No doubt many have been aided by all of these laws to secure home sites as practical gifts from a benevolent government, but the assignment clause in these laws and the commutation clause in the homestead acts, opened the way for a vast amount of fraud being practiced upon the government. By the use of "dummies," and other illegal devices, hundreds of thousands of acres have been secured by the great mining, grazing, and timber corporations, which have grown rich at the expense of the people. These laws, it is said, have been notoriously used to enable individuals and companies to acquire public property for private speculation.

Another method of passing the nation's land into private control is the Carey Act of 1877, which authorizes the President to contract with any state in which desert land may be situated, binding the United States to issue a patent to the state free of charge, for a tract not to exceed 1,000,000 acres of such desert land as the state might cause to be irrigated, reclaimed, and occupied. As a matter of fact, the states have always entered into contract with private parties to irrigate

this land, only binding the companies to furnish water to the settler, within a certain time; to charge not more than a certain amount for water rights, maintenance, etc.; and to provide for ultimate transfer of the irrigation works to the water users.

Under the Carey Act the settler first makes a contract with the irrigation company for water. He registers this contract with the State Land Board, pays 50 cents per acre for the land selected and a fee of $1.00, making a total of $81.00 on a quarter section. On presentation of proof that he has occupied and actually irrigated one-eighth of the area, he gets a patent for his land. Good as was this act, both for the state and the settler, it provided no check upon speculation, that menace to the peoples' rights in the regions of sunshine and drought.

But why should men seek so eagerly to obtain possession of desert land? Simply because other lands have long since been appropriated, and the knowledge that the watered desert will produce the greatest crops, leads men to rush by thousands to secure a few acres at the opening of every Indian reserva

tion, and under every new ditch and reservoir site even before the water is turned upon the land. The richness of this desert land which heretofore had grown only sage brush, mesquite, and cactus, is the wonder of the world. In the east the constant rains wash out the chemical energies of the land, but in the rainless belt, lands have been constantly enriched with the accumulated potash, magnesia, sulphur, lime and phosphorus of the ages. The farmer also utilizes only as much of the water as is necessary for his crops, thus preserving the natural strength of the soil. With the knowledge of what arid America holds in store for mankind, a few men of foresight have labored through the years unselfishly, with the hope that not only would the desert be reclaimed for the use of man, but be saved for the actual homemakers; and that its great wealth might be divided among millions of citizens rather than possessed by a few exploiters.

Amongst these farsighted pioneers of a new epoch, Major John W. Powell is well worthy of notice. His daring descent of the Colorado River brought him into public notice, but his