OCR Text |
Show NATIONAL llililOATlON. No Hindrance to Present Private Enterprises. Private enterprises in water development, de-velopment, says the Los Angeles Times will be neither crippled nor killed by the policy of national irrigation. ir-rigation. The fact that there are now: thousands of acres of good land under reliable water privileges privi-leges not under cultivation is used by Eastern antagonists of a national na-tional irrigation policy to prove tlitit at present no more laud is needed, and promoters of water systems say it also proves that those who have put out money to develop the country will be ruined when the Government shall adopt a plan of national irrigation. Loth are wrong. The men who have devised de-vised these extensive systems of land reclamation are not destined to lose their investments. Should they look for an immediate sale of their land at a profit they would be disappointed ; but let the Government Govern-ment step in, build water systems, throw open the land at a small price with adequate water rights, and the result would be that the land of the entire surrounding country would at once become more valuable. There could never be enough land to more than supply ihe demand, and values would as surely enhance as that of a city lot built about on every side by substantial sub-stantial property, The fact that there is much land under water systems still uncultivated unculti-vated does not prove that more land is not desirable is not needed. ; The land is not taken up because Eastern families who would like to come and who would make desirable desir-able settlers if they came, cannot afford to pay the cost of transportation, transpor-tation, the price of the land and the added burden of a water right. Throw open the land without the water burden and a stampede will immediately follow. How long would the Middle West have been in se ttling up if the land had boon held at prices ranging from '2Q to 8100 an acre ? |