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BACK TO THE FARM.
UNCLE SAM PREPARES FOR HIS
SOLDIERS.
By HON. FRANKLIlSr K. DANBi,
(Secretary of the Interior.)
“The men who have offered their
lives for democracy need not tear
about a job when they return home.
This is a big order, but I believe we
can make good. Already the govern
ment has plans under way which will
insure for every man an opportunity
to work at good wages on his return.
“No one can tell how many of the
old places will be ready and waiting
for the soldiers and sailors when they
come home; but no matter how many
there may be there is work to be
done in the making of America upon
which they can be used with profit to
themselves and to the country.
“They have been doing a destructive
job, and doing it well, to the pride
and glory of our country. When
they come back to us they can do a
constructive job in the reclaiming of
our lands and in the building of
homes in the United States, for them
selves.
“All over the United States there
are quantities of lands that are capa
ble of producing cotton, corn, wheat
and fruit, which are out of use. Alto
gether there are perhaps 250,000,000
acres of such lands that in two or
three years by scientific drainage or
by irrigation or by stumping could be
converted into first-class farms.
“Here, for instance, are some of the
figures showing the amount of land
in the South along the rivers and the
coast that can be made into farm
homes by the expenditure of a little
money and a little labor:
State: Acres:
Alabama ■ .. .14,785,000
Arkansas 13,893,000
Florida 10,109,000..
Georgia 20,141,000
Kentucky 3,222,000
Louisiana 11,877,000
Mississippi 13,203,000
Missouri 6,900,000
NorthCarolina 2,745,000..
South Carolina 6,994,000
Tennessee 7,833,000
Texas 12,936,000
Virginia 9,929,000
West Virginia 4,634,000
THE CADUCEUS
“In the far West, in the arid country
along the Colorado river in Arizona,
along the Snake in Idaho, the North
Platte in Wyoming and Colorado,
and near the great rivers of the
West, there are millions of acres of
lands that can be irrigated; while in
the South and in the Northwest there
are more than 1,000,000,000 acres of
land that have been logged off but
which are lying idle today.
“The plan which I have presented to
Congress means that we shall put this
land to use. That is where the coun
try gains. It means that it shali be
put into condition by the soldiers
after they have been mustered out.
That is where the solider gains.
“Efvery man who has been in te
ranks of the army or the navy shall
have an opportunity to go on to one
of these projects and have a job at
the current rate of wages in. building
a dam or a ditch or leveling land or
pulling up stumps, building dikes,
clearing land, building houses or
roads or fences; and that this shall
be done in accordance with the plans
which I hope the government will
authorize us to make within the next
few months.
“This means that the boy goes back
home for a time, meets his people, and
then is given a chance to take a place
in one of the great camps that will be
formed for the reclamation of some of
this unused land.
“He gets his wages. Out of these he
will pay a certain amount for his
board, save enough in a year and a
half of two years while he is working
to pay a first installment on a farm
anywhere—North, South or West, and
have that as his own. It will be a
farm that will be prepared •— not a
piece of wild land, but a farm in a^
settlement which has its roads al- *
ready built. It will be a farm already
surveyed, fenced, a house and a bam
built, the land cleared, so that a man
can move in his furniture and begin
life at once.
“These farms shall be located upon
lands which the Department of Agri
culture will approve as suitable for
raising certain crops. They will be
connected with the railroad, if they
are not immediately on it, by good
roads. They will have centers, little
towns already planned with a good
schoolhouse up and ready for the
teacher. They will be chosen with
reference to the marketing of the
produce that will be produced upon
them, an dthey will have administra
tive agents of the Government who
will be advisers as to the methods of
farming and marketing.
“In sort, each man can have a job,
the Government advancing the capital,
and out of the combination of his own
labor and the Government’s capi
tal He can be given a independent liv
ing.
“But this is not to be done in the
slightest bit as a matter of charity,
nor is any man to be coerced, but tak
ing up the work! It is an opportunity
which the Government out of ap
preciation for the fine service render
ed by its boys gives to' them. They
will pay- back the money with inter
est, but they can pay it back over a pe
riod of 40 years-
“We are spending $50,000,000 a day
in fighting the Boches’ and surely we
can afford to spend a few days’ war
outgo in setting up for life the men
who whip the Boche. 'We are plan-'
ning the reconstruction of the men
who come back sightless, armless, leg-'
less. They will be in our continuing
care. But the men who come back
able for work will hot ask or expect
that they be given anything more
than a fresh chance in the world. And
that chance they ought to have.
“It will be a profitable arrangement
all around. The money will be ad
vanced by the people. It will be re
turned by those who take the farms.
The boy from Boston or New York
or Chicago, who never has had a
chance at a life out of doors but who
has had land hunger in his soul will
be able to realize his dream.
“Kipling wrote a poem after the
Boer War about the man who had
come back from South Africa and
been given a job as a gardener. Into
his nature had come the love of the
big out of doors, and he could not
reconcile himself to the narrow life
that had been his before the war.
“I expect hundreds of thbusands of
city-bred fellows will have this desire
for an independent, out-of-door life,
and there are already a million men in
our army who come off the farms,
many of whom will never have a
chance to own a farm unless there is
som esuch plan as this.
Get the Best---It Costs You Less
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