bitious government schemes are suggested, the working out of which will bring health, wealth and happiness to all the people.

Our nation is no longer a mere federation of states; it is even now a centralized administrative government. The old methods which meant monopoly for the few, through tariff, land grabs, etc., are passing, and the new methods which mean prosperity for the many are coming to the front.

Not content with turning the desert into a garden for the use of the world's restless millions, much has been done in reclaiming the nation's vast swamp areas, ofttimes worse than useless-a menace to the health of the nation. In February, 1908, Senator Frank P. Flint introduced the Swamp Drainage Bill, which failed to pass, but there are strong hopes for its passage in the near future.

"The object of this Bill is the adoption and application of drainage of swamp and overflowed lands on the same system that now is applied under the Reclamation Act. The receipts from the sales of government lands in the states specified are set aside as a general drainage fund. These receipts are to be

applied to the draining of such areas as after examination and survey by the Director of the Geological Survey shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as the law may prescribe. The lands reclaimed are to be sold to bona fide settlers only, with no right of commutation, in tracts of not less than 5 nor more than 160 acres. The cost of drainage is apportioned among the owners of lands drained and the benefits of such drainage is to be assessed against the property. Payments for such improvements are payable in ten annual installments, thus returning the money for the use in successive enterprises, thereby creating a revolving fund.

The government report states that the area of swamp lands affected by this proposed legislation is approximately 80,000,000 acres scattered throughout 34 states and territories, comprising an area nearly as large as the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

If it were possible to subdivide this enormous area into 40-acre tracts it would supply 2,000,000 settlers with homes and it would put 10,000,000 people upon lands that are now

practically worthless. They are not only worthless from an agricultural standpoint, but are a positive menace to the development of the country and thus to the people. Situated as most of these swamps and overflowed lands are, they are the breeding places of mosquitoes, so dreary and forbidding that even wild animals shun them. If reclaimed they would become the homes of a happy, prosperous, and contented set of home builders. The necessity for the drainage of swamp and overflowed lands has been recognized by European governments for many years. The advantages of such reclamation work was demonstrated in England, where there are over one hundred acts of Parliament pertaining to drainage. As far back as 1854 the Prime Minister of England insisted that an advance of public money be made. In ten years, $36,000,000 was loaned for drainage purposes at three and one-half per cent, to be repaid in twenty-two annual installments. This amount was supplemented by further loans until most of the swamp and overflowed lands were reclaimed.

Holland, France, Italy, and other European

nations have all enacted liberal drainage laws which have resulted in great prosperity to the respective countries, besides greatly improving the hygienic conditions and surroundings.

It is undoubtedly the duty of the federal government to improve its own country at the least possible expense and to aid citizens to locate upon land where the most desirable homes can be made. This great work when fully carried out will be one more step toward the consummation of the governmental ideal that a government's chief object is to secure the greatest good of the largest number.

CHAPTER V

Conservation of a Nation's Resources

The reclamation of waste land is well worth the combined efforts of a great nation, but the conservation of a nation's resources may mean even more when we consider the good of all the people.

This has been a prodigal nation, wasteful of its inheritance; perhaps not more so than other nations, yet tardier than some in coming to itself, and in deciding to save all that remains, and to develop this to its highest efficiency.

A third of the land surface of this country was originally covered with magnificent forests a million square miles in extent, a domain so vast that the original pioneers did not dream of its possible exhaustion. But land had to be cleared that the little farm might be cultivated; fuel and timber had to be cut for private use; furthermore, the forest was a menace, for it cumbered the ground, and harbored