Show e OUR LAND QUESTION ki THE new york evening sun has baa undertaken to sit eit down on the suggestions gest ions made by the late irrigation congress its main protest is against giving the several states and territories of the west any special jurisdiction over their arid lands it quotes the case of the governments ceding of swamps and overflowed lands to certain state for the purpose of reclamation according to its testimony thenceforth all the available lands in the states so favored became swampy or overflowed and hundreds of thousands of acres entered upon this basis became very fruitful farms without any reclamation save a three ply barb fence around them while all this might be true of the lands named when used as a guide to the distribution of the arid and lands of the west it Is entirely inapplicable taking utah for an example if every foot of unclaimed land io in the territory were declared arid and without qualification it would bot in any way stretch the popular or technical definition of arid and lands and we believe this rule would apply pretty generally throughout P the west week there are to be sure vast tracts of grazing lands which produce a certain kind of desert grass without irrigation but without irrigation they coul I 1 not under onder any circumstances be used for any other purpose than grazing and would therefore be sought after by smallholder email holders sin in no case ame without the hope of bringing water onto thorn them As far as any extensive land grabs are concerned which alone would make the soil desirable under its present conditions condition the plain spirit of the irrigation congress was against anything of that sort mort and it so BO expressed itself A clear majority of that body was in favor of limiting all private grants to acres and we regret that this expression was not dot embodied in the resolution as finally adopted we have not the space to overhaul the sun suns ts various endeavors to justify its position bui but here is a passage that touches upon the question which is of more than ordinary significance but the second effect of such land laws is not so olearry clearly mischievous the second effect is that lands really arid are taken over by the state and apart a part of the these sewill will be really irrigated by works of the sort described by the promoters of the grant bills so far as these works are of genuine utility thay are likely to be erected by capitalists and stock companies they too may be likened to railways railway st not only in magnitude but in engineering character upon the lands they reach they confer an enormous increase in value and this is none the less in addition to abe be wealth of the state because it goes into the private pockets of the individuals who put their money into the enterprise this 11 second effects 1 here described was not in any sense the purpose of the congress had it been so 80 it would have been very decidedly mischievous the idea of likening vast schemes 0 of f land monopoly to railroad enterprise is the most conspicuous fallacy which the sun aan has baa given us on the irrigation question monopoly in railroad building while it has many evils it likewise has its ito returns of good to the public besides this for the results of railroad monopoly there is a remedy for monopolized laud land there is none save that of revolution the building of railroads with a monopoly of transportation as a consequence is yet oure one of the great symbols of progress and is as accurate an index as po eible ible of the advance of civilization the aggregation of laud into enorma enormous a private holdings is on the other hand as perfect an example of as these times afford it to is a sure and direct course toward barbarism the great basis of american civilization is personal independence and where i is s that principle so strongly fortified as in the absolute ownership of private landholdings on this question we say may most emphatically that rather than have this western territory plastered over with enormous private grants though it were the only possible means available to bring them under cultivation they would better lay I 1 idle d le and barren for a hundred years pro vided aided that when they were reclaimed a proper and equitable distribution would result there are a great many honest americans americana who might carp at this thia principle but it to la the only one by which this country can ever obtain the purpose of its being or its possible greatness and power the land is in the true course of nature the people a bulwark against tyranny and enslavement and when they lose it they are but one step from perpetual bondage |