of erecting hundreds
of millions of miles of useless fenc-
ing, provision should be made in con-
nection with this land-redemption
project for cooperative manage
ment, community warehouses and
homes, proper sanitation, education,
entertainment and other modern well
fare and conservational measures
which will serve to make the lives
, of these prospective farmers health
full, contented and worthwhile in
every way. This weuId seem to be
much better than to duplicate the
unfortunate conditions Of isolation,
waste, insanitation, illiteracy, selfish
ness and discomfort, which are now
so common throughout those sections
of the country where small, individ-
ualistic, Improbable farming meth.
DDS prevail and from which sections
millions of disconnected people have
for years been flocking to our cities
It is, of course, very important fol
he welfare of the country to stimu,
late agriculture and. moreover, it vii
be splendid thing if large number;
of our returning soldiers can be i'm
mediately employed on and eventu
ally gwen title to these now useles;
ands, but unless they are established
on these lands under conditions which
rovide fully for their health, hap
oiness and prosperity and thus insure
The country that the viii become
permanent agriculturists and viii MOI
sell and abandon their farms as soor
as the novelty of rural life wears off
would certainly not be worth while
to incur the heavy expenditure:
which viii be necessary in order tC
carry out Secretary Lanes plans. II
then, this extensive land-reclama.
ton scheme is to be undertaken
there should go hand in hand with
it, in the interest of the welfare 81
the country as well as of the soldiers
for whose benefit it is proposed, q
comprehensive plan which will in
sure, through cooperative and other
conservattonal methods, permanently
beneficial results to all concerned
General Welfare Bulletin.