The Coconino sun., 1920-09-17
SENATOR HARDING SHOWS INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF WESTERN STATES NEEDS
(Continued from Page g.

WEOlENN OlAlES NEEUt Continued from Page S.)
 considering today. We owe to then the fullest and widest opportunities and we owe it to them to give of gov. ernment encouragement and aid ir bringing about the development SC much to be desired. For them and fo, America inestimable Possibilities are in store.
 Today we are informed on the basis of statistics that if the demands of a rapidly-increasing population are to be met, new farms must be opened at a rate of 100000 annually. The sad fact IS that only half that number are be- ing added to our equipment for pro. duction every year. The United States has changed, from basicly agricul- tural to an agricultural and industrial nation. The 1920 statistics, we are told, will show that our population is preponderantly urban. More food stuffs must be had; farms now oper- ating will not supply present demands The one solution is to bring more land into production.
 Reclamation, as I have viewed it. means good deal more than mere ly putting water on arid land. There are regions in which it means draining the water away from the swamps. There are other regions in which it means restoring forests that have been thoughtlessly destroyed. There are still others in which it means frank recognition of the fact that forests have gone forever, that stumps of cut-over lands must be re- moved and the soil utilized for agri- culture. -
 Nobody Wanfs Isolation.
 Nobody wants isCsated communities of agricultural producers in remote reclaimed valleys, to produce things for which there is no available mar ket. There have been some instances of this sort. But with better trans portation, with encouragement to wide and varied development, the problem of markets will solve itself rapidly enough.
 In dealing with our public lands hereafter we are not to be too prof ligate in the disposal of their re- sources. There has been profigacy practiced in the past, though I take it that some of it was entirely justi- fable, but there must be no further doling out of our natural resources to favored groups. We have passed the stage when there must be excep- tional bidding for pioneer develop ment. It was against profligacy that Roosevelt raised his voice and exer- cised the veto power. He started the great reclamation movement and it came none too soon. Doubtless he had in mind the time when these resources must be opened for free, full and in- dependent development. Undoubtedly, were he alive today, he would be cordial sympathizer with the same pol icy of development combined with a rational policy of conservation of re- sources for Americans yet to come, all of which is consonant with square dealing with all Americans engaged in the fulfillment of our obligatione of today.
 Forward Looking Program.
 It is all a forward-looking program with an ever mindfulness of the pass ing day. The great change in our whole economic situation and the re- alization that our opportunities of pro- viding for increased population have a definite limit, must enforce this view. Roosevelt performed great service to the nation, and what he did for his time we must carry forward to the future. l would not have the west re- turn to the era of speculative opera tions, tending to monopolies. I want to see, as he did, development of our public land country which will insure the utmost equality of privilege and opportunity.
 Best Serve the Nation.
 In some places private capital, in others public funds can best do the work that is required. 1 have no par ticular preference for either program, except that 1 would like to see in each instance the policy that will in the whole best serve the national purpose. l would not hesitate to employ federal credit for certain types of reclama- tion work, and on the other side would not stand in the way of having that work done by private enterprise, if this seemed best.
 Western states desirous of cooper ating with the federal government in reclamation contemplate enactment of uniform laws to aid in financing re clamation work in conjunction with AL f- IL CTS. Lack of unified effort and policy has been misfortune in the past, and the time has come for fixed and com prehensive program.
 What is really needed is the com- pletion of the reclamation program which began under republican admin istration, which has been neglected since 1913. We ought to go on with a larger and more liberal plan, made