individualism, as is found in the government reclamation projects. Collectivism is employed in the building by the nation of the great reservoir and the retention of its ownership and control, because upon its future enlargement must depend the further expansion of reclamation. Co-operation and fraternalism are necessary, because each settlement is organized as a water user's association, no one person being allowed more water than is needed for 160 acres. In these ways, there comes about a community of interest, which in a marked degree leads each to work together for the good of all. Individual initiative is necessary in the intensive cultivation of the individual farms. Here individualism is at its best. Fraternalism is the natural method of life, and the government stands behind to guarantee the success of the entire movement. The nation is providing homes for the most citizens possible, but it is for them to determine that thrift shall bring the patent, and that here the great co-operative tendencies of the time shall come to their fairest fruitage.

A suggestion is offered to young men now in college, who are settling the question of their

life's work. If six or more of them should form a compact that on the completion of their special courses they will go to a government "project," settling in the different towns, as doctor, lawyer, preacher, teacher, merchant, or agricultural expert, with the determination that as a united band they will work together for the highest social ideals; agreeing that there may never be a saloon located in any of the towns; that there shall be no crime-breeding spots, and that the rights of the lowliest shall be guarded-how much better would be such a co-operative movement among educated men in a new land of opportunity, than the best possible condition under the competitive struggle of the older cities.

That a community "made up of people who own their own holdings and live on them is of infinitely more value to the nation than any area, however rich and productive, owned by a few persons and tilled by hired labor or rented to the men who cultivate it," is self-evident.

But wonderful as is the work which the nation is doing in getting the people on the land, and protecting them from exploitation, yet something more must be done. The

fellow who is down must be given a chance. The ambition for independence must be aroused in the souls of the discouraged. The immigrants must be placed on the land in order that society may be protected from the final revenge of the slum. The overflow and idle population must be distributed. For the settler who has sufficient capital, the present irrigation projects furnish a grand opportunity, but the next great battle will be for the adoption of the New Zealand system of advance to settlers; which may be thus epitomized: "Place this waste labor upon the waste land by means of waste capital, and thereby convert this trinity of waste into a unity of production."

It is reported that the late Senator Hanna just before his death was preparing a Senate bill, outlining the creation of model towns on reclaimed lands, by the selling of bonds to the value of $50,000,000, and by granting the government power to make loans of from $500 to $1,000 to poor but worthy homeseekers. New Zealand has already expended $20,000,000 in aiding her farmers to establish rural colonies, thinking it wise to borrow at

three per cent and loan at four per cent to settlers. In her experience, she has never lost a dollar, but for every dollar loaned, has added five dollars to the wealth of the country. The United States can surely adopt this or a better method, thereby converting possible pauper dependents on charity into affluent Some day, perhaps, this nation may become interested in seeing that every American in this fair land has a home whether he be a younger son-the typical prodigal, a new American, or one of the dispossessed.

home owners.

This nation has entered upon the work of building homes, and no cry of over-paternalism will ever cause her to yield up the ideal of giving a home to every American.

CHAPTER VIII

Enrichment of Life

A nation building homes for its people— that seems to the conservative like a long step toward the co-operative Commonwealth, but having gone this far our nation must go still farther, and give attention to the enrichment of the life of all the people; for the highest civilization of any land is not tested by the amount of wealth counted in dollars which it may possess, but by the kind and quality of the men which it develops.

This nation is most successful in its work of aiding the evolution of plant and animal life. The time has come, in a collective way, for all citizens to become workers together with God in aiding human evolution on the mental, moral and physical planes, in the struggle upward. In this, we are working for the future, and in proportion as we of America accept our responsibility as trustees of the nation's welfare, our children and our children's children will call us blessed.