The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-08-26
'
FAVORS SOIL SURVEY
Plan Strongly Advocated
For Minnesota
-
BENEFITS TO SETTLERS
State immigration Commission
er Smith Discusses The
Subject
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatchl

Associated Press NSpatcnI
st. Paul. August 21.-Lands that
will produce and not impoverish the
prospective settler when titled with
! fair amount OF intelligence and in
dustry is the demand Of Oscar H.
Smith, state immigration commits
sioner. Those who seek the assis-
lance of the immigration department
to put on the market any except
lands on which the settler has a fair
assurance Of success will receive nc
consideration, Mr.. Smith said today.
This policy, Mr.. Smith said, will
extend to state-owned lands as well
as lands listed by private concerns
and owners and while 1t may not ap-
peal to those whose one aim is the
land game is sale, it goes just the
same. For this reason Mr.. Smith Is
an ardent advocate OF a conprehen-
sive land survey and will fight with
that object In view before future leg
islatures.
Mr.. Smith this month made an ex.
tended trip through northeast and
northern Minnesota, the feature o.
which was a preliminary survey Of
vacant lands in anticipation OF PLAN:
for a soil survey, which was provided
for in a small way-more as an ex.
permentation-by the 1921 legisla
ture.
Room For Reform.
He finds that there is room for re-
form in the program for the settle.
ment of the states vacant asricul'
tural lands and that the basic feature
of it is a square deal for the prospec
tive settler. r. P. Chase, state audi.
tor, made the trip with Mr.. Smith and
holds similar views on the land set
Element problem. -.
ITO many abandoned shacks are
mute evidence of struggle thai
could end only in financial and physi
cal disaster for the settler" Mr.
Smith said. "These convince me Of
the need Of reform in our effort:
toward land settlement and was
pleased to note that my viewpoint
was shared by others OF our party
We boast biggest school and univer'
~ity funds in the nation, but we have
rot stopped to think of the sacrifice
and failures that have made those
funds possible. These funds came
from the sale and rental of state
lands, many Of which were not fit fol
settlement.
Smith DENIES POSITION.
Minnesota Is too big and prosper.
Gus to permit itself to profit by the
failures Of settlers who do not have
a fair chance on the lands they try
to improve in the state. / ill not
be satisfied until the law~is such tina,
settler can to ACQUIRED Of the known
fertility and productiveness of lands
to settle on"
Commissioner Smith says that he
wants it understood that his position
as regards future development of the
millions Of acres of vacant Mime
sofa lands is not in depreciation OF the
agricultural possibilities of any par.
ticu1ar section or locality, but rather
as a protest against the practices Of
the inscrupelous land sharks and the
sale of state lands of other unknown
fertility or impractibility for the par
ticular purpose for which they are
desired Minnesota he insists, should
be fair to those 1t invites within its
gates and such policy and particu-
lar reference to its prospective set
tiers.
Property treated, he said, lands or
which abandoned shackS now stand
might in time be fertile spots, but 10.
cation was against them for the time
at which they were settled first. A
soil survey, he contends, would have
made such failures as have taker
place except where the fault 4ies
with the settler-preventable. That
is why his department Is so ardent
an advocate of the soil survey Dlan