The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-02-14

of America will not diminish but will increase as
the years go by. The United States is still an
nation, despite the fact that 70 per
cent of the population hive in cities. Unless meas
ures are taken to increase our food supply, the
United States may be an importer instead of an
exporter of the products of the farm. In ten.
years, it is said, the situation may be alarming
unless more comprehensive steps are taken to
reclaim waste and arid land.
Now it is proposed to supplement the general
reclamation law by establishing a wider system
of reclamation and irrigation through federal and
state cooperation. The general principles of the
present law are to be retained, but the plan will
operate in a broader field. The plan ~contemplates
that the secretary of the interior shall contract
with a reclamation district, organized under laws,
for the building of projects Gf f~easible), the dis
trict to deposit its bonds with the Federal Farm
Loan board, the bonds to be held until the prop
erty in the district amounts to twice the value of
the outstanding bonds, when they are to be sold
and the contract with the federal government dis
charged and cancelled.
Theodore Roosevelt had a clear vision of the
vast possibilities of our west" said Senator Hard
ing at Marion, Ohio. "In a chapter of his auto
biography devoted to Natural Resources of the
Nation he wrote: The first work l took up when
l became president was the work of reclamation.
It is better to help a poor man to make a living
for his family than to help a rich man to make
more profit for his company The principle is
practically sound today. Roosevelt performed a
great service to the nation, and what he did for
his time we must carry forward to the future.
What is really needed is the completion of the
reclamation program which began under Republic
an administration, which has been neglected since
1913. We ought to go on with a larger and more
liberal plan, made practical in the light of our
experience"
At Marion, Senator Harding said: more food
stuffs must be had; farms operating will not sup
ply present demands. The one solution is to bring
more land into production. The great change in
our whole economic situation, and the realization
that our opportunities of providing for increased
population have a definite limit, must enforce this
view. The time has come for a fixed and compre-
hensive program" One thing is very certain, that
intensive industrial development and the concen-
tration of population in cities can not go on unless
we have an expansion of the food supply upon
which they depend for sustenance."
Senator Harding called the work of the pioneers
in covered wagons "the miracle of development
giving added glow to the westward march of the
star of empire" The vision may be more fully
realized in the cooperative reclamation plan sug-
gested.
The reclamation policy of the federal govern
ment has contributed about three-fourths of the
wealth of the nation; the proposed plan may not
only add more millions to our wealth, but provide
homes and food for the coming millions who re-
main in the centers of population. 1t is not toe
much to say that some comprehensive plan OF
cooperative reclamation may solve the economic
problem of America-The National Republican.