Evening star., 1927-05-01
WILL STUDY DATA
IN PIONEER AREAS.
Scientists to Seek Factors
Holding Back Develop
ment of Belts.

An intensive study of the remaining
nioneer belts OF the world those areas
which are not but could he occupied
by civilized man, has been under
taken by the National Research Coun.
Gil, the Social Science Research Coun-
oil and the American Geographical
Society, to determine what factors
are holding back settlers.
This study was explained to the
Geology and Geography section of the
American Geophysical Union yester-
day afternoon by DIR, Isaiah Bowman
OF New York, chairman Of the JOINT
committee, and is expected to he or
vital economic Importance with the
rapid increase of populations and the
need of new food supplies.
OF special significance, Df. BOW
man said, is the increasing cost OF
meat and leather due to the restric-
ton Of grazing lands in the present
settled areas. and the only apparent
solution is the occupation of new
pasture areas which will support
large herds with comparatively small
expense.
Six Outstanding Areas.
There are six outstanding areas
which are comparatively uninhabited,
DR.. Bowman said, which do not seem
to offer serious obstacles to settlement
by cattle and sheep farmers. These
are the great Matto Crosse area of
Brazil. Rhodesia. Mongolia a-Manchu-
ria, an enormous area in North and
West Australia. the Canadian north
west North Of the present wheat belt,
and small parts Of the United States
such as western Texas and western
Oklahoma.
The pioneer has largely disappear
ed. DR.. Bowman said, because the ad-
vance of civilization has brought so
many things which tie people to the
settled communities.
In the days of our grandfathers,"
he said, "a family wasn't sacrificing
very much when it left a village in
the East and took up a farm in the
Middle West. They could have about
as many comforts in one place as the
other. II was not a prospect of get
ting away, perhaps forever. from
telephones, railroads, bathtubs and
automobiles. There We're none of
these in either place 1t wasn't a
matter of getting away from decent
medical facilities. They weren't to
he had anywhere, and the pioneering
family was probably better off in the
matter Of health than the city family,
Concentration i'm Cities.
"There was nothing to sacrifice
then. But it is quite different today
for family to go from London to
North Australia. The result is that
there is an increasing concentration
in the cities Of the world and an
abandonment of the great open
spaces, causing just so much eco
nomic waste. Once the independence
to he secured was considered well
worth the price of 4 few comforts,
but this has been reversed and men
prefer to be economic slaves to Sc
curing independence at the price of
comfort"
The problem, Or, Bowman said, is to
show the governments of the world
what they can do to make the unin-
habited areas attractive. In some cases
it might be done by railroads, tele
graph lines and roads that would keep
the settlers in constant touch with civ
ilization and in other cases it might
hest be done by supplying up-todate
farming implements and stock. Every
one of the areas to be studied presents
a different problem which is being
solved in a different way. Argentina
and Brazil are giving settlers long
term credits on seeds, machinery and
stock. South Africa, on the other
hand, anxious to preserve white domi-
nance, is frowning upon settlement by
anybody without at least $4,000 for
fear it will result in a white laboring
population of about the same social
level as the natives.