Items of Interest January 20, 1917 Issue

Items of Interest

Abandonment of the conflicting water power bills now before Congress, and the creation of an ex officio commission with power to grant leases for the use of all public lands and streams, is suggested by Secretary of the Interior Lane as a solution of the water power question. Secretary Lane proposes that the secretary of war, the secretary of the interior, and the secretary of agriculture shall compose a water power commission, under shall have power to make leases, under such terms and conditions as they shall prescribe, for not longer than fifty years. By this plan the administration would be held responsible for whatever terms and conditions were made as to such leases; the terms and conditions would be known and fixed before the lease was made; and they could be made so as to draw a distinction between the use of navigable waters and others, so that controversies in Congress over details would be eliminated.

Before the labor committee of the United States House of Representatives recently Prof. Elwood Mead spoke in favor of the Crosser colonization bill, which he characterizes as "representing great economic advance" and which its friends are confident of having favorably reported by the committee. A basic feature of the bill is a provision that all Government owned land may be leased to farmers, giving them perpetual right to its use at an annual rental not to exceed 3 per cent of the cost of the land to the Government.

The bill is practically a reproduction of the system adopted in Australia under circumstances very similar to those now obtaining in great agricultural areas of the United States. Professor Mead formerly was chairman of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of Australia. As carried out in Australia the plan included fitting the land by the Government for immediate use by the new settler, the appointment of an expert buyer and an inspector for consultation and advice and for reporting improper use of the land. The system stopped the drift away from the farm and attracted men from the city farmward. Professor Mead says that "under its operations more than four thousand farmers, all starting with limited capital, now live in their own houses and are landed proprietors. It has given the people better houses at less cost, better live stock, and better tools than they could have obtained without financial aid and the expert knowledge and advice that went with the system."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Prayer That Is Scientific